Teaching Chinese at Home

[tamarind]

porcupine12trade:

tamarind:

You can place a reservation for the book that you want at the library, it costs $1.55 per book. Then you can collect at a branch near you.

dangdang.com makes it easy to find good books by listing the best sellers, and we can also read many customer reviews about each book. I usually buy those books with hundreds of good reviews. For some books without reviews, I will try to borrow from the library to read and see if it is good before buying it.

I don't have the habit of reserving books as my kids only borrow eng books, there are so many choices, if unavailable, we'll look for something else or wait. For books tt I find can pass down I'll buy. But the library is really great :).

Actually I meant I can't find the books physically on shelf when the catalogue
says bk is avail. I find it frustrating. Today I borrowed 14只老鼠 (I find the
words v tiny, good thing I did not order this) 和 魔法小公主莉莉(I ordered this series fr dangdang). Quick fingers to order, too excited n did not think of lib! I always look to lib for eng bk but don't know y I forgot Abt it when it comes to Chinese books. Abit regret being so 冲动。ordered so many books from dangdang, all r ur reco, hope I can use them long enough to justify the buy :D. Like u say, Shld borrow from library to see if kids like them first.

I often encountered the same problem of not finding the books on shelf too. The only way is to place a reservation, then the librarian will search high and low for you. Otherwise they will get it from another branch.

Also, try to spend some time reading the books together with your kids. Most kids may just give up once they see so many Chinese words in a book

Actually I love 14只老鼠 for the beautiful illustrations, personally I think one of the joy of reading is looking at pictures. This is especially important for kids because they don't like to be told that they must be learning new words all the time. Pictures are essential for kids to understand what they are reading. Otherwise kids may be able to read many words, but they don't know how to use the words.

I also did not like the pictures in 鸡蛋哥哥 and 永远永远爱你, but my boy loves these books very much and he has read them many times. So kids really think differently from adults.

In fact, for 笑猫日记, at first I did not think it is very good because I just quickly scanned through. But after I asked my girl to read every word out loud to me, I realized kids find these books are interesting because the writing style is humorous, the characters are well defined, the author writes about things that matter to kids.

[toddles]

porcupine12trade:

tamarind:

You can place a reservation for the book that you want at the library, it costs $1.55 per book. Then you can collect at a branch near you.

dangdang.com makes it easy to find good books by listing the best sellers, and we can also read many customer reviews about each book. I usually buy those books with hundreds of good reviews. For some books without reviews, I will try to borrow from the library to read and see if it is good before buying it.

I don't have the habit of reserving books as my kids only borrow eng books, there are so many choices, if unavailable, we'll look for something else or wait. For books tt I find can pass down I'll buy. But the library is really great :).

Actually I meant I can't find the books physically on shelf when the catalogue
says bk is avail. I find it frustrating. Today I borrowed 14只老鼠 (I find the
words v tiny, good thing I did not order this) 和 魔法小公主莉莉(I ordered this series fr dangdang). Quick fingers to order, too excited n did not think of lib! I always look to lib for eng bk but don't know y I forgot Abt it when it comes to Chinese books. Abit regret being so 冲动。ordered so many books from dangdang, all r ur reco, hope I can use them long enough to justify the buy :D. Like u say, Shld borrow from library to see if kids like them first.

I find it very frustrating to find chinese books in the library. If I have nothing in mind, browsing to sift out gems is near impossible. most of them have very thin pages and the words are 密密麻麻. if there is something specific, the cataloging (to me) is also quite inexplicable.

so for those that are 'keepers', should just buy direct from dangdang. or through one of those motherhood forum sprees that are always ongoing. If you buy more than 100 sgd, the shipping can be capped at 20% of book price, which is a good deal. can PM me if you want more info, I don't organise but have participated in a few.

however, whether you buy direct or through a spree, the shipping time is abt 6-8 weeks, and the problem will always be, that if there are any defects (happened to me with sticker books), there will be no refund because the refund period is much shorter than that.

[foreverj]

agree with you toddles. i seldom select the chinese books in the library for dd. they just do not come across as interesting to me. most r in quite bad shape as well, so does not help enhance the chinese reading experience.


anyway, have gotten my si wu kuai du and now reading the note to parents. wah, realised reading a few pages also take me quite a while. first book looks pretty simple leh, so i hope to breeze thru it soon with dd.

tks for the tip on the sgmotherhood sprees

[tamarind]

toddles:

however, whether you buy direct or through a spree, the shipping time is abt 6-8 weeks, and the problem will always be, that if there are any defects (happened to me with sticker books), there will be no refund because the refund period is much shorter than that.

toddles,
If you buy direct from dangdang.com, you can definitely get a refund for the cost of the book, I have done so successfully before. If you buy from sprees, by right it can also be done, but the spree organizers are not willing to do it for you because it is too troublesome.


foreverj,
For library books, what I hated most is to find books that are torn, or have drawings in the pages by inconsiderate kids. I would rather buy new ones, then re-sell them when my kids have finished reading them and don't want them anymore

[tamarind]

MyBaby:

I've found the book list in your blog to be very useful, especially for my DD. Will check out the 雾灵三部曲（全3册) and see if can interest her to read. Besides reading, I've also introduced songs like 民歌/新谣 (eg. 童年，光阴的故事，排排坐 etc) and brought DD to musicals like 雨季 (but expensive ... )

Songs are excellent for learning Chinese. Why did you find those CDs ? I cannot seem to find them in shops any more.

