Teaching Chinese at Home

[pummanuel]

tamarind:

pummanuel,

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

You're most welcome, Tamarind. 尹老师 mentioned that she is working on her 2nd book in her blog. She will share in greater details on certain topics that she has covered or not covered in her first book.

[littlewoman]

Brenda10:

Hi Littlewoman


I find Wan's mentioned method is very good.

Another way is to play the 接力赛。 E.g. you may start with 面包 and the child can continuous with 包子 then follow by 子孙 etc.

You may also decide the number of words or which ever you think is desire.

I think this is another way to have fun and gain more words.

Hopefully the information is useful. :lol:

Hi Brenda,

Thanks so much, I am very blur when it comes to Chinese. Appreciate
any help.

[Brenda10]

littlewoman:

Brenda10:

Hi Littlewoman


I find Wan's mentioned method is very good.

Another way is to play the 接力赛。 E.g. you may start with 面包 and the child can continuous with 包子 then follow by 子孙 etc.

You may also decide the number of words or which ever you think is desire.

I think this is another way to have fun and gain more words.

Hopefully the information is useful. :lol:

Hi Brenda,

Thanks so much, I am very blur when it comes to Chinese. Appreciate
any help.

Hi littlewoman

You're most welcome. I wish your children will find learning of CL are easy and interesting. :celebrate:

[sinus123]

Hi I am new here. Appreciate what have been shared.

Any suggestion for parent like me who don’t read or write Chinese to coach daughter. She is in P1 (SAP sch). Sent her to 2 CL weekend classes. On weekdays if she has CL homework, husband & I try ‘helping’ by giving moral support. Most of the time we weren’t sure if she has done her work correctly. Taught daughter to use CL electronic dictionary independently. Daughter has been positive about learning CL so far and has been scoring 70s for modular assessments. Thought marks were good for a child with no CL background. Not until I met a tr friend who commented that they weren’t good enough for a p1. Now I am worried!

[toddles]

sinus123:

Hi I am new here. Appreciate what have been shared.

Any suggestion for parent like me who don't read or write Chinese to coach daughter. She is in P1 (SAP sch). Sent her to 2 CL weekend classes. On weekdays if she has CL homework, husband & I try 'helping' by giving moral support. Most of the time we weren't sure if she has done her work correctly. Taught daughter to use CL electronic dictionary independently. Daughter has been positive about learning CL so far and has been scoring 70s for modular assessments. Thought marks were good for a child with no CL background. Not until I met a tr friend who commented that they weren't good enough for a p1. Now I am worried!

are you ethnically chinese?

i would say 70 for a SAP sch is quite impressive already. but I've been out of touch for quite long. 70+ and liking / not hating the subject to me is preferable to cramming / stressing her up to get another 10 points and killing any love for the language.

let's try not to let other kiasu parents prejudice our parenting too much...

[tamarind]

sinus123:

Hi I am new here. Appreciate what have been shared.

Any suggestion for parent like me who don't read or write Chinese to coach daughter. She is in P1 (SAP sch). Sent her to 2 CL weekend classes. On weekdays if she has CL homework, husband & I try 'helping' by giving moral support. Most of the time we weren't sure if she has done her work correctly. Taught daughter to use CL electronic dictionary independently. Daughter has been positive about learning CL so far and has been scoring 70s for modular assessments. Thought marks were good for a child with no CL background. Not until I met a friend who commented that they weren't good enough for a p1. Now I am worried!

toddles is absolutely right about not killing the love of the language. I have written earlier that it is much more important to develop the love for Chinese, and not simply focus on learning to read and write new words.

sinus123,
The truth is that the top students in Chinese can easily get 100 marks without even spending time to study Chinese in P1 and P2. These include not only children of PRs from China, but also some kids from English speaking families who have been very diligently doing tons of Chinese assessment books.

