Teaching Chinese at Home

[tamarind]

mummy always:

hello mummies, i am new to this thread, so appreciate it if you could help me orientate, as there is a wealth of information here!


i am a desperate mother here. with a p4 and a p5, who are struggling with chinese. they spoke mandarin with their grandmas when they were younger, but never became very fluent in it, and sadly, i did not read many chinese books for them...

now their school work is so heavy, i am hard pressed for time to read with them, esp when i have a younger one with language delay which i also need to spend time teaching/playing with.

anyway, i want to do what i can. i am anxious, so i don't think i wanna order from dang dang (which took 2 months to deliver what i ordered). can i get good books from local bookstore, at bras basah? i saw you guys mention a bookstore. and the xiaomao books looks like the favourites? is it age appropriate for my two boys?

also, they are spending a lot of time practising writing compositions and comprehensions (from their tutor), and yet their mandarin is still borderline pass. i am trying to find a better tutor. but do you think i should just drop the tuition, and concentrate on reading with them? do you think i have time to work with them before their PSLE?

actually my chinese was good as a student, and i do like the chinese language, and the children are not adverse to chinese, but i do feel that i am coming late in the game. my target is for the children to eventually become fluent reader/writer/speaker, but it is difficult not to worry over their psle chinese results...

Hi mummy always,
You can try Maha Yu Yi at Bras Basah level 3. Actually our library has a very good collection of books compared to any local bookshops. I do advise you to look in the library first. They have the entire collection of Xiao Mao books. These are age appropriate for all kids 8 years old and above. However, these books are very popular, you may have to place reservations for them.

To do very well in Chinese, the trick is read as many Chinese story books as possible. Once the child develops an interest in Chinese books, he will read on his own. Reading with your child is a good way to develop this interest, and you can also help them with words that they do not know.

Does the tutor use local assessment books to teach compositions ? My suggestion is to get these books :

大鼻子李教授新体验作文
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=9268385

Start with the P2 book. Ask the tutor to use these books to teach instead. A tutor cannot do his job well without good resources.

You can try http://www.65daigou.com to buy from dangdang, you pay more for shipping, but you can get it a lot faster. Just don't buy heavy books.

One more important point, get them a good dictionary and make sure that they are very good in using it. Students are now allowed to use dictionaries in the PSLE Chinese exams.

Don't worry. At P4 and P5, there is still time to improve their Chinese before PSLE. The most important thing is to read as many interesting books as possible. Target to finish reading one Chinese novel each week. (This may seem impossible, but many kids can read English books at this rate.)

[mummy always]

thanks tamarind. words cannot express my gratitude to you.


i need hope!!

anyway, i will try everything you suggested!!

i am stopping the tuition. i think it is difficult for me to tell the tutor what to do, because she has her professional opinion and i don't want to question it. i hope to find someone who gives no homework, but do good teaching.

meanwhile, i shall spend the time they will now have from doing tuition hw and attending tuition, to read. i read with them now, but very little because they have so little time.

the zuowen book, is not available locally, is it?

[tamarind]

porcupine12trade,

I saw this selling at Popular bookshop.
杨红樱童话珍藏版（全4册）
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20644982&ref=search-1-pub

You can check out the books first. If I remember correctly, the words are about the same size as the words in Chinese newspapers.

porcupine12trade:

But i am thinking, if a child has reasonable reading skills (reasonable, not as good as both of your kids ), will hypy help the kid to recognise more chinese words indirectly? I mean if they look at 1 character, they cant recog, so they will look at the hypy and find out how to read, after that they will have impression that the character is read that way. or is my thinking too simplistic?

Based on my experience with my P2 girl, I tried letting her read some Chinese story books that are entirely in Hanyu Pinyin. Then I noticed that she read the same word about 5 to 6 times with Hanyu Pinyin, but when she saw that word again in another book without Hanyin Pinyin, she could not read it. My conclusion is that she is only looking at the Hanyin Pinyin when she read that word 5 to 6 times, not at the word itself. That is why she could not remember it.

After I stopped letting her read any books with Hanyu Pinyin, and read only books without Hanyu Pinyin with my help, she started to remember large number of words at a very fast rate.

If your girl prefers to read Chinese books with Hanyu Pinyin, there is no need to stop her completely, but try your best to slowly introduce more books without Hanyu Pinyin. One suggestion is to write Hanyu Pinyin under those words that you think she cannot read. This is far better than reading every word with Hanyu Pinyin. But then it is quite tedious, though I have actually done this before with my girl.

[tamarind]

mummy always:

thanks tamarind. words cannot express my gratitude to you.


i need hope!!

anyway, i will try everything you suggested!!

i am stopping the tuition. i think it is difficult for me to tell the tutor what to do, because she has her professional opinion and i don't want to question it. i hope to find someone who gives no homework, but do good teaching.

meanwhile, i shall spend the time they will now have from doing tuition hw and attending tuition, to read. i read with them now, but very little because they have so little time.

the zuowen book, is not available locally, is it?

