Teaching Chinese at Home

[Brenda10]

tamarind:

Dear all,

I have just included 2 new books in my blog :

狼王梦
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20690625&ref=order-2-A

斑羚飞渡
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20390902&ref=order-2-A

Here's the link to the long list of books in my blog :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-raise-bilingual-child.html

狼王梦 and 斑羚飞渡, both by the author 沈石溪, are very well written and very exciting. These stories are about how animals survive in the wilderness. Highly recommended for upper primary students, very suitable for boys, though I think girls will be very interested in them too. If you want your kids to get high marks for HCL, these are must read books

沈石溪 books have even more challenging vocabulary compared to the 杨红樱 books. Kids who have read most of 杨红樱 books can progress to the 沈石溪 books.

I have 10 books of the 皮皮鲁 series by 郑渊洁. Each book is a collection of short stories. I read a few books, and I am quite shock to find some stories are really not suitable for primary school kids, though the books are written at a level that primary school kids can understand. These books are available in the library, I advise parents to pre-read each 皮皮鲁 book before you decide to let your child read it. This is my personal opinion only, I may be too conservative. I know that 郑渊洁 is a very popular author in China before 杨红樱. Now I understand why 杨红樱 has overtaken him to be the best-selling author in China.

My personal opinion is that the 郑渊洁 stories contain largely conversations, not enough descriptions. The writing style is very direct and straightforward. My feeling is that reading these books is not going to improve kids' compositions. Kids will benefit much more from reading the 杨红樱 and 沈石溪 books, and of course the excellent 窗边的小豆豆 and 佐贺的超级阿嬷 which are must read books for every child.

Hi Tamarind

Thank you for sharing.

狼王梦 and 斑羚飞渡 look interesting to us, really too many books to buy lah. :lol:

[Brenda10]

Hi Tamarind



FYI, all along dd doesn't like 淘气包马小跳 series and perhaps the layout and printing is not as attractive as xiao mao ri ji. However, there is a new version of 马小跳 that was published in Jan 2011 which is very similar to xiao mao layout and I'm very surprise and happy that dd likes it and finish the following book this evening and urges to get in the rest.

The following is the outlook of this book:


http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=21024896

Now I'm trying to get in more.

[tamarind]

Dear all parents,

I also found this book with CD at dangdang.com.

唐诗 （附光盘）——快乐小学堂
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20779555

I bought this book from Popular a few years ago, it is an excellent book for teaching 唐诗 to children. It is well illustrated, and the CD contains 唐诗 songs which my girl likes to listen to.

I bought it for SGD9.90. It costs only RMB8.50 at dangdang. Now I know how much profit Popular is earning for each book.

There are many other books of classical literature in the series, like 弟子规, 论语, 三字经, etc, all comes with CD.

[tamarind]

Brenda10:

Hi Tamarind



FYI, all along dd doesn't like 淘气包马小跳 series and perhaps the layout and printing is not as attractive as xiao mao ri ji. However, there is a new version of 马小跳 that was published in Jan 2011 which is very similar to xiao mao layout and I'm very surprise and happy that dd likes it and finish the following book this evening and urges to get in the rest.

The following is the outlook of this book:


http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=21024896

Now I'm trying to get in more.

I also haven't bought any 马小跳 book yet, because I did not think that my girl will like the illustrations. She likes the illustrations in the 笑猫日记 books, which are completely different from the 马小跳 books.

Thanks for the link, I will check it out.

[ahxuan.031873ymail.031873com]

Brenda10:

Hi Tamarind



FYI, all along dd doesn't like 淘气包马小跳 series and perhaps the layout and printing is not as attractive as xiao mao ri ji. However, there is a new version of 马小跳 that was published in Jan 2011 which is very similar to xiao mao layout and I'm very surprise and happy that dd likes it and finish the following book this evening and urges to get in the rest.

The following is the outlook of this book:


http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=21024896

Now I'm trying to get in more.

Brenda,
Is there a difference between the old version and 2011 version? I read the 在线试读部分章节 from dangdang, it seems similar to the older version. My elder child loves the 淘气包马小跳 series!

[Brenda10]

nz:

Brenda,

Is there a difference between the old version and 2011 version? I read the 在线试读部分章节 from dangdang, it seems similar to the older version. My elder child loves the 淘气包马小跳 series!

Hi nz

The story should be the same excpet the layout and font are similar to xiao mao ri ji. I have verified 笨女孩安琪儿 (old version) vs 在线试读部分章节 and the content of the 1st page is the same.

