Teaching Chinese at Home

[tamarind]

laughingcat:

Heh Tamarind, you can sometime try the http://www.opentrolley.com. :lol: I bought some of the books that you recommended in this online. Normally I will do a simple calculation and made comparison between Amazon price and Opentrolley. If it works out to be the same, i will opt for Opentrolley coz sometime have good discount. Also I can get it quite fast. Can even opt for self collection which is at Plaza Sing

Thanks for sharing the website. Yes we should do price comparisons first.

I am an online shopping addict, most of our clothes, shoes, vitamins, even shower gel, etc are bought from USA and shipped to Singapore, so I normally ship the books together with other things

I just ordered the Kindle from amazon.com for my hubby.

[tamarind]

ksme:

Hi. Found this list of chinese supplementary readers for primary school on MOE website. Thought it is useful for parents wondering what type of chinese readers to get for their kids.


http://www.moe.gov.sg/resources/files/chinese-supplementary-readers-primary.pdf

I noticed that 不一样的卡梅拉 are listed as for P3-4 while 杨红樱成长主题绘本 series of books are stated as for P1-2.

Thanks for sharing ! I am thinking of getting more 杨红樱 books for my kids, will get that series.

[tamarind]

[quote]
I think I'd browsed through 可爱的鼠小弟 before as there's quite a number of them in the library. I've not borrowed them bc the words so small that my \"old flower eyes\" have to narrow real hard to focus on! Need to get magnifying glass![/quote]I just measured the size of the words in the 可爱的鼠小弟, it is 7mm tall.
That is already twice as big as the size of Chinese words in newspapers, which are only 3mm tall. My 70+ year old mother reads Chinese newspapers everyday and never complain leh. She does not need magnifying glasses to read newspapers.

If we only let our kids read those books with words that are a few cm tall, then they can never be as good as the kids from China. Young kids have much better eye sight than us. Don't need to worry for them.

It is not the size of the words that matters. It is the content, and how the books appeal to the kids. Many picture books from dangdang comes with a 导读手册 that explains to parents why the books are good and how to use them.

可爱的鼠小弟
让孩子从小爱上阅读的最佳启蒙
　　1.让孩子从小爱上阅读的最佳启蒙，激发孩子的想象力和创造力
　　2.荣获首届“全国十佳童书”第一名
　　3.《新京报》儿童畅销书排行榜第一名
　　4.日本绘本史上不可逾越的巅峰
　　5.畅销35年，日本累计重印1200次，中文版销量突破50万册，世界绘本经典中的经典。
《可爱的鼠小弟》荣获：日本学校图书馆协会好绘本奖，日本产经儿童出版文化奖，日本讲谈出版社文化绘本奖，日本厚生省儿童福利文化奖，孩子重复阅读率最高的绘本。
《鼠小弟的小背心》成功的因素是多方面的，但它获得孩子们喜爱的最重要原因是它有趣，非常有趣，真正有趣。 ——儿童文学研究专家季颖博士
鼠小弟为什么一定要画得那么小？为什么要留下那么多空白？再仔细看一看，那小小的老鼠活脱脱就是个孩子呀！站在孩子的角度，与他相对应的世界就是那么大，这个大大的世界之外还有更大的想象世界。 ——著名儿童阅读推广人阿甲
翻开书，机灵可爱的鼠小弟跃然纸上，像演话剧似的，清楚而生动地为我们讲述着一个个天真烂漫而又不失活泼幽默的故事。 ——北京师范大学教授康长运博士
《可爱的鼠小弟》是儿子8个月大的时候我给他读的第一套绘本。现在他快6岁了，读过500多本绘本，能自己阅读文字书，至今我并没有刻意教他认字。老师们都称赞他理解与表达能力远远超过同龄的孩子。这一切都要归功于《可爱的鼠小弟》，是它让儿子爱上了阅读。 ——猿渡静子博士
让孩子爱上读书，从封面上那个可爱的鼠小弟开始。 ——当当网读者评论

[Brenda10]

tamarind:

It is easy for me because I have been reading Chinese novels all my life. I know many adults do not even read Chinese newspapers after they stopped learning Chinese in school, I am referring to these adults.

Hi Tamarind

I agree that those Chinese novels that we read long along ago and also reading Chinese Paper daily will make reading of CL very much easier.

FYI, I had also bought a 10 years O'level Higher Chinese Booklet to review and hopefully to improve in ci yu as well as attempting to 理解问题.