However, when kids start to write Chinese compositions in P3, those who have only been doing assessment books will start to have a very difficult time. The fact is that you cannot expect to do well in Chinese simply by learning the textbook and doing assessments. Kids need to read Chinese story books extensively in order to be able to get very good marks in Chinese compositions. Those kids from China are already reading very long Chinese novels by 7 or 8 years old, local kids cannot expect to beat them unless we also teach our kids to be able to do the same. Chinese teachers will naturally award top marks to those who can write many words that are not taught in the textbook.

I read from a Chinese forum that kids in China read about 10000 words a week. That means more than 1000 words a day. I have been making my P1 girl read that amount of Chinese out loud everyday, from very interesting Chinese books which she truly enjoys, even though there are many difficult words that even our upper primary kids cannot read. She tells me that she likes Chinese, this is most important to me, because we do not speak any Mandarin at home. The \"side effect\" is that she does not need to spend a lot of time studying for Chinese. She also does not mind writing Chinese compositions of about 100 words.

Since you don't read or write Chinese, I would suggest that you get a good Chinese tutor, and then get good resources like these :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/teaching-chinese-at-home.html

Ask the tutor to teach using that series of books. After completiong these books, make sure that your daughter reads at least 1000 words everyday, with the help of the tutor.

Note that many tutors do not know the best way to teach, I have heard of parents who spent a lot of money employing private tutors, but kids still do very badly. Another option is to put your daughter in a good Chinese enrichment school, but you must also make sure that she revises the lessons everyday.

[ccgoh]

tamarind:

sinus123:

Hi I am new here. Appreciate what have been shared.

Any suggestion for parent like me who don't read or write Chinese to coach daughter. She is in P1 (SAP sch). Sent her to 2 CL weekend classes. On weekdays if she has CL homework, husband & I try 'helping' by giving moral support. Most of the time we weren't sure if she has done her work correctly. Taught daughter to use CL electronic dictionary independently. Daughter has been positive about learning CL so far and has been scoring 70s for modular assessments. Thought marks were good for a child with no CL background. Not until I met a friend who commented that they weren't good enough for a p1. Now I am worried!

toddles is absolutely right about not killing the love of the language. I have written earlier that it is much more important to develop the love for Chinese, and not simply focus on learning to read and write new words.

sinus123,
The truth is that the top students in Chinese can easily get 100 marks without even spending time to study Chinese in P1 and P2. These include not only children of PRs from China, but also some kids from English speaking families who have been very diligently doing tons of Chinese assessment books.

However, when kids start to write Chinese compositions in P3, those who have only been doing assessment books will start to have a very difficult time. The fact is that you cannot expect to do well in Chinese simply by learning the textbook and doing assessments. Kids need to read Chinese story books extensively in order to be able to get very good marks in Chinese compositions. Those kids from China are already reading very long Chinese novels by 7 or 8 years old, local kids cannot expect to beat them unless we also teach our kids to be able to do the same. Chinese teachers will naturally award top marks to those who can write many words that are not taught in the textbook.

I read from a Chinese forum that kids in China read about 10000 words a week. That means more than 1000 words a day. I have been making my P1 girl read that amount of Chinese out loud everyday, from very interesting Chinese books which she truly enjoys, even though there are many difficult words that even our upper primary kids cannot read. She tells me that she likes Chinese, this is most important to me, because we do not speak any Mandarin at home. The \"side effect\" is that she does not need to spend a lot of time studying for Chinese. She also does not mind writing Chinese compositions of about 100 words.

Since you don't read or write Chinese, I would suggest that you get a good Chinese tutor, and then get good resources like these :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/teaching-chinese-at-home.html

Ask the tutor to teach using that series of books. After completiong these books, make sure that your daughter reads at least 1000 words everyday, with the help of the tutor.

Note that many tutors do not know the best way to teach, I have heard of parents who spent a lot of money employing private tutors, but kids still do very badly. Another option is to put your daughter in a good Chinese enrichment school, but you must also make sure that she revises the lessons everyday.

