Teaching Chinese at Home

[ksme]

tamarind:

Hi Brenda,
Your dd is very impressive ! I have not heard of any other local primary school kid who has read so many of the 笑猫日记 books. Though these books are widely read by primary school children in China.

Actually I do recommend these books for both boys and girls. 笑猫 is a boy cat, and most of the characters in the books are boys. The problem is that our primary school syllabus does not teach enough words for kids to be able to read long novels like these. So most kids may find that there are so many words that they cannot read and understand, and they lose interest. I advise other parents to read these books together with your kids. Ask the kid to read every word out loud, and help him if there is any word that he does not know. Discuss the story with your kid. Kids will learn to enjoy the stories, and they will be able to learn many new words and phrases.

Actually learning to read in Chinese is easier than English. All we have to do is to read together with the child. I have often heard of kids who are capable of reading long English novels by 7 years old, but it is a pity that most Singaporean kids are not able to read long Chinese novels in primary school.

Most parents make the mistake of forcing their kids to memorize as many individual words as possible. The fact is that even if you memorized 1000 words, you still cannot write a good Chinese composition. The key to doing well in Chinese, is to read as many good story books as possible. When a child has read extensively, she will know what to write, and how to form good sentences.

Tamarind,
What do you think of the 马小跳 series? There are 20 books in the series. Is it good read for upper primary kids? Many thanks for your kind sharings on this topic.

[tamarind]

Hi ksme,

The 马小跳 series is very popular in China. I heard that teachers in China recommend this series to students. So it should be good. I have only read the first few pages of one book before, the words and phrases are as difficult as any Chinese novels for adults. Our primary school kids may not be able to read many of the words, and may become discouraged. Kids will be more motivated to read these books if parents read with them. Also, I don’t think that every book in the series is interesting to local kids, parents should pre-read each book and choose carefully.

But personally I find that 笑猫日记 is more interesting, since those books are about animals, and there is a fantasy element in each book, which should appeal to both boys and girls.

[tamarind]

allseasons:

Hi Tamarind,


Really impressed by your patience and knowledge to share how to improve our children Chinese.. :)).

I am learning chinese together with my children :oops: . They have been pestering me for some comics that I couldn't find in the bookstore...

I try to order some books for them (and me too :oops: ) from Dangdang, however my chinese is so lousy.. I even don't know how to sign up, and how to order.. Do you have any clue, how to place an order there, if my chinese is so limited? I tried to call them yesterday, but it was all answering machine.. Thanks a lot :celebrate:

allseasons,
It's my pleasure to share.

Have you tried the Maha Yuyi bookstore at Bras Basah level 3 ? They have many books from dangdang, though the prices are more expensive.

Otherwise, you can PM one of the parents who are ordering from dangdang, and see if they can help you to order. I will not be ordering from dangdang again, bought too many books already.

[ksme]

tamarind:

Hi ksme,

The 马小跳 series is very popular in China. I heard that teachers in China recommend this series to students. So it should be good. I have only read the first few pages of one book before, the words and phrases are as difficult as any Chinese novels for adults. Our primary school kids may not be able to read many of the words, and may become discouraged. Kids will be more motivated to read these books if parents read with them. Also, I don't think that every book in the series is interesting to local kids, parents should pre-read each book and choose carefully.

But personally I find that 笑猫日记 is more interesting, since those books are about animals, and there is a fantasy element in each book, which should appeal to both boys and girls.

Thanks Tamarind. Btw, I saw that the author of these books, 杨红婴， will be speaking at the Popular Bookfest tomorrow afternoon on the笑猫日记 series.... Too bad I don't have time to go tomorrow.

[tamarind]

ksme:

tamarind:

Hi ksme,

The 马小跳 series is very popular in China. I heard that teachers in China recommend this series to students. So it should be good. I have only read the first few pages of one book before, the words and phrases are as difficult as any Chinese novels for adults. Our primary school kids may not be able to read many of the words, and may become discouraged. Kids will be more motivated to read these books if parents read with them. Also, I don't think that every book in the series is interesting to local kids, parents should pre-read each book and choose carefully.

But personally I find that 笑猫日记 is more interesting, since those books are about animals, and there is a fantasy element in each book, which should appeal to both boys and girls.

Thanks Tamarind. Btw, I saw that the author of these books, 杨红婴， will be speaking at the Popular Bookfest tomorrow afternoon on the笑猫日记 series.... Too bad I don't have time to go tomorrow.

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that she is in Singapore

BTW, I think her books are not the best in children's literature, though she is one of the best children's books writers from China.