[tamarind]

hot:

I read in the thread that you suggested parents should:
1.\tteach kids the names of the 偏旁, 部首.
2.\tWhen learning more complex characters, teach the kids to remember the word by its individual parts.

I dun understand what you mean, can u elaborate more in detail?

Very sorry that I missed out your message.

For example, take a look at this group of words :
马 吗 妈 骂 码 蚂

The child only needs to learn the word 马. Then you teach him to add the 偏旁, 部首, to make different words. Adding a 女 will turn it into 妈, adding 2 口 on top turns it into 骂. It's like spelling in the sense that you use common parts as building blocks to a word. It is not necessary to make a child write each word many times.

The 7th book of the 四五快读 series shows a large number of Chinese words that can be learned in this way.

hot:

Can I summarised the method as:

1.\tuse si wu kwai du
2.\tParents read together with the child and make him read out loud
3.\thelp him if there is any word that he does not know.
4.\tdiscuss the story with him by the end of the story.
5.\tDuration: not less than 30min daily?

Note that for the 四五快读, the book suggests many games that you can play with kids to help them remember new words. I also want to emphasize that the cards are NOT to be used as flashcards. The author wrote that it is best for a child to learn through reading stories, NOT simply by memorizing individual words. So it is important to read the 词语, 句子 and 故事 in every lesson.

For step 2, I don't read a sentence then ask my kids to read back to me. They read every word, and I only help them if they cannot remember a word. For step 4, best to act out the story, more fun that way. As for the duration, if a child cannot sit still for 30 mins, it is OK to teach 15 mins, but make sure that he is focusing within this 15 mins.

hot:

Questions:

a)\tDo I need Ji Chu Han Zi 500 if I have si wu kwai du?
b)\tIf the child not willing to read at all, how to encourage him? He is very keen to listen to the story but unwilling to read by himself to enjoy the story.
c)\tHelp him in the difficult words by sounding out to him, need to explain the meaning?

a) Ji Chu Han Zi and Si Wu Kuai Du teaches many words that are the same, but there are also some words that are taught in Ji Chu Han Zi, but not Si Wu Kuai Du, and vice versa. Actually I think both books complements each other. If you have the time, it is absolutely fine to use both sets of books. If you have limited time, using Si Wu Kuai Du is more than enough.

b) A child will be confident to read on his own, only if he knows most of the words. The Si Wu Kuai Du series suggests playing games with the word cards to help kids remember the words, I used this method to teach my boy which he enjoys. Then after he knows most of the words in the first 6 books of the Si Wu Kuai Du series, he does not mind reading out loud from story books, because he knows how to read more than 80% of the words.

c) Yes it is best to explain the meaning, or better still, act out the meaning together with him. Also, try not to disrupt the flow by stopping every time he meets a difficult word. Quite often, a child can guess the meaning of word by the way it is used in a story, this is a very important skill that must be encouraged. I usually only explain the meaning of the words when my kids stopped to ask me. Otherwise, I wait until they complete reading a paragraph or a page, then go back and explain the difficult word.

[ahxuan.031873ymail.031873com]

Brenda10:

nz:

Brenda,

Is there a difference between the old version and 2011 version? I read the 在线试读部分章节 from dangdang, it seems similar to the older version. My elder child loves the 淘气包马小跳 series!

Hi nz

The story should be the same excpet the layout and font are similar to xiao mao ri ji. I have verified 笨女孩安琪儿 (old version) vs 在线试读部分章节 and the content of the 1st page is the same.

Brenda,
Ok, thanks.

[hot]

Thanks Tamarind, and no problem with the delay.

Do u mean, we have to 1st introduce kids by recognising the word马, then proceed to introduce more of the related 偏旁, 部首 ? and not introduce偏旁, 部首 1st , then the word to form varieties?
Luckily you mentioned book 7 already have the extensive of words set in this way, else wonder where can I find such grouping?? I yet to receive the四五快读 from dangdang, so have no idea what is the content inside. But do I remember from you that book 7 is more for upper primary?
My boy is the reluctant reader. Don’t think is easy to get him read especially when there are many 生字in the storyline but I will try your method by playing game or act out the story, which I know he enjoys most

Thanks for your time and the clear explanation.

[laughingcat]

Hi Tamarind sensei :politebleah: ,


In your blog, you mentioned that book 6 is equivalent of Pri 3. Can you advise what about book 4 and 5? Coz my boys are reading book 4 of 四五快读 and would like to know at which book level is sufficiently enough for kids reaching Pri 1?