Teaching Chinese at Home

[ksme]

Sigh, the order I placed to DangDang are not processed yet as my Mastercard payment has met problems. How to solve huh? So frustrated. I don't have Amex card only VISA or Mastercard. Anyone has any advice?

[toddles]

I’d recommend joining a spree from singaporemotherhood’s forum. If you don’t mind going somewhere to collect the books once they arrive. I got my books that way, hassle free and relatively quick.

[pummanuel]

mummy of 2:

Thanks for the link. I have bookmarked it too. In fact thinking of writing to her when I can find the time to type in chinese

dimsum:

Pummanuel, thanks for the link too! Just read 2 of her latest articles. VERY inspiring! Realised both DH and I have failed quite terribly in our parenting methods She frequently emphasizes on giving our kids more freedom and DO NOT overcontrol them.

Hi mummy of 2 and dimsum, you are most welcome. I've been reading 尹老师's posts lately via my handphone. Great way to kill my time on the bus/mrt.

I also realised I've failed in several aspects in parenting after reading her book as I'm a control freak too. But I guess all is not lost since we are self-reflecting parents. :lol:

I'm thinking of getting Jean-Jacques Rosseau's (卢梭) 'Emile' since he's so often mentioned in the book and by other early childhood educators. The original text is French, so cannot decide if I should get English or Chinese translated copy.

[mummy of 2]

pummanuel:

mummy of 2:

Thanks for the link. I have bookmarked it too. In fact thinking of writing to her when I can find the time to type in chinese

dimsum:

Pummanuel, thanks for the link too! Just read 2 of her latest articles. VERY inspiring! Realised both DH and I have failed quite terribly in our parenting methods She frequently emphasizes on giving our kids more freedom and DO NOT overcontrol them.

Hi mummy of 2 and dimsum, you are most welcome. I've been reading 尹老师's posts lately via my handphone. Great way to kill my time on the bus/mrt.

I also realised I've failed in several aspects in parenting after reading her book as I'm a control freak too. But I guess all is not lost since we are self-reflecting parents. :lol:

I'm thinking of getting Jean-Jacques Rosseau's (卢梭) 'Emile' since he's so often mentioned in the book and by other early childhood educators. The original text is French, so cannot decide if I should get English or Chinese translated copy.

Do share if you get the books, and also if they are worth reading. Thanks

[tamarind]

pummanuel,

I went to the website you posted and it is really good ! Thanks so much for sharing.

[tamarind]

hquek,

Thanks for sharing those books

[Brenda10]

Hi, just to share some experience.


Recently the Wanbao has published a 午夜灵声 every Friday and Saturday. The story is between 500 – 800 words regarding some supernatural story. DD can understand the story without much problem. I take this as part of an additional CL enrichment material beyond the story books she read. However, have also told DD those were the make up stories just like sometimes she also needs to make up a good plot when writing English or CL composition.

FYI, for the P5 exam, usually the comprehension is about 400 - 500 words (takes some test papers as reference) and if they could read such a small text then it would become very much easy when reading the words size in the exam paper which is so much bigger than in the newspaper.

Just my 2 cents thought. :lol:

[tamarind]

Brenda10:

Hi, just to share some experience.


Recently the Wanbao has published a 午夜灵声 every Friday and Saturday. The story is between 500 – 800 words regarding some supernatural story. DD can understand the story without much problem. I take this as part of an additional CL enrichment material beyond the story books she read. However, have also told DD those were the make up stories just like sometimes she also needs to make up a good plot when writing English or CL composition.

FYI, for the P5 exam, usually the comprehension is about 400 - 500 words (takes some test papers as reference) and if they could read such a small text then it would become very much easy when reading the words size in the exam paper which is so much bigger than in the newspaper.

Just my 2 cents thought. :lol:

Brenda10,
Thanks for sharing

You reminded me that the Chinese newspaper is an excellent resource.

[relaxedmom]

Hi, thought of riding on this thread to seek help. My DS is in primary 5. Chinese results have been dropping every year. Every year, when his exams are approaching, about one month before the exams, I will ask him to revise his textbook, and do plenty of past year exam papers. Sigh...now I think this approach is not working, as I realised that his basic foundation is not strong. He doesn't communicate in chinese and I think that's the root problem. But I can remind him to death, but he will still resist. I'm thinking of starting his revision for SA2 soon. may I seek some advice from all the parents out here who can share with me better ways of revising his chinese for SA2???

Thanks so much in advance! :lol:

[tamarind]

relaxedmom:

Hi, thought of riding on this thread to seek help. My DS is in primary 5. Chinese results have been dropping every year. Every year, when his exams are approaching, about one month before the exams, I will ask him to revise his textbook, and do plenty of past year exam papers. Sigh...now I think this approach is not working, as I realised that his basic foundation is not strong. He doesn't communicate in chinese and I think that's the root problem. But I can remind him to death, but he will still resist. I'm thinking of starting his revision for SA2 soon. may I seek some advice from all the parents out here who can share with me better ways of revising his chinese for SA2???

Thanks so much in advance! :lol:

Studying textbooks and doing exam papers are certainly not enough. Kids must read as many Chinese story books as possible, and they must read in \"bulk\". If a student wants to do very well in Chinese, he should be reading one Chinese book a week, the book should contain about 150-200 pages of 200-300 words on each page. That means about 30000 - 60000 words a week.

My advise is to buy all the 马小跳, 笑猫日记 books from Popular, and make sure that your son reads every one of them. These books are used by Berries and Tien Hsia for their upper primary students. I have even better books than these (same level of difficulty, better story lines), will post here when I have the time.

For kids who are not confident of reading such books, parents should read with them. Sit beside them, point to every word and ask them to read out loud. If they don't know a word, tell them how to read and quickly move on. Do not make them write out the word or check the dictionary. When they read extensively, they will come across the same words again. The most important thing is to make sure that they enjoy the book.

For kids who do not like to communicate in Chinese, make them read a few thousand Chinese words out loud very day. Choose those books with lots of conversation. It is very effective

It sounds tough, but if you find a good Chinese book, both parents and kids will have a good time reading together In fact, I find it very relaxing listening to my girl read a long Chinese novel out loud to me.

In fact, I spoke with my girl's Chinese teacher before. She said that if a child reads extensively, she does not even need to study the Chinese textbook.

Also note that it takes a lot of time to learn to be very good in a language. That is why I always advise parents to put more focus in Chinese as early as possible. If you start using the correct methods now, and if you can persist, your son will most likely do well in PSLE next year.