Teaching Chinese at Home

[phankao]

daddybear:

Our counterparts in china/taiwan are really way ahead of us. i think this is like the gold standard to aim for. nearly fainted when i saw this...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzGr3DJvW1I&feature=related

Our boy could recite SanZiJing, DiziGui and several TangShi at 1+year old. So, as long as you provide the exposure, surely can, lah!

daddybear:

I came across this youtube on Tang poetry cartoons. hoping if any parents out there know if these sort of cartoons exist and where to purchase. i think they will be very useful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snp7MyusKPc&NR=1

I've found some cheap ones at Bras Basah Ground Floor music shop. But if you want them word-based (to reinforce Chinese word recognition), then this 《说说唱唱》 series of CDs / VCDs are very good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl3o11A2vzw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylMUmHV4oGk
They have Tangshi, sanzijing, dizigui and many others. Can get from selected Popular bookstores. But it's way cheaper to buy from Malaysia Popular bookstores where the range is even wider.

[24hr-mum]

MyBaby:

I know this is the thread for teaching Chinese at HOME but I am looking for an enrichment centre that focuses on speech and drama (no worksheets, please!) for my P2 DS, to work in tandem with what we are doing at home.


He is dyslexic. Amongst the 4 components of language learning - Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, he has no problems with Speaking and Listening, his Reading is improving as we are building on his word recognition using 四五块读 (we are still on Book 4 and progress is slow!). Writing is still a challenge.

I am in favour of boosting his spoken skills so as to somewhat compensate for his weaker areas. Thought this is particularly important as at higher level, composition (which would be very challenging to him) and comprehension would be tough for him to handle.

He used to attend enrichment with one centre but as it was group and there were worksheets to complete in class, he was not coping well as he could not recognise many words and have difficulty reading aloud.

Does anyone know of any centre that focuses on speech and drama -rather like Lorna Whiston but in Chinese?

re ch speech n drama - Julia gabriel, hokkien huay guan, crestar maybe have

[MyBaby]

Tks, 24hr-mum. Will check out. Thought Julia Gabriel's only for English? Hokkien Huay Guan might be an option.

24hr-mum:

MyBaby:

I know this is the thread for teaching Chinese at HOME but I am looking for an enrichment centre that focuses on speech and drama (no worksheets, please!) for my P2 DS, to work in tandem with what we are doing at home.

He is dyslexic. Amongst the 4 components of language learning - Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, he has no problems with Speaking and Listening, his Reading is improving as we are building on his word recognition using 四五块读 (we are still on Book 4 and progress is slow!). Writing is still a challenge.

I am in favour of boosting his spoken skills so as to somewhat compensate for his weaker areas. Thought this is particularly important as at higher level, composition (which would be very challenging to him) and comprehension would be tough for him to handle.

He used to attend enrichment with one centre but as it was group and there were worksheets to complete in class, he was not coping well as he could not recognise many words and have difficulty reading aloud.

Does anyone know of any centre that focuses on speech and drama -rather like Lorna Whiston but in Chinese?

re ch speech n drama - Julia gabriel, hokkien huay guan, crestar maybe have

[24hr-mum]

my girl ever attend chinese speech n drama at julia gabriel when she was 3 at forum

[keltong]

porcupine12trade:

keltong:

keltong

I have similar problem as you. my #2 \" sometimes will not recognize the word in long sentences but in the short 词汇。 Sometimes it's the other way round\", i wonder is it they memorize the sentence and not the characters!
Another qn, do u'all do all 7days in a week? sometimes I can be very inflexible and think i must do everyday esp weekdays, hence not willing to go out for dinner etc coz which means no time for reading... abit siao or not?

What I did sometimes is have certain words on my handphone and show it to them to see if they recognize. Sometimes when I see the word in a phase (during normal times) I will point to him to see if he knows. So that is like a check. I sometimes will also write out a sentences using words I know he has learnt and see if he can read it (outside of the pictures in the book). All this to help reinforce his learning.

I also try to do 7 days a week whenever possible but all very short session so it take usually about 10mins and it's done.

[MyBaby]

24hr-mum:

my girl ever attend chinese speech n drama at julia gabriel when she was 3 at forum

Now that you've mentioned, I remembered calling Julia Gabriel about 2 yrs back regarding their Mandarin Edudrama prog. At that time, I didn't sign up as the timing was not suitable and the children who were in the class are mostly foreigners.

[24hr-mum]

can also find out whr Crester has ch speech n drama

[tamarind]

kids_r_innocent:

Hi Tamarind,


Any reviews on the books you have bought on Chinese Creative Writing, from dangdang..

I am tempting to get it but not sure which series is better...

Appreciate your advise.

I have just sent you a PM.

[tamarind]

24hr-mum:

hi tamarind


re dangdang.com, how much is the shipping? is it order online and pay by visa and how long is the shipping?

are the bks very china in design - lots of pics, tiny fonts, very wordy type？ got pinyin?

how much do u spend on bks usu? how u can keep storage?

my girl likes to read but i think those words she dont understand she just skip

My dangdang.com books used to arrive in less than 4 weeks. But now I heard it may take 8 weeks to arrive. You can pay by OCBC Visa or DBS Amex. The shipping is 50% of the original book price.

Dangdang.com is in China. They have a huge collection of all Chinese books published in China. There are books for all ages, from 0 to 99 years old. Some have big fonts, some have tiny fonts. There is a large number of picture books with less than 10 words a page. There are also many books with hundreds of words in a page. So it depends on what books you order.

My blog includes a list of wonderful books grouped by age :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-raise-bilingual-child.html

I advise you to look at the books in my list, then search for them in the library first.

The way parents in China teach their kids to read, is simply by reading Chinese picture books bought from dangdang.com to them since a very young age. Or by using the Si Wu Kuai Du series which just came out a few years ago. If we want our kids to be as good in Chinese as the kids from China, then we must let our kids read the same books.

I don't remember how much I spent. The books are kept in my Ikea bookshelves.

[tamarind]

JoeeYee:

Hi all, sorry to change the subject here suddenly but I would like to find out if anyone knows how to arrange for school immersion in China? My girl is going for training in Kunming during June holiday and I would like to arrange immersion for her 2 brothers during the same period.


I saw tamarind in an earlier post mentioned something similar, but not sure if any specific procedure was given....

Thanks in advance.

Hi JoeeYee,
I have accompanied my students to China for immersion before, this is what I know.

You need to first find a school that will accept your kids, then get the admission notice from the school.

Then you need to apply for a student visa to study in China. Check out this website :
http://www.visaforchina.com.sg/visaen/visaView.html?method=readNotify&notifyId=1113#Menu=ChildMenu2

You need to arrange for all airfare, accomodation on your own.