Teaching Chinese at Home

[Blobbi]

:thankyou:


Thanks so much, Tamarind!! You're such a great resource!

:celebrate: Here's to you and your kids!!

[toddles]

HyperKiasu:

Hi, tamarind,


thanks for your reply.

ya, according to one of my friend who has read quite a lot of Japanese author's books, Japanese stories are more 细腻. And chinese writers dun have that kind of 童心 to write stuff that can appeal to very young readers.....

that's so true for their manga too... especially those movies, such wonderful animation, and such moving stories. 溢满童真。

[tamarind]

Blobbi:

:thankyou:


Thanks so much, Tamarind!! You're such a great resource!

:celebrate: Here's to you and your kids!!

Blobbi,
You are welcome


Dear all,
I have added 3 books recommended by lizuan in this forum :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-raise-bilingual-child.html

I am buying more books and I will be adding more to the list. Please feel free to PM me or post in my blog if you want to recommend any good books.

[jenao]

Hi Tamarind,


I know you advocate reading and not much writing. How do your kids remember how to write the words? If they don’t practice and memorise the stroke, can they get the words right? And how do you train them to write as ultimately they need to be able to write.

My ds can recognise the words in Berries but cannot write well. I am not sure what to do or how to help him.

Appreciate your reply.

[dimsum]

Just to share, the next 2 levels of Basic Chinese 500 基础汉字 500, BUDDING and BUILDING are now available at Popular Bookshop.


Popular is currently having a promotion till 30 October for the Budding series. Each book is selling at $4.90 instead of the usual $6.90. No further discount is entitled with the Popular card.

Took a quick look, on one page of Budding Book 5, "后" was in Traditional version.

And in Building series, their "嘴" is not right. They used the informal cantonese character "咀"

[tamarind]

jenao:

Hi Tamarind,


I know you advocate reading and not much writing. How do your kids remember how to write the words? If they don't practice and memorise the stroke, can they get the words right? And how do you train them to write as ultimately they need to be able to write.

My ds can recognise the words in Berries but cannot write well. I am not sure what to do or how to help him.

Appreciate your reply.

jenao,
I do not advocate writing too many words before the age of 6. An early childhood expert in this forum wrote that kids before the age of 6 do not have the fine motor skills to write Chinese characters, it is cruel to force them to practice writing everyday.

In the case of my kids, my girl has excellent fine motor skills at 3 years old, she could copy an entire Tang poetry at 5 years old, on her own initiative. I did not make her practice writing at all. My younger boy could only write legibly after 5 years old, by 6 years old his writing is fine. I also did not make him practice writing everyday.

I feel that we should let the child progress at his own pace. If he is ready to write, he will write well, if we try to make him write before that, we will only be frustrated.

It is not late at all to start to practice writing at 6 years old. At P1, the Ting Xie words are still very simple.

Also note that Chinese characters are made up of 偏旁, 部首, and simple characters. Parents should teach kids the names of the 偏旁, 部首. When learning more complex characters, teach the kids to remember the word by its individual parts. For example, take a look at these words :
弟 第 剃 梯 涕 递

Once the child knows how to write 弟, just tell him to change the 偏旁, 部首 to make different words.

Personally I think it is easier than English spelling without knowledge of phonics.

Do not make the child remember the word stroke by stroke ! There are too many Chinese characters and you cannot possibly learn Chinese this way, this is the reason why kids hate Chinese. Many English educated parents think that the only way to learn Chinese is to remember the word stroke by stroke, this is a big mistake. In fact, I was very surprised when I first heard about this, I was never taught this way of remembering Chinese words stroke by stroke when I was a young.

[tamarind]

dimsum:

Just to share, the next 2 levels of Basic Chinese 500 基础汉字 500, BUDDING and BUILDING are now available at Popular Bookshop.


Popular is currently having a promotion till 30 October for the Budding series. Each book is selling at $4.90 instead of the usual $6.90. No further discount is entitled with the Popular card.

Took a quick look, on one page of Budding Book 5, \"后\" was in Traditional version.

And in Building series, their \"嘴\" is not right. They used the informal cantonese character \"咀\"

dimsum,
I also noticed the same thing.

[jeestan]

Hi Tamarind,


I have no idea how to get my child to like Chinese, you mentioned getting books from Dangdang. Does it help totally uninterested children like mine?
I really need help. I am even thinking of changing to malay if possible because dh and I can speak some malay. But I want to really have a go at chinese because we are after all both chinese.

I will really appreciate it if you could give some tips on how to get children like mine to like chinese. My boy is getting 70 plus now for chinese, he is in p2.

[tamarind]

jeestan:

Hi Tamarind,


I have no idea how to get my child to like Chinese, you mentioned getting books from Dangdang. Does it help totally uninterested children like mine?
I really need help. I am even thinking of changing to malay if possible because dh and I can speak some malay. But I want to really have a go at chinese because we are after all both chinese.

I will really appreciate it if you could give some tips on how to get children like mine to like chinese. My boy is getting 70 plus now for chinese, he is in p2.

Hi jeestan,
It is best to start developing a love for Chinese between the age of 3 to 6. After that age, it will be very difficult. According to experts, kids have a amazing ability to learn languages before the age of 7, after that, they slowly lose that ability.

The reason whey your child hates Chinese, is because he is already good in English. It is only human nature to reject learning something new.

For your child, getting good books for him may not be effective, because he may not be able to read many of the words in these books. You can try to read with him, and teach him to read the words (do not make him check the dictionary). But you will have to be very hardworking, and make him read more than 1000 words, start with very simple books. I would also advise you to use the Si Wu Kuai Du series of books.

Other methods are watching Chinese TV series, choose those that are suitable for kids, and learning to sing Chinese songs.

If you want him to improve, you must be prepared to put in a lot of effort. You have to make sure that he is reading out loud and listening to Chinese for at least 2 hours a day. I wrote before that I only teach my kids for 20 minutes a day, but that is because I started since they were 4 years old. Now that your child is already 8 years old, you will need to spend a lot more time if you want him to improve.

Another idea that I have is total immersion in a Chinese only environment, perhaps during the school holidays. You can try to search for primary schools in China that allow you enroll your child for a month during June or December. I have not tried that before, but I am trying to find out more about this while I am in China.

[jazz]

Hi Tamarind,


I’ve started to teach my child on the siwuguai book. May i know how you sort out the cut out word flash cards as stated in teaching method, need to re-arrange the sentence and let the kid to pick? Find it messy. Do u store in boxes with compartment? Personally, I find the book 1, most of the words my child knows already though i still reinforce. So is ok to teach 1 lesson in 1-2 days rather than stated 1 lesson takes about a week? But then some words like 土星, 木星 so diff. to explain since my child still young but knows the words. Can i skip to explain further till older? Thanks for yr advice!