Teaching Chinese at Home

[tamarind]

dimsum:

deardear07:

[quote=\"dimsum\"]
allseasons, you can order from popular online and then selfcollect at the popular outlet you indicated (no delivery charges).

Is this the sage formula u referring to?They sell until 3rd level only.staff said tat 4th and 5th level not out yet...duno true anot~ So i bought all till level 3 only...

My dd1 nw k2 and i tested her till book 3 of level 1 and she was shooting off like a train without any help.hopefully when i show her the remaining 2books in e level,she'd b able to read well too.Then can proceed to level2.Should be good enuf for beginning k2 right? Hopefully i can consistently go thru with her till level3 by 1st term n proceed to other books...

Anyone knows where to get the remaining levels of the series?and would si wu kuai du book 1 be repeat of Sage? Where else to proceed?

Thanks in advance!!

deardear07, the levels are released progressively by the publisher. As of now, Level 4 and 5 are not out yet.

SWKD is of higher standard than Sage. Do not just focus on these learning books. Buy interesting story books for her to read. Sometimes, my boy can read some words in SWKD but when the same words appear in another story book, he could not recognise.[/quote]
dimsum,
I totally agree with you that we need to let our kids read interesting books. In fact, after my kids completed the Si Wu Kuai Du series of books, I continued to let them read out loud to me from good story books everyday. Otherwise they forget the words they learned really quickly, especially my younger boy.
By the time my girl started to read long novels, the words has stayed in her long term memory.

To other parents,
In my blog, I have a long list of good children's books from my home library, ordered in terms of difficulty from ages 2 to above 10 years old :

http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-raise-bilingual-child.html

Besides learning words, it is important to read books because this is the best way for kids to learn good sentence structures. When they have read enough books, and when they start to write, they will naturally know how to write good sentences.

Reading a wide variety of good books also give kids lots of ideas to use when doing creative writing. There are many books translated from Japanese, German, etc, into Chinese, and there many original ideas here that cannot be found in books originally written in English or Chinese.

For example, one of my kids' favourite book is about an old man intending to build a small house for himself, but ended up with a huge and complex home for all the animals in the forest :
德沃夫爷爷的森林小屋
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=9254957&ref=search-1-pub

[phankao]

dimsum:

Sometimes, my boy can read some words in SWKD but when the same words appear in another story book, he could not recognise.

Which means he was only reading from memory and not have learnt the words yet. Once you see that your child can read all the signs outside easily and words in the newspaper and books they haven't seen before, you'll know that the job of him/her reading Chinese is well-on-the way!!!!

[phankao]

tamarind:

Reading a wide variety of good books also give kids lots of ideas to use when doing creative writing. There are many books translated from Japanese, German, etc, into Chinese, and there many original ideas here that cannot be found in books originally written in English or Chinese.

Oh yeah, I just discovered these 2 translated series yesterday. Quite suitable for my 2yo son - the storyline, the font, the layout and the slight difficulty. Not quite like those translated Spot(dog) books and similar children books that I actually don't like.

Kipper Dog 小狗卡皮 - and the good thing is that there are lots in the library. ;D
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=9255241

And this 青蛙和蟾蜍 which is not difficult to read, but we do chapter by chapter instead since the books are much longer.

With all these different types of books though, I have to explain to him how there can be several \"names\" for the same object! eg. 蛋筒/甜筒, 冰淇淋 /冰 激淋，蟾蜍/蛤蟆, etc, etc .... I think due to the translations perhaps done in different countries.

[laughingcat]

deardear07:

I would be most glad to join in if u don't mind...

is ur order big?

Hello deardear07,

no problem at all, I will be glad to help. You decide lah. My SIL also asking me to help get her the 45KD as well. So no worries lah.

[keltong]

Sage Basic 500 level 4 is only recently released in HK (in traditional chinese) so it may take a while for them to release here (in simplified chinese). Level 5 I think the author still sweating over it


I understand the need to read good chinese story books in supplement but all my books are still stuck somewhere in China or the South China Sea

Maybe it's time to visit the library...something I was too lazy to do.

[Brenda10]

phankao:

In a way, it is. For me, since I am poor in Chinese, I try my best to incorporate phrases and vocabulary that we come across in the books in our everyday conversation, so that we don't speak such simple Mandarin as well too. Also, language that we come across in the books comes alive. A matter of usage. That's also how I improved myself.

Your method is very good. By incorporate into the daily conversation will help them to register in their mind and understand the usage easily. If only converse in those simple Mandarin like have your taken your lunch, bath or do your school work etc cannot help much.

[seashell]

hi,

anyone knows what is the difference between
鸡蛋哥哥心灵成长绘本（培养勇敢、快乐、自信的好品格）
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20749181&ref=search-1-pub
and
鸡蛋哥哥（全四册）
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20171574&ref=search-1-pub

thanks.

[hquek]

seashell:

hi,

anyone knows what is the difference between
鸡蛋哥哥心灵成长绘本（培养勇敢、快乐、自信的好品格）
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20749181&ref=search-1-pub
and
鸡蛋哥哥（全四册）
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20171574&ref=search-1-pub

thanks.

I bought the 鸡蛋哥哥（全四册） - there are only 4 books (hardcover) inside, paper quality is 铜版纸.

The first one has 7 titles. Paper quality is 胶版纸. I'm taking to mean softcover, bound with glue.

[Brenda10]

Hi. today is the 1st time I order from DD. I bought a set of 穿越时空(全12册) and looking forward to recd in 8 - 10 weeks time.

[hquek]

Brenda10:

Hi. today is the 1st time I order from DD. I bought a set of 穿越时空(全12册) and looking forward to recd in 8 - 10 weeks time.

Start of an addiction? :celebrate: I've yet to recover from mine (still ordering despite the numbers of books at home). :-p. Let us know how you find those titles, always good to know if there are other good reads about.