I still think that there are better children's books written by Japanese writers and translated in Chinese, especially these :
佐贺的超级阿嬷
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20669176&ref=order-2-A
窗边的小豆豆
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=706089&ref=search-0-mix

[Koolmama]

Hi mummies,


I recently bought alot of chinese books at the Popular Bookfest. Actually, I feel that as citizens or residents in Sg we should support local bookshops and suppliers... So even if their books are a little bit more expensive than ordering directly from China, well they do need to earn a bit to feed their families and pay their bills right?? So if ordering from a local mom's website like Sunshine is only a few dollars more than from dangdang.com, why not??

Anyway, i wanted to share some good books that i found at the local library...

http://postimage.org/image/2zsz6575w/


http://postimage.org/image/2zte1zblw/


http://postimage.org/image/2ztpmqr2c/

For the 3rd book, there are about 5 or 6 books in this series which I love... The pictures are big and beautiful and nice character fonts... beautiful storyline... Sorry I don't have the time to take photos of all of them ^_^

Hope you can find these books at your local library or bookshop :lol:

By the way, I found the Odonata readers at Popular bookshop. At the Suntec Bookfest, they are selling at NETT price of about $26.90 (this is for the 200 word series... Different series have different prices). However, if you have the Popular card AND 20% discount voucher from the Popular magazine, you can buy it for $28.78 - 20% = $23.02 only at the bookshop!!! i got mine from Bras Basah Popular... what a good deal!! :lol: Please don't travel all the way to JB just to save a few dollars (and waste all that petrol)... Support local bookshops!! Ha ha

[Foreverfriends]

Hi Tamarind

Do u think it is necessary to get all 15 books for ji chu han zi that you recommended at the start of this thread?

[tamarind]

Foreverfriends:

Hi Tamarind

Do u think it is necessary to get all 15 books for ji chu han zi that you recommended at the start of this thread?

Foreverfriends,
If you are only using these ji chu han zi books to teach, then you need to get all the books in the series. I think there are more than 15 books, though Popular only brought in 3 stages (each stage 5 books).

I am using the Si Wu Kuai Du series :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/teaching-chinese-at-home.html

My kids completed 6 books in this series, and they are more than well prepared for P1 That's why I did not buy all the Ji Chu Han Zi books, I only have 5 books from stage 1.

Anyone interested in buying my copies of Ji Chu Han Zi books, please PM me.

[tamarind]

Koolmama:

Hi mummies,


I recently bought alot of chinese books at the Popular Bookfest. Actually, I feel that as citizens or residents in Sg we should support local bookshops and suppliers... So even if their books are a little bit more expensive than ordering directly from China, well they do need to earn a bit to feed their families and pay their bills right?? So if ordering from a local mom's website like Sunshine is only a few dollars more than from dangdang.com, why not??

Actually I used to buy many Chinese books from Popular, but their collection is so limited, I bought all the books worth buying and stopped buying from them a long time ago.

As for buying from local website, I personally think that buying from http://www.dangdang.com is easier and more secure, because dangdang.com is huge in China and they have just listed in Nasdaq, carrying a $1 billion valuation. With my Amex card, ordering from dangdang.com takes only a couple of minutes.

Actually I do almost all my shopping online, almost all our clothes, toys, vitamins, shower gel, moisturizer, etc are bought from USA websites. It is not that I don't want to support our local stores, the prices are so expensive, and the service standards are poor in local shops. If I tell you that you can buy a pair of Skechers Shape Ups for USD39.95 at http://www.amazon.com, will you still be happy to pay SGD169 at local shops ?

But I think that you are really a very nice person to think about helping locals earn money.

[ksme]

tamarind:

allseasons:

Hi Tamarind,


Really impressed by your patience and knowledge to share how to improve our children Chinese.. :)).

I am learning chinese together with my children :oops: . They have been pestering me for some comics that I couldn't find in the bookstore...

I try to order some books for them (and me too :oops: ) from Dangdang, however my chinese is so lousy.. I even don't know how to sign up, and how to order.. Do you have any clue, how to place an order there, if my chinese is so limited? I tried to call them yesterday, but it was all answering machine.. Thanks a lot :celebrate:

allseasons,
It's my pleasure to share.

Have you tried the Maha Yuyi bookstore at Bras Basah level 3 ? They have many books from dangdang, though the prices are more expensive.

Otherwise, you can PM one of the parents who are ordering from dangdang, and see if they can help you to order. I will not be ordering from dangdang again, bought too many books already.

allseasons,
I bought some of the books mentioned above at the Popular Bookfest at Suntec City. The 笑猫日记 and 淘气包马小跳 series are going for $4.50 (nett price) and $4.375(if purchased at least 3 books). Not sure if these were the ones you were looking to buy. If so, you may want to check out at the Bookfest. These discounted prices are close to the prices we will get from Dangdang after including the delivery costs. You also don't have to wait 7-8 weeks for the books to arrive and you get to flip through the books before you buy.