Also, if a child loves a story book in English, parents can also try to find the same book translated into Chinese for him. He may be interested to read the same book again in Chinese. dangdang.com has tons of books translated into Chinese from other languages.

I read that the top PSLE scholar last year, likes to read both English and Chinese version of the same book

[foreverj]

tamarind:

foreverj,
For library books, what I hated most is to find books that are torn, or have drawings in the pages by inconsiderate kids. I would rather buy new ones, then re-sell them when my kids have finished reading them and don't want them anymore

yes, agreed. so far, i can't bear to sell any of dd's old books or learning resources, in case i decide to have no. 2 plus she always likes to take out n re-read once in a while... btw just bought martine series from dangdang. the pictures r amazingly beautiful!!

[MyBaby]

I have these compilation CDs -

- 滚石金韵民歌 (80 Greatest Folk Songs)
- 梁文福绕梁一世 (total of 5 CDs)

I've also found some of the songs on you-tube:
- 光阴的故事 （http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrtZUUPiEMM）
- 快乐天堂 （http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5M8tB_OA8M). I like this video best as the animation is very pretty and I love the singing by the children

For some of these songs that DD likes, she will even type out the lyrics and memorise the words. She will also ask me for the meanings of the words and song. Some of the songs that appeal to her are 光阴的故事， 日出， 请你告诉她 (from 雨季 musical) ，天冷就回来.

tamarind:

MyBaby:

I've found the book list in your blog to be very useful, especially for my DD. Will check out the 雾灵三部曲（全3册) and see if can interest her to read. Besides reading, I've also introduced songs like 民歌/新谣 (eg. 童年，光阴的故事，排排坐 etc) and brought DD to musicals like 雨季 (but expensive ... )

Songs are excellent for learning Chinese. Why did you find those CDs ? I cannot seem to find them in shops any more.

Also, if a child loves a story book in English, parents can also try to find the same book translated into Chinese for him. He may be interested to read the same book again in Chinese. dangdang.com has tons of books translated into Chinese from other languages.

I read that the top PSLE scholar last year, likes to read both English and Chinese version of the same book

[tree nymph]

tamarind:

Actually I love 14只老鼠 for the beautiful illustrations, personally I think one of the joy of reading is looking at pictures. This is especially important for kids because they don't like to be told that they must be learning new words all the time. Pictures are essential for kids to understand what they are reading. Otherwise kids may be able to read many words, but they don't know how to use the words.

I also did not like the pictures in 鸡蛋哥哥 and 永远永远爱你, but my boy loves these books very much and he has read them many times. So kids really think differently from adults.

In fact, for 笑猫日记, at first I did not think it is very good because I just quickly scanned through. But after I asked my girl to read every word out loud to me, I realized kids find these books are interesting because the writing style is humorous, the characters are well defined, the author writes about things that matter to kids.

Hi Tam,
I thought you boy will like 永远永远爱你 series, cos its all dinosaurs! Personally, I like the series, cos I thought the stories are quite moving and the values behind is quite good. My kids love them too.

Thanks for the recommendation of the books, I'm getting some from dangdang. I also want to get some books with bigger words for my gal, else I may have to think up of some stories and write it for her liao. and I'm TOO busy to do it! Need to get her to practise reading more Chinese books else...

[tree nymph]

MyBaby:

I have these compilation CDs -

- 滚石金韵民歌 (80 Greatest Folk Songs)
- 梁文福绕梁一世 (total of 5 CDs)

I've also found some of the songs on you-tube:
- 光阴的故事 （http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrtZUUPiEMM）
- 快乐天堂 （http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5M8tB_OA8M). I like this video best as the animation is very pretty and I love the singing by the children

For some of these songs that DD likes, she will even type out the lyrics and memorise the words. She will also ask me for the meanings of the words and song. Some of the songs that appeal to her are 光阴的故事， 日出， 请你告诉她 (from 雨季 musical) ，天冷就回来.

Hi!

These are my favourite songs too! could you tell me if you have complied both the CDs yourself? These songs have also accompanied me through my growing up years too and I remembered going to bras basah complex for the open air concert for xingyao...

[porcupine12trade]

toddles:

I find it very frustrating to find chinese books in the library. If I have nothing in mind, browsing to sift out gems is near impossible. most of them have very thin pages and the words are 密密麻麻. if there is something specific, the cataloging (to me) is also quite inexplicable.

so for those that are 'keepers', should just buy direct from dangdang. or through one of those motherhood forum sprees that are always ongoing. If you buy more than 100 sgd, the shipping can be capped at 20% of book price, which is a good deal. can PM me if you want more info, I don't organise but have participated in a few.

Hi toddles

You mean if i order from dangdang.com >SGD200, the shipping is only 20%? I did not get this \"promo\" leh, how to get it? aiyo so stupid, i paid so much for the shipping liao

Hi Tamarind,

How to get a refund from dangdang if we do not like the books? Thanks!