Teaching Chinese at Home

[tamarind]

porcupine12trade:

As i continue to read this thread... i almost fall from my chair... oh gosh, children are reading chinese novels like Jing Yong, I only watched the HK TV production hahah. Even mummies here read these novels, I have nvr picked up any chinese novels in my whole life, so paiseh to admit...and I am hoping my kids to pick them up 1 day ... :oops:


btw, my kids like books alot, #1 reads on her own and #2/#3 enjoy reading time (they will request for reading time thru'out the day but i am guilty of rejecting their request though i will read at least once a day). I attribute that to no computer and no gaming. They are not exposed to using computer or play games (computer, xbox, etc). if they play any kind of games, usually uno, board games. Any one of you think the same? or am I too paranoid abt such electronic stimulation?

Hi porcupine12trade,
I am also strongly against computer games, PSP, etc. I am teaching hundreds of students now, age 17-19 years old, and I have seen so many smart students who are doing badly because they would rather spend their time playing computer games. They could have gone into university, but now they have lost any chances of doing so. It is really sad to see them wasting their youth on computer games.
Many parents like to give PSP, or even iphones to their kids to play games, because these keep them occupied and the kids will not bother them. However, parents do not realize what kind of harm they are doing to their kids.

As for Jin Yong novels, I read them when I was in Sec 2, and after I finished reading all of his works, I scored high marks in Chinese effortlessly. Many primary school kids in China have read his novels before 10 years old, but I haven't heard of any in Singapore who have done so yet. The standards of Chinese in our schools are so low nowadays, our primary school kids cannot possibly read and understand these books unless their parents have been teaching them at home (or they are kids from mainland China).

For your P2, try the books in my blog, in the age 6 to 10 group :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-raise-bilingual-child.html

My girl especially loves these books :
露露和拉拉（4册）
什么都行魔女商店（全四册）

These are the books that made her love Chinese. She has read these books many times. Her current favourite is 笑猫日记. The standards of these books may be too tough for most of our lower primary kids, but read with your child (not to her) and she will learn very quickly.

I am glad that you find my http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/ blog helpful.

[foreverj]

tamarind:

For your P2, try the books in my blog, in the age 6 to 10 group :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-raise-bilingual-child.html

My girl especially loves these books :
露露和拉拉（4册）
什么都行魔女商店（全四册）

These are the books that made her love Chinese. She has read these books many times. Her current favourite is 笑猫日记. The standards of these books may be too tough for most of our lower primary kids, but read with your child (not to her) and she will learn very quickly.

I am glad that you find my http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/ blog helpful.

hi tamarind,
what a coincidence! i chanced upon 露露和拉拉 in bras basah and purchased books 1 and 2 for my dd. she absolutely loves them (and this child-like mummy also find them very interesting) and could sit thru with me while i read for her. i m trying out the 四五快读 when i receive it this week (fortunately got a good fren to bring in for me from china). it'll b my first attempt to formally teach her chinese, hope it works! thanks for all your time n advice for all the parents here...

[Happy Mama]

Hi Tamarind, I just came across this your blog and realise that you have listed some recommended Chinese books for kids between 6-10 years old.


As my DD is in Pri 3 this year, I was just wondering what books you would recommend for 9 year olds. As a gauge of her current CL standard, she is doing HCL and her grades have been around 94 to 96 since Pri 1, but I am getting a little worried for her since Pri 3 now involves much more writing. I have never bought her a CL storybook before, and have no idea what to start her off with.

Thanks so much.

[Brenda10]

tamarind:

Books for creative writing


I recently bought these 2 sets of books for creative writing.
大鼻子李教授新体验作文
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=9268385&ref=order-2-A

小学生作文起跑线
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=9268431&ref=order-2-A

I bought P1 to P6 for both sets, which have hundreds of good comments by customers. When it first arrived, I was disappointed about the paper quality, and the words are small. But when I read through the books, I find that they are better than any Chinese creative writing books that are sold in Singapore. I think that first set is better than the second set, because the size is bigger. The second set is smaller than half of A4 size, but it has more good comments.

I haven't used these books yet, so I am not sure how effective they will be for my kids. Both sets require kids to be already reading quite well, otherwise they may be scared off by the small words. P1 and P2 includes hanyu pinyin. From P3 onwards, the standard is very much higher than what our schools can teach. I suspect that all the Chinese creative writing classes in Singapore probably use the same ideas and methods, but at a lower standard.

I think these books are good for parents who are strong in Chinese, and do not feel like wasting money to send their kids to creative writing classes. Parents who are not used to reading in Chinese, will find these books difficult to use, but if they are employing private tutors for their kids, then these books are excellent resources.

