Comparing Chinese Enrichment (Primary/Preschool)

[tamarind]

Jworld:

nemofc:

I need advice. Not sure if this thread is for this age. My gal is 2.5yrs old, and am looking for Chinese enrichment program. Is it too early?

It's never too early as long as your kid likes the programme or dun mind attending. Chinese language is actually not easy. Some of us think it's easy cuz we are fortune enough to an environment that allows us so much exposure to the language (thru TV, news, etc).

If you sign her up in a programme and get her interested in the language or the programme, I believe it will benefit her in the long run. At least when she eventually enters P1, she won't complain the characters having too many strokes, the tingxie too diffiuclt.

Learning Chinese can be very easy for kids, if we understand the best way to teach it. Kids before the age of 7 are capable of learning enough Chinese words to be able to read 80% of Chinese newspapers. They have the ability to remember each word as a whole picture, there is no need to memorize the strokes. If a child reads Chinese story books regularly, he can write many words without the need to practice writing the words stroke by stroke.

Berries focus on character recognition from 3 to 6 years old, which is the correct way of learning Chinese. They aim to teach kids to read story books independently, which is the key to doing well in Chinese. However, when kids complete K2 at Berries, they will still not be able to read Chinese books independently, unless parents also teach kids at home using excellent resources like the 四五快读 series of books.

[smurf]

Hi Tamarind,


Your kids still attending berries? Berries called me to tell me that they have a slot for my boy now for higher Chinese, only 1 seat, but I hesitate to send him coz firstly, the fee is quite expensive and secondly, I dunno how it would help him. I'm using 四五快读 to teach him how to recognize words, and it's has been very effectively so far. I think what he needs is reading and reading. The thing is, he hates to read. He thinks as long as he can recognize the words mean it's enough. But when i ask him to read to me, so as to prepare him for oral exam (he is only in p1), he reads the words in 四五快读 very slowly, coz he did not have enough reading practice.

Do you think I should sign him up for berries? :?:

[jeanieg]

Hi Tamarind


Thank you for your feedback. I realised that even though my girls (5 & 6 year old) attended Berries for about 2 years now, their Chinese has improved but they keep forgetting the characters and cant write other wordsnexcept for their own name.

As we do not speak Chinese at home, I think even though I revise their homework once a week, unless I consciously read and revise more with them, their Chinese will not improve. My main problem is that my own Chinese is very bad. I can only read simple, common words and I can still manage simple conversations so even some of their books I do not even know how to read unless there is hanyupinyin! So pathetic hor?

[phankao]

jeanieg:

Hi Tamarind


Thank you for your feedback. I realised that even though my girls (5 & 6 year old) attended Berries for about 2 years now, their Chinese has improved but they keep forgetting the characters and cant write other wordsnexcept for their own name.

As we do not speak Chinese at home, I think even though I revise their homework once a week, unless I consciously read and revise more with them, their Chinese will not improve. My main problem is that my own Chinese is very bad. I can only read simple, common words and I can still manage simple conversations so even some of their books I do not even know how to read unless there is hanyupinyin! So pathetic hor?

Er...my Chinese was like that. I even failed my chinese oral exam last time - lucky doesn't show on my A-level cert.

But, if you start with the young kids, you too can improve. Yes, read, read, read. I usually go thru the book myself first, checking Nciku.com for the words using the handwriting recognition for word dictionary or the iphone app KT-dict which also has handwriting recognition.

If I hadn't made an effort to speak Chinese and read lots of Chinese books with mine, he wouldn't have progressed. Makes me more relaxed now since his reading ability is there.

[tamarind]

smurf:

Hi Tamarind,


Your kids still attending berries? Berries called me to tell me that they have a slot for my boy now for higher Chinese, only 1 seat, but I hesitate to send him coz firstly, the fee is quite expensive and secondly, I dunno how it would help him. I'm using 四五快读 to teach him how to recognize words, and it's has been very effectively so far. I think what he needs is reading and reading. The thing is, he hates to read. He thinks as long as he can recognize the words mean it's enough. But when i ask him to read to me, so as to prepare him for oral exam (he is only in p1), he reads the words in 四五快读 very slowly, coz he did not have enough reading practice.

