Teaching Chinese at Home
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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 ้ฉฌๅฐ่ทณ, ็ฌ็ซๆฅ่ฎฐ 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. -
Thanks so much, Tamarind. I know that I can always count on you for advice and guidance
Thanks for your advice - as always, I find it tremendously useful. If you remember, I've also sought advice here about two months ago and got lots of useful tips on how I can improve my son's chinese. I've started getting my DS to read chinese articles and then write down words that he's not familiar with. We didn't have time to do it every night, but managed to complete like 3 articles per week - which I thought was no mean feat already, since he doesn't like chinese The only thing I couldn't really get him to do is to constantly converse with me in chinese (either I forgot or I felt that I've nagged incessantly already and gave up ). Also couldn't get him to write frequently - to him, writing in chinese is such a chore!
I bought the whole series of ้ฉฌๅฐ่ทณ already. It's been two months and he has not even finish one book yet...sigh....
I know that I'm not persistent enough, and I should be more disciplined in enforcing such practices....but sometimes I'm so tired, and he feels even more tired from his school's supplementary classes and loads of homework. Sigh...a struggle
Will try again....will not give up
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Hi Tamarind,
you mentioned that you have even better books than all the ้ฉฌๅฐ่ทณ, ็ฌ็ซๆฅ่ฎฐ books from Popular, which areused by Berries and Tien Hsia for their upper primary students.
Can I ask what books are those? Whatโs the titles and where can I get them? -
I just bought this set of ๆฑๅญ็, thinking of combining with siwukuaidu flashcards for my 5yo to understand ้จ้ฆ. If mummies have similar experience, pl share. Hope to instil interest for my son to recognise Chinese characters as he likes hands on activities
[url=http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gxQyKNA] -
Hi tamarind,
Would you be able to recommend books for the K2 boy too? He is going to a school with higher Chinese so I need to \"start work\"
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tamarind:
Hi tamarind,
.......
My advise is to buy all the ้ฉฌๅฐ่ทณ, ็ฌ็ซๆฅ่ฎฐ 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.
.....
I will be eagerly looking out for ur other book recommendations, and hopefully slightly simpler ones, becos this author's writing is a little too 'cheem' for my son
Cheers !
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Wan:
Yes. I agree. Understand ้จ้ฆ makes learning/recognize CL word simply and effective.I just bought this set of ๆฑๅญ็, thinking of combining with siwukuaidu flashcards for my 5yo to understand ้จ้ฆ. If mummies have similar experience, pl share. Hope to instil interest for my son to recognise Chinese characters as he likes hands on activities
[url=http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gxQyKNA]
E.g.
็ธ้ธก
่ฑ่ข
ไฝไธ
ๅ ตไธๅ่ฏ -
Wan:
Hello Wan, can you share where did you buy the ๆฑๅญ็? This seems interesting. How much did you get it?I just bought this set of ๆฑๅญ็, thinking of combining with siwukuaidu flashcards for my 5yo to understand ้จ้ฆ. If mummies have similar experience, pl share. Hope to instil interest for my son to recognise Chinese characters as he likes hands on activities
[url=http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gxQyKNA] -
relaxedmom:
I've started getting my DS to read chinese articles and then write down words that he's not familiar with. We didn't have time to do it every night, but managed to complete like 3 articles per week - which I thought was no mean feat already, since he doesn't like chinese
Actually, I do not advise parents to make kids write down words that they don't know. As I wrote earlier, kids must read as many story books as possible. They will come across the same words again. The most important task is actually not learning new Chinese words, but to develop a love in Chinese. If my parents make me write down every word that I don't know, I will dread reading Chinese books too.
In fact, when I was in school, I read Chinese books extensively on my own, my parents were unable to help me. At first there were many words that I don't know, but the stories attracted me to go on reading. I only checked the dictionary once in a while. Since I read so many Chinese books, many words were repeated and that was how I learned Chinese. I didn't even remember spending a lot of time studying the Chinese textbook, but my results in Chinese were far better than my classmates in RGS and RJC.
My girl, now P1, used to read far more English books than Chinese books. But earlier this year, when I asked her whether she likes Chinese or English books better, she told me that she likes Chinese books better I was so happy to hear that. She said that's because there are so many interesting Chinese books. Every night before she sleeps, she carries a pile of Chinese books to her bed and reads them before she sleeps.
So the key to developing a love in Chinese, is to find Chinese books that can interest a child. There is no point looking in local bookshops which are pathetic, except for the 2 series of books that I mentioned which are very popular in China. But then those are not the best children's books. Thanks to dangdang.com, I have bought many wonderful Chinese books for kids.
Dear all,
I am very busy with work now. When I am free I will update my blog to list more wonderful Chinese story books, will post here soon. -
laughingcat:
Hello Wan, can you share where did you buy the ๆฑๅญ็? This seems interesting. How much did you get it?
tried ๆฑๅญ็ with son. We flipped thru siwukuaidu & picked words then challenge who can find the word piece 1st. Help to reinforce some words he consistently forget eg. ๅ which is abstract to teach.
I'm thinking of other ways to play. One idea is to play scrabble way, each player can draw 10 cards & see who can combine into more words. Then we can write down the new vocab & revise after the game.
I ref to the summary page on siwukuaidu bk 7 for quick ref for the ้จ้ฆ
laughingcat, I have pm u
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