Teaching Chinese at Home

[dimsum]

Tamarind, thanks for your latest book recommendation. Zhang Qiu Sheng’s books look interesting!

[mamii]

Hi Tamarind, thank you for sharing so much of your experiences with everyone. Would appreciate if you could guide me along here.


My 4 yo DS does not like chinese. He attend s&d in cc for 6 months and we did not see him develop any interest as well and he came back telling us he does not want it anymore. We withdrew him for the time being. I will speak mandarin to him at home on/off (have to remind myself to speak more) I have bought the si wu kuai du books and read the introduction.

My problem - he has no problem sitting through lessons or taking instructions in cc (his teacher has assured me he is well behaved) but he will not do it at home.

I have to spend at least 30 mins to do simple revision of his phonics due to his inattentiveness and reluctance - and he talks most of the time. he just wants to play at home.

So i have not yet started any of the si wu lessons with him. He loves stories but will only choose english books. I realise he could not even recognise simple chinese words like "head" "hand"

How would you suggest that i even get him to start on the si wu materials ? I just want baby steps for him.

[tamarind]

PiggyLalala, Brenda,

When my girl was in P1, I first introduced 笑猫日记 to her by asking her to read every word of 保姆狗的阴谋 out loud to me, helping her with difficult words. At P1 she could read about 90% of the words in 笑猫日记, after reading 8 books in the series, now in P2 she only needs help for 1 or 2 words in 200-300 words. She has gone ahead to read other books in the series on her own.

I am also surprised at her level of understanding, she can remember small details and even analyze the story and talk about her opinions. 杨红樱 uses many 成语, 谚语 and good vocabulary, every page of her book is far better than any model composition that you can find.

PiggyLalala,
I recommend starting with 小男生杜歌飞 and 没有尾巴的狼 by 杨红樱, these are easier to read. My P1 boy have finished reading these books and he enjoyed them. He could read about 95% of the words without my help.

So long as a child can read more than 80% of the words in a page, then the book is not too difficult for him. We can simply ask the child to read out loud, then help him with any words that he does not know. If parents do this every day, kids will gain confidence and they will improve very quickly.

dimsum,
You are welcome !

[tamarind]

Hi mamii,

Since your DS is only 4 yo, it is very easy to teach him to like Chinese. In fact, it took me only one year to teach my girl to progress from picture books to long novels.

For children age 5 and below, it is very important that we use games to teach.

In my blog :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/teaching-chinese-at-home.html

Look for the words \"Parents are advised to use different types of games to teach the words :\". There are 2 photos of the pages in which the author described 18 different types of games that parents can use to teach the kids. Click on the photos to read the words.

I used only a few of the games to teach my boy every day, and he never complained. He had to repeat the same words (through games) for about 7 to 8 days before he could remember them. We managed to finished 6 books in the series in less than 1 year.

Many parents skipped the first 30 pages and thought that they can just use the word cards as flash cards, or just point and read the words. If they do this, the child will lose interest very quickly and they will hate the books. I know many parents find it difficult to read the 30 pages, but at least read the 2 pages of games. These books are only resources, whether they are useful or not, depends on whether parents know how to use them correctly.

In fact, my boy is just like your boy. That is why I must use games to teach him, for both http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-teach-phonics.html and the Si Wu Kuai Du series of books. When he has something to \"play\" with, he can focus much better.

[PiggyLalala]

hi tamarind,

You mean you asked your children to read out every page of the story book?
Is there a need to ask them to memorise/copy the good phrases in the story book so that they can use for composition. I dont do that because i think it will kill the child’s interest in reading.

[tamarind]

PiggyLalala:

hi tamarind,

You mean you asked your children to read out every page of the story book?
Is there a need to ask them to memorise/copy the good phrases in the story book so that they can use for composition. I dont do that because i think it will kill the child's interest in reading.

Yes I ask my kids to read every word out loud from the long novels of my choice, this is the best way to ensure that they learn new words. I teach them how to pronounce difficult words and explain the meaning of the words and phrases to them. If my child doesn't know how to read a word, I give him 5 seconds to think, then tell him how to read it and quickly move on. He will encounter the same word many times later, and he will remember how to read it. This is an excellent way of building confidence, and my kids progress very quickly this way. They also read many books silently on their own.

If parents leave kids to read on their own and don't read with them, how are the kids going to learn new words ? They will most likely skip over many words and phrases that they do not know, because it is too time consuming to find out the meaning. Even if parents are around to help them, they will soon be tired of running to their parents to ask them how to read words that they don't know. This is the reason why many parents complained that their kids read a lot, but still do not do well.

I do not advise parents to make their children memorize or copy good phrases. When a child has read extensively, she will naturally know many good phrases and how to use them.

The fact is that even if a child has spent a lot of time memorizing good phrases, he will not know how to use them correctly.

[tamarind]

Dear parents,

Check out my new blog entry :

http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html

[phankao]

tamarind:

Dear parents,

Check out my new blog entry :

http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html

Oh, I've been using this .... I use it in conjunction with KT-DICT which is very popular with many iphone users. KT-DICT is better for it's eng-chinese translation and has the function to enlarge it's words in \"flash-card\" fashion. However, I use PLECO if I'm searching for words to read through before I read a storybook to my little one as it can continually search for words even if the words are non-related, but KT-DICT doesn't \"allow\" that - it just does not show the search results if the words are unrelated.

[PiggyLalala]

Reading aloud takes up a lot of time? no? How much do you spent reading chinese storybooks with your children each day?

[tamarind]

PiggyLalala:

Reading aloud takes up a lot of time? no? How much do you spent reading chinese storybooks with your children each day?

My girl now reads like a bullet train, she can finish reading a page of 200 to 300 words out loud in about 3 minutes. My boy reads slower, he could take up to 10 minutes to read a page because he keeps losing his focus and talk about something else. I usually spend about 30-45 mins listening to my boy read in Chinese, and less than 30 mins listening to my girl.

Note that this is not the only time they read, they are also free to read any book they like from my home library of more than 500 children's books, on their own at any time.