Teaching Chinese at Home

[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.

[porcupine12trade]

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.

Hi ksme

Thanks for the link. V useful for me ad I'm always search for suitable books for me kids. I really believe reading is the way to go. I'm desperate for my kids to pick up chinese story books on their own!

[tamarind]

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.

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.[/quote]
I am not laughing at you lah. A lot of people read Chinese newspapers, so I don't see why there is a problem with the size of the characters, cannot be so many people have powerful eyesight. My hubby cannot see anything without his glasses, but he can read Chinese newspapers with his glasses on and do not need magnifying glasses.

I thought you were joking when you said that size of the words in 可爱的鼠小弟 is too small. That is why I put the smiling face. The fact is that many other children's books have smaller words than that. Now that you mentioned that it is because your eyesight is not good, then we understand.

可爱的鼠小弟 has excellent reviews from experts, and it is one of the best children's books in Japan and China. Parents should not deny their kids of the joy of reading 可爱的鼠小弟.

[laughingcat]

Hi Tamarind,


Can you introduce DD books on Chinese Compo? Coz my cousin's kids in Primary school are struggling with it. I am thinking of putting it in my upcoming orders leh.