Hi tamarind,

How did you get your daughter to start reading and what if there are
so many words that my child cannot read in the books and they lose interest after a while because they have to keep checking the dictionary? (imagining future, as she is only 5 now)

Do you have any suggestions?

I have been getting the same private tutor but like you say without seeing results (she still hates chinese), you mentioned good Chinese enrichment schools, I have tried Berries but it does not seem to work as the foundation is not there and she switches off during lessons as she cannot really understand what they are talking about. I wonder if you know of any centre that specializes in getting kids who do not like Chinese, whose std is below average to do reasonably well (60s- 70s mark range) for Primary 1?

My child is not in Pri 1 yet, but I feel for a child her age, she is way below the average standard and I am very worried that she will not be able to cope when she goes to Pri 1, how did you get your girl to be so good in Chinese and so interested to write as well?

[tamarind]

ccgoh,

All thanks to this series of books
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/teaching-chinese-at-home.html

and also for the fact that my girl attends Berries since 4 years old. She knows more than 80% of the words in the long chapter books after she completed the Si Wu Kuai Du series of books. I asked her to read out loud to me, and I teach her to read the words that she does not know, so it is easier for her. Also, the books that I let her read are very interesting, and she really loves the books.

It is important that we do not make kids check the dictionary as they read. That will definitely kill their interest.

Good resources are more important than a good tutor. I highly recommend the Si Wu Kuai Du series of books to be used by tutors to teach. Also make sure that the tutor reads the first 30 pages of book 1 in order to know how to use the books effectively, we should be using games to teach, not just point and read.

The best way to get a child interested in Chinese, is to find good books for her. I have listed many books in my blog, and I will also be listing new books soon.

[Brenda10]

tamarind:

The truth is that the top students in Chinese can easily get 100 marks without even spending time to study Chinese in P1 and P2. These include not only children of PRs from China, but also some kids from English speaking families who have been very diligently doing tons of Chinese assessment books.


However, when kids start to write Chinese compositions in P3, those who have only been doing assessment books will start to have a very difficult time. The fact is that you cannot expect to do well in Chinese simply by learning the textbook and doing assessments. Kids need to read Chinese story books extensively in order to be able to get very good marks in Chinese compositions. Those kids from China are already reading very long Chinese novels by 7 or 8 years old, local kids cannot expect to beat them unless we also teach our kids to be able to do the same. Chinese teachers will naturally award top marks to those who can write many words that are not taught in the textbook.

I read from a Chinese forum that kids in China read about 10000 words a week. That means more than 1000 words a day. I have been making my P1 girl read that amount of Chinese out loud everyday, from very interesting Chinese books which she truly enjoys, even though there are many difficult words that even our upper primary kids cannot read. She tells me that she likes Chinese, this is most important to me, because we do not speak any Mandarin at home. The \"side effect\" is that she does not need to spend a lot of time studying for Chinese. She also does not mind writing Chinese compositions of about 100 words.

Hi Tamarind

What you said are very true, usually in P1 and P2, score full marks or high marks are achievable without much difficulties. However, once you move up from P3 onward, lacking of 理解能力， adequate 词汇 and 成语 will become a potential problem when doing of 理解问答 and compo.

[sean wife]

Hi mummies using the si wu kwai du…


How often do you revise the words which your kids have learnt before in the series? Do you make them read the single words, or try to incorporate them into simple sentences for them to read? Which do you think if more effective? Personally I find that as the words they learnt increase, it becomes very time consuming to go through single words every now and then ( I think there’s a recommendation in the book on the frequency of revision), so I try to write my own short sentences for them to read, but it can be quite time consuming and may not cover some words….if only there is a set of readers which follows the sequence of the series for them to revise the words they have learnt previously.

I also find that it’s still difficult for them to read along with me for Chinese books unless specifically asked to (but doesn’t work all the time…)…