Teaching Chinese at Home

[Piggy_mummy]

sorry smurf,


borrow this thread…i have something to ask u,pmed u, thanks

[tamarind]

phankao:

tamarind:

l bookshops have a very bad selection of Chinese books. If parents depend on them, your kids will never be good in Chinese..

So last time, these books were available for you? That's why you became good in Chinese? If not, would never have become good in Chinese?

I became good in Chinese by reading tons of Japanese comics translated into Chinese Sadly, many of those comics cannot be found any more. I also went to the library to read lots of Chinese books which is what I advise parents to do now. But I don't have the luxury of time to bring my kids to the library now.

Thanks to the books I ordered from dangdang.com, at P1 my girl could already read books that many P5/P6 kids have difficulty reading. My boy, now at P1, is also reading much better than I could when I was his age.

In secondary school, I read all of Jin Yong swordsman novel, and all of Yi Shu novels. I spent the least time studying Chinese textbooks, but Chinese is my best subject.

Have you ever wondered why so many kids nowadays struggled with Chinese ?

[tamarind]

phankao:

tamarind:

I think that Local shops have a very poor collection of basic readers. I stopped buying Chinese books for my kids at Popular bookshop since they were 3 years old. The quality if simply very poor..

I must say that the variety available at Popular is not wide enough. Popular is not where I'd go and look for chinese books for kids lah. But I also like to flip and look thru the books. I most likely would buy the books from a local small-sized supplier though. Can get in a few days. Furthermore, if I base on recommendations, what may have been enjoyed by another mother's child may not be appropriate for mine, hence it's still better for me to preview the books.

dangdang.com has all the books published in China. No local book shops can compare with them.

The website also includes many customer reviews for each books. Parents in China have a very high standard of Chinese compared to us, so I totally believe that when hundreds of them say that a book is good, then it must be good. That makes it very easy to look for good books at dangdang.com.

When you go to the library or the bookshop, you see thousands of books, what do you do ? Look through every book to find a good one ? How long will that take before you come across a good book ?

I really don't have the luxury of time to go through every book in a book shop to find good ones. I live in Jurong West, it takes a lot of time and money to go down town. I love to just point and click to order books, then have it delivered to my doorstep. In fact, I don't even buy English books from local bookshops anymore. I look for books with excellent customer reviews at amazon.com, then order it online from either http://www.amazon.com or http://www.bookdepository.com. The prices are cheaper then local bookshops, and I don't have to waste time and money going downtown.

Also note that kids must read large number of books, not just a few books. In China, their ministry of education requires primary school kids to read at least 1.45 million words from story books outside of textbooks. Education experts like the author of the best selling 好妈妈胜过好老师 says that kids should read much more than this number in order to be very good in Chinese. I read in the internet that many parents aim to let their kids read at least 100000 words a week.

I feel that kids should be reading one Chinese novel of over 70000 words a week, by the time they reach P3. So we need lots of books !

[smurf]

It's good to order online as the difference in prices is quite substantial. But the waiting time can kill. Even amazon also. Amazon also takes about 3 weeks right? And sometimes, you have to ti gam tigam, see if they put your books in big parcel. If they dun, you are lucky, if not, by using vpost, you would not know what is the shipping charge until e parcel reaches vpost. So I rather go to bookshop and browse, can get the book immediately. Of coz, that only applies if I need the book immediately, if I dun, I just browse online.

[deardear07]

Lynn2:

Hello all


Can some one pls share with me what is the difference between 四五快读 and 学前阅读计划?

I browse thr both. 四五快读 less picture whereas 学前阅读计划 is very colourful.

Thanks

regards
Lynn

quote=\"GreenQ\"]//Editor's note: Topic selected & edited for http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/content/teaching-preschooler-chinese-home.

Charmaine_chong:

Hi all mummies,
Just for sharing...
I found a chinese readers that similar to Peter & Jane. Please click on the link for further information.
http://www.odonatabooks.com/webshaper/store/viewCat.asp?catID=3

Hi Charmaine_chong,

I have received some books exactly for this 学前阅读计划 series from my ex-colleague. Surprisingly it is same as the link you have refered here!

Since I have 2 series of it, so I make use of it to teach my kids chinese by using this reader which is similar to Peter & Jane series. Wow... it is really good! I can see big improvement in my kids who obviously face problems in recognising chinese words!

I was encouraged to buy the further series for my kids. From the link, I noticed there are actually 5 series for this reader. Each serie got 8 books. After finishing the 5 series, children are exposed to 1200 words.

Here are few pages of the book 1 content in 1st series:

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TsnByhAhttp://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TsnBIg9http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TsnBSeJhttp://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TsnBZJ9http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TsnC8HJ
http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1tJCQJhttp://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1tJKk9http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1tJMPihttp://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1tJROAhttp://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1tJZi0

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1tK0N9http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1tK5Mr

I started to use this reader 2 weeks ago. I ask my kids to read out loud for few pages or one whole book everyday, depends whether they have mastered the previous pages. So far, my girl has proceeded to read book 1 for 2nd series, while my boys are reading book 5 and book 6 for 1st series.

Hopefully they can finish all the series before they go to P1 next year! Then be able to read other chinese books with interest as well...

So if any parents here are interested, you can refer to the above link as well.

