Teaching Chinese at Home

[keltong]

Yeah…reading comics is not the way to do well in chinese. My aim is to at least get him interested enough to want to pick up the comic and (hopefully) read. Coz my boy simply HATES chinese. Sad but true, and I am hoping that by reading some chinese comics (or doing anything chinese) it will help to get him to find some interest.


I started to read one story at a time for him. At first he was resistance, but later start to show some interest. Yesterday he sat readily beside me when I told him it’s story time. And I took time to explain the words that he may not understand (there are a lot of them). It’s a start, and I will be most delighted if it progress on to proper chinese story books.

We have also set ‘chinese speaking day’ where we will only communicate in chinese and will not answer him if he speak to us in english.

You can’t imagine how difficult it is for him, he get so frustrated trying to express his view in chinese that he sometimes gave up speaking. On the other hand, I have never hear him speak so much chinese in a single day! So much so that when my MIL came, he started to converse in (broken) chinese with her.

It is going to be a long road for my P5 boy, and I will press on. But for my K1 boy, I want to start right. It is tedious but when my K1 boy starts to recognize the chinese words (doing 基础汉字500), I feel so happy. Hopefully I can be consistant to do it with him.

[MyBaby]

That is a good start - 加油！加油!


Share a tip - when reading or doing any Chinese work with your K1 child, try to do it in common areas like the sitting or dining area where your P5 child is within earshot. Somehow, subconsciously, the older child will pick up some useful information.

I noticed this when reading aloud 小男生杜歌飞 to my DS. My DD would also listen in and I \"caught\" both of them commenting and laughing about an escapade when driving them to their CCA on Saturday. DD also \"confessed\" that she has read ahead and completed the book as she could not wait for me to do the reading aloud nightly.

keltong:

Yeah...reading comics is not the way to do well in chinese. My aim is to at least get him interested enough to want to pick up the comic and (hopefully) read. Coz my boy simply HATES chinese. Sad but true, and I am hoping that by reading some chinese comics (or doing anything chinese) it will help to get him to find some interest.

I started to read one story at a time for him. At first he was resistance, but later start to show some interest. Yesterday he sat readily beside me when I told him it's story time. And I took time to explain the words that he may not understand (there are a lot of them). It's a start, and I will be most delighted if it progress on to proper chinese story books.

We have also set 'chinese speaking day' where we will only communicate in chinese and will not answer him if he speak to us in english.

You can't imagine how difficult it is for him, he get so frustrated trying to express his view in chinese that he sometimes gave up speaking. On the other hand, I have never hear him speak so much chinese in a single day! So much so that when my MIL came, he started to converse in (broken) chinese with her.

It is going to be a long road for my P5 boy, and I will press on. But for my K1 boy, I want to start right. It is tedious but when my K1 boy starts to recognize the chinese words (doing 基础汉字500), I feel so happy. Hopefully I can be consistant to do it with him.

[keltong]

MyBaby:

That is a good start - 加油！加油!


Share a tip - when reading or doing any Chinese work with your K1 child, try to do it in common areas like the sitting or dining area where your P5 child is within earshot. Somehow, subconsciously, the older child will pick up some useful information.

Great tip! Thanks!

MyBaby:

I noticed this when reading aloud 小男生杜歌飞 to my DS. My DD would also listen in and I \"caught\" both of them commenting and laughing about an escapade when driving them to their CCA on Saturday. DD also \"confessed\" that she has read ahead and completed the book as she could not wait for me to do the reading aloud nightly.

I am waiting for the day he will pick up a chinese book and read himself, I think I will hug and kiss him to death :lol:

[porcupine12trade]

keltong:

Yeah...reading comics is not the way to do well in chinese. My aim is to at least get him interested enough to want to pick up the comic and (hopefully) read. Coz my boy simply HATES chinese. Sad but true, and I am hoping that by reading some chinese comics (or doing anything chinese) it will help to get him to find some interest.


I started to read one story at a time for him. At first he was resistance, but later start to show some interest. Yesterday he sat readily beside me when I told him it's story time. And I took time to explain the words that he may not understand (there are a lot of them). It's a start, and I will be most delighted if it progress on to proper chinese story books.

We have also set 'chinese speaking day' where we will only communicate in chinese and will not answer him if he speak to us in english.