You are welcome

I have not seen the zuowen books locally, you can check Maha Yu Yi at Bras Basah first.

[tamarind]

我教儿子学作文

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20671643&ref=search-1-pub

I received this book a few weeks back, but I only had the time to read it early this morning. I think that it is a very good book. The author writes about his real life experience teaching creative writing to his own son. It is written as a guide for parents. There are 45 short articles in the book, each article explains a technique for writing good compositions. In fact, I think that these techniques can also help kids to write good English compositions.

Each article is accompanied by a composition written by the author's son, from primary 1 to secondary school. However, these compositions are not meant for other kids to memorize, they are used to illustrate the techniques that the author is trying to explain.

The short articles are not difficult to read. Though the book is written for parents, I think that upper primary kids who can read independently, can also read this book.

In comparison, the 大鼻子李教授新体验作文 are workbooks, written as a guide for kids to learn the techniques of creative writing. I have started using the P2 book with my girl, and I find that it is interesting, and not difficult to use. Though parents do need to be comfortable in reading and writing Chinese in order to use these books.

Both books do not guarantee overnight success. It takes time for a child to learn to write well. I know many parents with kids in P4/P5 are worried about their Chinese, and I know that time is very precious for these kids. So it is even more important to spend the precious time wisely and use good books to learn the techniques of creative writing, instead of memorizing model compositions. Of course, the child must also read as many story books as possible in order to build up their knowledge of good phrases and vocabulary.

I have some sample pages from 我教儿子学作文 and 大鼻子李教授新体验作文 . Anyone who likes to view can PM me your gmail account and I can share the files with you.

[mistychances]

quote: -- tamarind -->>


I also highly recommend this DVD :
萤火虫之墓
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=7385205&ref=search-1-pub

Though I did not dare to watch it a second time, because the first time I watched it I cried buckets of tears Highly recommended for upper primary kids.

>> unquote

i watched it a couple of years back. it is simply marvellous! First time watched - cried like a big baby until ds asked me what happened. 2nd time watched with dh, both of us cried till hugged each other.

a MUST watch !

[ksme]

mistychances:

quote: -- tamarind -->>


I also highly recommend this DVD :
萤火虫之墓
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=7385205&ref=search-1-pub

Though I did not dare to watch it a second time, because the first time I watched it I cried buckets of tears Highly recommended for upper primary kids.

>> unquote

i watched it a couple of years back. it is simply marvellous! First time watched - cried like a big baby until ds asked me what happened. 2nd time watched with dh, both of us cried till hugged each other.

a MUST watch !

We happened to watch this few weekends ago during the March holidays. It is a good movie but very depressing. Coupled with all the news on the Japan earthquake survivors living with little food and assistance, Ds said he had nightmare about being trapped in a war with no food. I think it is a good reminder for the kids not to take their comfortable life for granted and to appreciate having food on the table and a comfortable home.

[ksme]

tamarind:

MyBaby, ksme,

佐贺的超级阿嬷 is one of the most meaningful books that I have ever read. I really hope that schools make every student read this book.

Tamarind, MyBaby,
I finished the book few days ago. It is quite easy to read and I finished it very fast, within few hours over 2 days. I love the book. Passed the book to my mum to read and she finds it good too. Now, just waiting for ds to read the book. Hope he can read it.

For those who like this book, I found the movie on youtube. Haven't time to go video shop to check out yet but watched it on youtube. Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7yJguWlWzo&feature=related

Movie is dubbed in Mandarin with English subtitle. Enjoy!

[sakura_2009]

Brenda10:

tamarind:

I also asked my hubby, now working in China to buy famous 宫崎骏 movies like :

龙猫[高清典藏版]国粤英日四语
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20678109&ref=order-2-A

It costs only RMB10, dirt cheap !

I also highly recommend this DVD :
萤火虫之墓
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=7385205&ref=search-1-pub

Though I did not dare to watch it a second time, because the first time I watched it I cried buckets of tears Highly recommended for upper primary kids.

Hi Tamarind

Thank you for sharing. I would look out for 萤火虫之墓.

May I know where can I get the Mandarin dubbed version of 宫崎骏 DVDs? I bought the 'whole set' from either Poh Kim or TS (cannot remember) but they are in the original Japanese language with various subs. My P4 boy loves watching them but has to depend on the English subs. Unfortunately he cannot 'catch' the Chinese subs

[Brenda10]

HaHa, just now go through the CD Rack and realize that we had bought 1 of the 宫崎骏作品: 哈尔的移动城堡 (Howl’s Moving Castle) in Japanese with English Subtitles few years ago from TS Video.