If we want our kids to do as well in Chinese as kids from mainland China, then we should get the books that are used by them

I want to emphasize again that I have not used these books yet, and I think it does require effort to use. But I am quite sure that if kids finish the P6 books, they will be writing very good compositions.

Yes. I agree with your comments and is important to find a good creative writing book for reference otherwise the child may not have much improvement and end of the day may just get a reasonable mark only.

[Happy Mama]

tamarind:

I am also strongly against computer games, PSP, etc.

Hi Tamarind, I totally agree with you on this. I didn't realise these were \"harmful\" when my DD was in Pri 1 and I bought both PSP and DS Lite for her when I went shopping with her. That got DH so upset as he is strongly against such games. So now, he keeps the DS and PSP and only allows her to play during school holidays (and only for an hour).

[porcupine12trade]

tamarind:

porcupine12trade:

As i continue to read this thread... i almost fall from my chair... oh gosh, children are reading chinese novels like Jing Yong, I only watched the HK TV production hahah. Even mummies here read these novels, I have nvr picked up any chinese novels in my whole life, so paiseh to admit...and I am hoping my kids to pick them up 1 day ... :oops:


btw, my kids like books alot, #1 reads on her own and #2/#3 enjoy reading time (they will request for reading time thru'out the day but i am guilty of rejecting their request though i will read at least once a day). I attribute that to no computer and no gaming. They are not exposed to using computer or play games (computer, xbox, etc). if they play any kind of games, usually uno, board games. Any one of you think the same? or am I too paranoid abt such electronic stimulation?

Hi porcupine12trade,
I am also strongly against computer games, PSP, etc. I am teaching hundreds of students now, age 17-19 years old, and I have seen so many smart students who are doing badly because they would rather spend their time playing computer games. They could have gone into university, but now they have lost any chances of doing so. It is really sad to see them wasting their youth on computer games.
Many parents like to give PSP, or even iphones to their kids to play games, because these keep them occupied and the kids will not bother them. However, parents do not realize what kind of harm they are doing to their kids.

As for Jin Yong novels, I read them when I was in Sec 2, and after I finished reading all of his works, I scored high marks in Chinese effortlessly. Many primary school kids in China have read his novels before 10 years old, but I haven't heard of any in Singapore who have done so yet. The standards of Chinese in our schools are so low nowadays, our primary school kids cannot possibly read and understand these books unless their parents have been teaching them at home (or they are kids from mainland China).

For your P2, try the books in my blog, in the age 6 to 10 group :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-raise-bilingual-child.html

My girl especially loves these books :
露露和拉拉（4册）
什么都行魔女商店（全四册）

These are the books that made her love Chinese. She has read these books many times. Her current favourite is 笑猫日记. The standards of these books may be too tough for most of our lower primary kids, but read with your child (not to her) and she will learn very quickly.

I am glad that you find my http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/ blog helpful.

Hi Tamarind,

Thanks for your reco on the books for P2. Are they very difficult? My gal std so so only, all i can say is she does well in her school chinese. anything extra is almost \"0\" :p. I bot quite many chinese books but 90% of them come with HYPY. I feel HYPY is not very good for them to learn chinese, however i had no choice coz there were simply too many characters they cannot understand. My gal is reading chinese books similar to shiwan ge weisheme and finds them interesting but i found out she depends on the HYPY alot. I told her this morning I read something about good way of letting them know chinese better and going to try out soon hahaha.

I dont allow my kids to play with my iph either, they hv no PSP, basically they have almost nvr played electronic games except for a few times at friends'/cousins home. #1 asked me before why other children are playing, she has a classmate who is addicted to PSP n so coincidentally he is also 1 of the weakest student in class...so i used it as an example of how electronic gaming will interfere with proper learning. Are you a teacher?

I need abit of help with my #2, her chinese is really cannot swim, i find it tough to teach her reading in chinese and she cant speak proper mandarin. But the funny thing is her fav subj is chinese and i gathered its coz she loves writing chinese characters! She can rem how to write the word/s very fast, but it takes forever for her to rem how to read/meaning of the word, then its pointless. Is it \"normal\"? and if i use jichu hanzi 500 + 45kuaidu, will it improve her chinese alot assuming i m diligent in teaching :lol:

Oh 1 last thing, i notice dangdang is have a \"sale\". The 45kuaidu i ordered is slashed price from 140 to 90yuan, or is this site always on sale? Thanks!

[MyBaby]

tamarind:

MyBaby,

Though my older girl learned very well in Berries, there were lots of complains about my younger boy from his teachers in both Berries and kindergarten. That is why I have to put in a lot of effort to find resources to teach him at home. In fact, I have to teach him both English and Chinese, if not, he probably cannot read at all if I only depend on enrichment classes. So I am also driven by circumstances, sigh....

