Teaching Chinese at Home

[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.

[PiggyLalala]

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 pages 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.

Must learn from you.
ok, from today, i must set aside some time to read aloud with my ds2 before it is too LATE. Thanks for all the advice.

[PiggyLalala]

Just to share with everyone some of the chinese storybooks I have borrowed from the lib:


1.君伟上小学(p4 and P5);
2.皮皮鲁总动员series. ( 2 books ).
Have read these 2 series. Interesting Chinese story book.
3.小猫日记- 绿狗山庄- Read a few pages. I found it tough.

Also borrowed 2 books by 伍美珍。Have not read them.

Look like there are a lot more interesting chinese books in the library now.
Do borrow them

[phankao]

PiggyLalala:

Just to share with everyone some of the chinese storybooks I have borrowed from the lib:


1.君伟上小学(p4 and P5);
2.皮皮鲁总动员series. ( 2 books ).
Have read these 2 series. Interesting Chinese story book.
3.小猫日记- 绿狗山庄- Read a few pages. I found it tough.

Also borrowed 2 books by 伍美珍。Have not read them.

Look like there are a lot more interesting chinese books in the library now.
Do borrow them

Oh, the National Library does have many good books, in chinese and english too. That's why we always come back with full bags...worse during holidays when they double the amount we can borrow!

[mamii]

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.

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.

thanks tamarind. I have read the whole introduction about a month back, i will read it again and take notes of it.

i recall the author mentioned about talking about \"bu shou\" and linking words. do you talk about that from the beginning ? it sounds too \"chim\" for 4yo. I wonder if i could even get DS to sit and listen to me for even 2 mins if i started talking these stuff.

i dont understand the part that uses 7-8 boxes and putting the word cards in them after revision. Does it mean during each lesson the words must be reviewed 8 times ? the author wrote that the words need not be reviewed after the 8th time until much later. (sorry i cannot figure out how to type chinese character in my computer so i did not type out the full sentences, but the pic are in your blog link you attached). thanks

[Brenda10]

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 he words without my help.

Hi Tamarind,

Nice to see you again after such a long time.

During the period of June till now, DD has finished three 卫斯理小说： 老猫，寻梦 and 玩具！ We also manage to complete the many CL 漫画 like 笑傲江湖，孙子攻略，红楼梦，水浒传 etc

True all these help her a lot in the CL subject and I am happy that she get to know more 武侠人物 like 岳不群，令狐冲，任我行 etc

[tamarind]

Brenda,

Glad to know that your girl likes to read 卫斯理小说, I was a big fan of those books in secondary book. I used to love 漫画 too !

It's my school holiday now, I will be busy again soon

[tamarind]

mamii,

We can briefly mention about how a Chinese character looks like a picture, but there is no need to make sure that a 4 or 5 year old child understands this. Just talk about it once in a while for them to get an idea, when they grow older and know more words, they will figure it out. Both my kids understand that by changing certain parts of a word, they get a new word even though I rarely teach them about it.

I do advise parents to teach the names of the 偏旁, for example:
单人旁 「亻」 如：他
　　提手旁 「扌」 如：打
　　竖心旁 「忄」 如：情
　　立刀旁 「刂」 如：刊
　　双人旁 「彳」 如：行
　　丝字旁或绞丝旁 「糹」 如： 绞（现已简化为“绞”）
　　左耳旁 「阝」 如：队
　　右耳旁 「阝）」 如：邓

About the 7 - 8 boxes, read the last 2 paragraphs of this page:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_w1nyHWTEh94/SzQMM0_2kGI/AAAAAAAABas/fiu6YIcA5gk/s1600-h/b2.JPG

Do not revise 8 times a day. Revise 1 or 2 times every day, slowly stretching the period in between revisions to once every 5 or 10 days. Note that every child is different, my boy requires more than 20 repetitions before he can remember new words while my girl needs only 2-3 repetitions. So you should modify the methods to suit you. I did not use any boxes, I used ziploc bags instead.