[/quote]

Any idea where to get these books other than odonata.com? Is it expensive with shipping?Any spree gg on?

[phankao]

deardear07:

Lynn2:

Hello all


Can some one pls share with me what is the difference between 四五快读 and 学前阅读计划?

I browse thr both. 四五快读 less picture whereas 学前阅读计划 is very colourful.

Thanks

regards
Lynn

quote=\"GreenQ\"]//Editor's note: Topic selected & edited for http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/content/teaching-preschooler-chinese-home.

[quote=\"Charmaine_chong\"]Hi all mummies,
Just for sharing...
I found a chinese readers that similar to Peter & Jane. Please click on the link for further information.
http://www.odonatabooks.com/webshaper/store/viewCat.asp?catID=3

Hi Charmaine_chong,

I have received some books exactly for this 学前阅读计划 series from my ex-colleague. Surprisingly it is same as the link you have refered here!

Since I have 2 series of it, so I make use of it to teach my kids chinese by using this reader which is similar to Peter & Jane series. Wow... it is really good! I can see big improvement in my kids who obviously face problems in recognising chinese words!

I was encouraged to buy the further series for my kids. From the link, I noticed there are actually 5 series for this reader. Each serie got 8 books. After finishing the 5 series, children are exposed to 1200 words.

Here are few pages of the book 1 content in 1st series:

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TsnByhAhttp://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TsnBIg9http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TsnBSeJhttp://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TsnBZJ9http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TsnC8HJ
http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1tJCQJhttp://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1tJKk9http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1tJMPihttp://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1tJROAhttp://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1tJZi0

http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1tK0N9http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1tK5Mr

I started to use this reader 2 weeks ago. I ask my kids to read out loud for few pages or one whole book everyday, depends whether they have mastered the previous pages. So far, my girl has proceeded to read book 1 for 2nd series, while my boys are reading book 5 and book 6 for 1st series.

Hopefully they can finish all the series before they go to P1 next year! Then be able to read other chinese books with interest as well...

So if any parents here are interested, you can refer to the above link as well.

[/quote]Any idea where to get these books other than odonata.com? Is it expensive with shipping?Any spree gg on?[/quote]

can just buy from popular bookstore. I sold my copies away last year on this same forum bc they were too easy and too boring to my then 1yo.

[phankao]

smurf:

It's good to order online as the difference in prices is quite substantial. But the waiting time can kill. Even amazon also. Amazon also takes about 3 weeks right? And sometimes, you have to ti gam tigam, see if they put your books in big parcel. If they dun, you are lucky, if not, by using vpost, you would not know what is the shipping charge until e parcel reaches vpost. So I rather go to bookshop and browse, can get the book immediately. Of coz, that only applies if I need the book immediately, if I dun, I just browse online.

For english books, just order from bookdepository as far as possible. Comes within 2 weeks. Often after 1 week. Free shipping worldwide.

[phankao]

tamarind:

I really don't have the luxury of time to go through every book in a book shop to find good ones. I live in Jurong West, it takes a lot of time and money to go down town. I love to just point and click to order books, then have it delivered to my doorstep. In fact, I don't even buy English books from local bookshops anymore. I look for books with excellent customer reviews at amazon.com, then order it online from either http://www.amazon.com or http://www.bookdepository.com. The prices are cheaper then local bookshops, and I don't have to waste time and money going downtown.!

Unfortunately, for people like us, to go through the dangdang website is a challenge already. Having to read thru' all those chinese. *faint*.

Actually to ace exams and compo - there's always a method. But in reality, the child would still be weak in CL. I know bc my ds1 is very poor in CL but can still win prize for compo in both p4 & p5, much to my surprise, which means he's like top 3 in his level for CL writing? *siao*. And his compo marks rather consistent even now in sec 2. But try to carry on a conversation with him and it would be quite a failure (on his part).

[smurf]

phankao:

smurf:

It's good to order online as the difference in prices is quite substantial. But the waiting time can kill. Even amazon also. Amazon also takes about 3 weeks right? And sometimes, you have to ti gam tigam, see if they put your books in big parcel. If they dun, you are lucky, if not, by using vpost, you would not know what is the shipping charge until e parcel reaches vpost. So I rather go to bookshop and browse, can get the book immediately. Of coz, that only applies if I need the book immediately, if I dun, I just browse online.

For english books, just order from bookdepository as far as possible.

But hor, the price may not be any different from brick and mortar store leh. Sometimes even more expensive if u throw in the discount. :!:

[phankao]

smurf:

phankao:

[quote=\"smurf\"]It's good to order online as the difference in prices is quite substantial. But the waiting time can kill. Even amazon also. Amazon also takes about 3 weeks right? And sometimes, you have to ti gam tigam, see if they put your books in big parcel. If they dun, you are lucky, if not, by using vpost, you would not know what is the shipping charge until e parcel reaches vpost. So I rather go to bookshop and browse, can get the book immediately. Of coz, that only applies if I need the book immediately, if I dun, I just browse online.

For english books, just order from bookdepository as far as possible.

But hor, the price may not be any different from brick and mortar store leh. Sometimes even more expensive if u throw in the discount. :!:[/quote]'

So far I've found it to be reasonable and minus the shipping. One of the music scores we bought (complete set) was more than half the price of what I get in singapore!