Tks for sharing your success story regarding teaching your DS at home. If Tamarand can do it, so can I

Yeap, I'm also teaching DS English (spelling, grammar, penmanship). We are not embarking on creative writing yet (although I think school will probably start them on creative writing second half of P2) as we are focussing on nurturing a reading habit. DS started to read Chapter books towards the end of last year and DD has been wonderful in introducing him to good books when we visited the library during the year end holidays. So hopefully, like what you have stressed in your earlier post, with a strong foundation built through reading, he would be able to cope with writing.

[porcupine12trade]

MyBaby:

tamarind:

MyBaby,

Though my older girl learned very well in Berries, there were lots of complains about my younger boy from his teachers in both Berries and kindergarten. That is why I have to put in a lot of effort to find resources to teach him at home. In fact, I have to teach him both English and Chinese, if not, he probably cannot read at all if I only depend on enrichment classes. So I am also driven by circumstances, sigh....

Tks for sharing your success story regarding teaching your DS at home. If Tamarand can do it, so can I

Yeap, I'm also teaching DS English (spelling, grammar, penmanship). We are not embarking on creative writing yet (although I think school will probably start them on creative writing second half of P2) as we are focussing on nurturing a reading habit. DS started to read Chapter books towards the end of last year and DD has been wonderful in introducing him to good books when we visited the library during the year end holidays. So hopefully, like what you have stressed in your earlier post, with a strong foundation built through reading, he would be able to cope with writing.

Hi Mybaby

How do u instill in the child the love for reading? Is it possible for a child to still not like reading after much effort like reading to him/her, buy many kinds of books etc etc. I asked because my #1 loves reading alot and she is willing to try reading a variety of books. We did not \"try\" to make her like reading, it just came to her. We did read to her when she was young. However my #2 is not a book lover like her sister, we did the same, read to #2 etc. Both of them can read well. My #2 complains that when she reads too long, her neck ache (is it an excuse? i dont know haa), and she claims the easier books are too easy, and yet the more difficult ones, she can read but not really understand the content, I am not sure what kind of books are suitable for her. How do u cultivate the love for reading in children?

[porcupine12trade]

can someone help me with http://www.dangdang.com? I used an Amex card to order, i rec'd 3 emails from them total:

1. Confirmation that my order has gone thru
2. Confirmation that they can charge the amt to my Amex
3. Verification (Cardholder Name, Order number, 1st and last 4 digit of card)

I replied to number 3 and they replied to say they are looking into it, is it normal? Thanks!

[MyBaby]

porcupine12trade:

How do u instill in the child the love for reading? Is it possible for a child to still not like reading after much effort like reading to him/her, buy many kinds of books etc etc. I asked because my #1 loves reading alot and she is willing to try reading a variety of books. We did not \"try\" to make her like reading, it just came to her. We did read to her when she was young. However my #2 is not a book lover like her sister, we did the same, read to #2 etc. Both of them can read well. My #2 complains that when she reads too long, her neck ache (is it an excuse? i dont know haa), and she claims the easier books are too easy, and yet the more difficult ones, she can read but not really understand the content, I am not sure what kind of books are suitable for her. How do u cultivate the love for reading in children?

Hi porcupine12trade, my DD is like your #1 and my DS was a reluctant reader, until recently when he discovered that \"Books can be interesting too!\" (his own words).

For both kids, when they were young, DH and I read to them nightly. At home, we do not usually turn on the TV (if kid ask, at most 1hr per day and only okto channel), computer (strictly for homework, except during hols) and we don't own any handheld. So the kids play either with toys (lego, origami, drawing, play pretend with their soft-toys) or read. DH and I also read - ranging from newspapers to magazines to travel books to self-help books to story books. So maybe it is this environment that creates the reader in my DD.

With DS who is dyslexic, we are very careful not to push him to read until he's ready. So we do alot of reading to him (or reading together), even when he started Pri 1 last year.

Now that he has started to read on his own, we make reading enjoyable by observing the following:
- not comparing with DD (we wont frown on DS preference to do lego while DD chose to read)
- not testing him on his comprehension of what he has read (so reading is purely for pleasure, nothing academic about it)
- help him to search for books that is within his literacy level (eg. Magic School Bus Chapter Book series)
- borrow/buy books based on his interests (dinosaurs and transport)

With DS, I will also hang around \"Popular\" or other bookstores frequently and if he spots a book that he likes and ask me to buy, I will usually buy for him- that got him started on the \"Whimpy Kid\" series.

One other strategy that I use to get DS to read (and read aloud) is ask him to read labels/notices/school newsletters etc to me by claiming that I \"laohua\" and cannot see the small prints, especially at night. Hope the above helps.