tamarind:phankao:[quote=\"tamarind\"]
Also, I want to emphasize that kids before the age of 6 must read a large number of picture books with interesting stories that kids can understand. Pictures are the best way to teach kids the meaning of words, and how to use the words. If we focus only on word recognition, and discourage kids from looking at the pictures, then kids may know how to recite thousands of idioms and tang poetry, but he may not understand the meaning, or know how to use them in compositions.
Kids are not stupid. My 2yo understands the words that he is able to read. There is never a \"one-size-fits-all\" approach to learning. Never underestimate the young children's ability. What is also important is conversing to your child in Chinese. Immersion by conversation, listening, and reading - all important.
As full time working mommies, I do not have time to teach my kids for many hours a day. I can only teach Chinese for less than 30 mins a day, so I need to look for methods that are most effective.
I remember that once I saw on TV, a 3 year old boy who could read hundreds of 成语. His mother pointed to a book with rows of 成语, no pictures, and the boy was able to read everyone of them. I was not impressed at all, because the boy could not use them in compositions.
I also never teach my kids to memorize San Zi Jing, Di Zi Gui, etc, because I think these are irrelevant and not practical nowadays. I do teach my girl Tang poetry, only because I love Tang poetry myself and my girl loves them too. I wonder how many parents in Singapore really understand the meaning of San Zi Jing and Di Zi Gui ?
It is most important to develop a love for the language, not just forcing kids to memorize things that are meaningless to them.[/quote]I do agree with you, Tamarind, about it not being meaningful for kids to memorise/recall lots of things but couldn't apply their knowledge.
Your post came in at a time when I logged in to give a tip to fellow parents who are using 四五快读。
DS is already in Book 4, towards the end. I didn't cut up the words in the word cards given with the books as firstly, I can't be bothered and secondly, I thought as DS is older, there is no need to do so.
We usually start each session with him recalling and reciting the words at the back of the book up to where we last stopped. He can read them off quickly and correctly. then we will go to the book where I will introduce new words, and he reads the phrases and sentences or short passages that follow. In book4, there are longer passages (about 1.5 to 2 pgs long) and as he read the longer passages, I realised that there are some words that he could not recognise (eg. 驼， 着急), when he could read these individual words without problem.
I immediately realised that he is simply memorising and reciting the unfamiliar words when reciting based on word order. There are some words that he knows and when the words he does not know is interspersed in between, he could \"read\" them by following a certain pattern. [DS has good memory and is very creative in finding ways to compensate for his shortcomings).
This encounter reinforced that young kids have good memory and can memorise anything as long as they are interested and are exposed to it (like this mummy who talked about how her DS could recall all the capitals of different countries and their location on the world map). The crux is, whether the child can meaningfully apply what they have learnt. To me, the ability to apply is a higher order learning skill and only when this happen, do real learning occur.
As for 四五快读, heh heh, dear DS, mummy's going to cut up the word cards today and let's see how many of those words (from Book 1 to 4) do you REALLY know