You can't imagine how difficult it is for him, he get so frustrated trying to express his view in chinese that he sometimes gave up speaking. On the other hand, I have never hear him speak so much chinese in a single day! So much so that when my MIL came, he started to converse in (broken) chinese with her.

It is going to be a long road for my P5 boy, and I will press on. But for my K1 boy, I want to start right. It is tedious but when my K1 boy starts to recognize the chinese words (doing 基础汉字500), I feel so happy. Hopefully I can be consistant to do it with him.

Good news, very encouraging progress :). I also use 基础汉字500, the most basic set on my K2, I cover the HYPY coz she will use them to read the words. So far, it is helping her to recog the very commonly used words, I hope she will finish the basic set soon and by time 45kuaidu arrive, I can use that on her.

But i find very time consuming to teach both Eng and Chinese. I have 3 kids, #1 is independent on eng, I need to push her harder for chinese. #2 is 85% independent on english, but she wants me to sit with her while she read. I took Tamarind advice to read with her, now she will read for me and i think it is really better this way, chinese will definitely b an effort for me to teach her. #3 doesnt know how to read eng/chinese, so i have to work on him too.... wah shiong!

[porcupine12trade]

hi Tamarind


I have a very silly qn to ask u, side track abit. I a going to teach my son phonics (3 letter words). I am thinking of using blank flash cards (i ordered 1000s 2 yrs back and did not make good use of them :oops: now thinkin gof using them), and using marker (red and black) to make the word cards. Is it ok to \"handwrite\" on the cards? or is it better to print out, so the letters are all uniform. I have sooo many markers coz my hb bot permanent makers instead of whiteboard makers (needed by my P2 gal).

[MyBaby]

keltong:

I am waiting for the day he will pick up a chinese book and read himself, I think I will hug and kiss him to death :lol:

Dear keltong, I know how it feels. When my son who is dyslexic told me that books can be interesting and that he has ran out of books to read from our home library, the super elated mummy rushed out to buy books and searched the library for books that he wants to read!

Hang in there, slowly but steadily, it will pay off! Most important thing is- don't rush and give lots of encouragement.

[tamarind]

porcupine12trade:

and yes, if we do not have specific books in mind, it's almost impossible to sieve out good books from the library, be it chinese or eng. So i usually check at home first for the books i want, I i can find many, i will make a trip to the library


Tamarind is it you who reco the book The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe? I found it in the library and my gal loves it, though she has nvr watched Narnia. Anymore books to reco? We are running out of books to borrow, the usual ones she borrows are rainbow magic (i dont like), tiara club (i dont like), magic ballerina, all enid blytons esp the adventure ones, naughty gal, malory towers etc, nancy drew, roald dahl, and others i cant rem.. I have no idea what else to search in the library for her. I buy quite many books too, esp those i feel may benefit my #2, #3.

Hi porcupine12trade,
Yes I recommended The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe in my blog, glad that your gal loves it.

I posted a list of English wonderful books in another thread about phonics and reading in English. I also answered your question about phonics in this thread :
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=343904#343904

[tamarind]

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.

Thanks ! I will search for the CDs in the shops.

My girl likes Chinese New Year songs. Her Chinese teacher gave her a copy of the lyrics of some CNY songs, and she enjoyed copying the lyrics.

[tamarind]

tree nymph:

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,
My boy has many books about dinosaurs with better pictures than the 永远永远爱你 series, so I didn't expect him to like them. He likes these books purely because of the moving stories. It is so delightful to see a little boy so keen to read some books over and over gain. Thanks for recommending them !

You bought 可爱的鼠小弟 already ? Both my kids read this series of books many times over one year already, they still laugh when they read the books now.

[tamarind]

porcupine12trade:

Hi Tamarind,

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

You can definitely return the books and get a refund if you don't like the books.

http://support.dangdang.com/helpcenter/api_cms/helpcenter/question_sort/2242/179422.shtml

But this is only worth doing in China. If you send back the books, the shipping cost may be more than the cost of the books.

Refund is only possible when you order direct.

If you order from a spree organizer in SMH, she will not do it for you. Honestly, I don't advise other people to join sprees in SMH because it can be quite risky. Take note that there have been many cases in which organizers collected money then disappear. Recently there is a case of one organizer giving her account to another person who is not authorized to organize sprees. But there are some honest ones around. You need to be careful.