[Inspiration]

Hi Tamarind,


You are indeed a great advisor as I was so lost :?: in coaching my son who is in P1 this year, but after going through your blog I decided to get Leapfrog DVD for my youngest son (4 yrs old) & to guide my eldest with your methods. :goodpost:

Hopefully it works well for them instead of scaring them off as I have not been teaching them at all but depend on child care teaching & I have enrolled them for enrichment programme. Though it works well for my eldest while he was in K1 & K2 (enrolled Speech & Drama, Creative Writing) and hopefully it works for my youngest as he will be attending Maths Phonics next month.

My husband disagreed in getting a tutor for my eldest as he felt P1 & P2 is still their honeymoon stage, which I have shelf the plan till Jun to see how he has progress by than (hope it is not too late to engage for a tutor).

Do keep update with your blog as I will be making it a routine to check it out. Great Job Tamarind! :thankyou:

[tamarind]

Brenda10:

tamarind:

It is easy for me because I have been reading Chinese novels all my life. I know many adults do not even read Chinese newspapers after they stopped learning Chinese in school, I am referring to these adults.

Hi Tamarind

I agree that those Chinese novels that we read long along ago and also reading Chinese Paper daily will make reading of CL very much easier.

FYI, I had also bought a 10 years O'level Higher Chinese Booklet to review and hopefully to improve in ci yu as well as attempting to 理解问题.

Brenda,
That's a good idea. I also believe in exposing kids to more advanced books and learning materials for languages.

[tamarind]

Inspiration:

Hi Tamarind,


You are indeed a great advisor as I was so lost :?: in coaching my son who is in P1 this year, but after going through your blog I decided to get Leapfrog DVD for my youngest son (4 yrs old) & to guide my eldest with your methods. :goodpost:

Hopefully it works well for them instead of scaring them off as I have not been teaching them at all but depend on child care teaching & I have enrolled them for enrichment programme. Though it works well for my eldest while he was in K1 & K2 (enrolled Speech & Drama, Creative Writing) and hopefully it works for my youngest as he will be attending Maths Phonics next month.

My husband disagreed in getting a tutor for my eldest as he felt P1 & P2 is still their honeymoon stage, which I have shelf the plan till Jun to see how he has progress by than (hope it is not too late to engage for a tutor).

Do keep update with your blog as I will be making it a routine to check it out. Great Job Tamarind! :thankyou:

Inspiration,
You are welcome

[phankao]

tamarind:

[quote]
I think I'd browsed through 可爱的鼠小弟 before as there's quite a number of them in the library. I've not borrowed them bc the words so small that my \"old flower eyes\" have to narrow real hard to focus on! Need to get magnifying glass!

I just measured the size of the words in the 可爱的鼠小弟, it is 7mm tall.
That is already twice as big as the size of Chinese words in newspapers, which are only 3mm tall. My 70+ year old mother reads Chinese newspapers everyday and never complain leh. She does not need magnifying glasses to read newspapers. [/quote]Your mother's eyesight is powerful then and so is yours, thanks to great genes. I can't help it that my eyesight is terrible can I?! Why laugh at me? I know my child has much better eyesight than me, but I have to see it too to make sure he's reading the words correctly. I've been wearing progressive lenses for the past 10 years. I don't like it either.

[porcupine12trade]

phankao:

tamarind:

[quote]
Books from dangdang such as 可爱的鼠小弟,鸡蛋哥哥 - too simple?.

There are words in these books that even Singaporean adults cannot read and need to check dictionary.

Is that so? But you know the words, right?

I just looked through the pages of one of the 鸡蛋哥哥 online:
http://huiben.mykk5.com/article/201008/5.shtml

Doesn't seem too difficult. My 2yo son should be able to read 95-98% of them except for a few of the words that he might not have come across.

But the words/phrases used are not what we are probably used to. Is that what you are referring to instead? Like eg. 碰到, and the 沉多了 ? Haha - I probably wouldn't have know that 沉 word if not for my elder boy who
performs 夜深沉 from the Beijing Opera 霸王别姬.

The 鸡蛋哥哥 has an interesting storyline. I'll show my 2yo later. Maybe I can find it in the library too. Wonder why they must have such small words. My poor \"old flower eyes\"!!!!!!!![/quote]I kind of agree such seemingly easy books do have some very difficult Chinese words. For eg １4只老鼠，i showed my 19yo cousin who is waiting for her A level results, there were couple of words she can't recognize. She did HCL in school and from NJC, so I was abit surprised. I myself can't read those words too so need to check dic.

[porcupine12trade]

tamarind:

I just measured the size of the words in the 可爱的鼠小弟, it is 7mm tall.
That is already twice as big as the size of Chinese words in newspapers, which are only 3mm tall. My 70+ year old mother reads Chinese newspapers everyday and never complain leh. She does not need magnifying glasses to read newspapers.

Phew, for a moment I was worried the words are too tiny Coz I ordered from dangdang n looking fwd to receive them.