Do you think I should sign him up for berries? :?:

Hi smurf,
Both my kids have stopped attending Berries after completing K2. 四五快读 worked very well for both of them, my P2 girl is reading independently, and my P1 boy is reading quite fluently.

If he attends Berries, you still need to revise the materials with him daily. Ideally, it will be good to attend a good enrichment class if we can afford it, and at the same time use other good resources to teach our kids at home. I remember Berries teachers telling me that I need to let my kids read as many story books as possible. So even if you send to Berries, you still need to do a lot of work at home

[tamarind]

phankao:

jeanieg:

Hi Tamarind


Thank you for your feedback. I realised that even though my girls (5 & 6 year old) attended Berries for about 2 years now, their Chinese has improved but they keep forgetting the characters and cant write other wordsnexcept for their own name.

As we do not speak Chinese at home, I think even though I revise their homework once a week, unless I consciously read and revise more with them, their Chinese will not improve. My main problem is that my own Chinese is very bad. I can only read simple, common words and I can still manage simple conversations so even some of their books I do not even know how to read unless there is hanyupinyin! So pathetic hor?

Er...my Chinese was like that. I even failed my chinese oral exam last time - lucky doesn't show on my A-level cert.

But, if you start with the young kids, you too can improve. Yes, read, read, read. I usually go thru the book myself first, checking Nciku.com for the words using the handwriting recognition for word dictionary or the iphone app KT-dict which also has handwriting recognition.

If I hadn't made an effort to speak Chinese and read lots of Chinese books with mine, he wouldn't have progressed. Makes me more relaxed now since his reading ability is there.

jeanieg,
I agree with phankao. You can read the story books first, write down the hanyu pinyin of words that you don't know (but not for every word). Your girls need to read as many picture books as possible. Picture books do not have that many words, so it is still manageable.

[phankao]

tamarind:

phankao:

[quote=\"jeanieg\"]Hi Tamarind


Thank you for your feedback. I realised that even though my girls (5 & 6 year old) attended Berries for about 2 years now, their Chinese has improved but they keep forgetting the characters and cant write other wordsnexcept for their own name.

As we do not speak Chinese at home, I think even though I revise their homework once a week, unless I consciously read and revise more with them, their Chinese will not improve. My main problem is that my own Chinese is very bad. I can only read simple, common words and I can still manage simple conversations so even some of their books I do not even know how to read unless there is hanyupinyin! So pathetic hor?

Er...my Chinese was like that. I even failed my chinese oral exam last time - lucky doesn't show on my A-level cert.

But, if you start with the young kids, you too can improve. Yes, read, read, read. I usually go thru the book myself first, checking Nciku.com for the words using the handwriting recognition for word dictionary or the iphone app KT-dict which also has handwriting recognition.

If I hadn't made an effort to speak Chinese and read lots of Chinese books with mine, he wouldn't have progressed. Makes me more relaxed now since his reading ability is there.

jeanieg,
I agree with phankao. You can read the story books first, if there are any words you don't know, write down the hanyu pinyin of that word (but not for every word). You girls need to read as many picture books as possible. Picture books do not have that many words, so it is still manageable.[/quote]I have 2 methods....one is to write the hanyu pinyin in pencil in a corner of the page (not near the word). Another way is to have a card(or slip of paper) with all the words that I don't know, with their hypy, so I can refer as I read.

[jeanieg]

Thank you Tamarind, Phankao and Smurf for your valuable imput. I guess you are right, I just need to be more diligent and read Chinese books with them. I do have a few copies of the TaoShu series and they do like that.


Can I ask what was the Chinese books that you all have mentioned?
Some "si wu …something"? (sorry dont know how to type Chinese!)

[phankao]

jeanieg:

Thank you Tamarind, Phankao and Smurf for your valuable imput. I guess you are right, I just need to be more diligent and read Chinese books with them. I do have a few copies of the TaoShu series and they do like that.

Actually Taoshu and it's new counterpart - SHAPES is good bc the full story with hypy is at the back of the book. I generally do a quick check and memorise the words. Those books, I don't need to check dictionary. ;D

[mummy always]

Hi, anyone has recommendations on useful resources for oral? for p4 & 5 and of course the PSLE. I am now teaching the kids on my own. I mean TRYING to teach them on my own…