Any Chinese/English dual lingual homeschooling families here?

[cellocoffee]

I am just curious if any one else is pursuing this......:tongue_smilie:

 

Since I feel like a rarity in any homeschooling groups....

 

We do almost all the subjects in both Mandarin and English every day. Now my DD1 (just turned 8 this week) is learning much more and quicker in all her subjects in English, I feel I am in a rat race everyday trying to maintain her Mandarin writing and reading....

[cellocoffee]

I guess not.:nopity:

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

Sorry, not here. Mandarin is very much a foreign language to us. My daughter is studying her second year, but we're very very far of the 'bilingual' status.

[cellocoffee]

Merci, Cleo. I know it's not very common. Sometimes I wish we lived in a region where both Mandarin and English are common spoken languages....

Singapore?:D

[zaichiki]

My dd has a friend whose mom afterschools her to keep her Mandarin fluent/native. She doesn't homeschool, though.

[mamakimberly]

We're struggling with our Mandarin. Having just moved from China- where studying Chinese was both obvious and natural... to Florida, where it is unnatural and abnormal... it's hard.

 

We've put more energy into our Spanish study, because there are just so many more Spanish speakers around us here.

 

We speak Chinese at home some. The girls enjoy speaking it and we do want to maintain it. But I don't know how committed I am to putting in the effort to making it a third language.

 

I think we've pretty much decided Spanish will be our second language and in committing to Spanish we're accepting that Chinese will be something we play in but don't study seriously.

 

After spending so many hours studying Chinese, it feels a bit sickening, but there are very very few Chinese speakers here and I want to USE our languages and reinforce them and have them be practical.

 

Chinese made sense in China. It doesn't make as much sense here. I'm happy we have what we have, and we'll dabble in it.

 

Sorry for rambling. I'm just still working through this one, if you can't tell!

[SonshineLearner]

Chinese churches seem to be most places that I've lived. (I've lived a variety of spots :)) Also, how about the mocha what's it called? I wonder if they have a spot for kids.... Also, some places have not really "Saturday school" but specific groups for children whose parents are trying to have them play with other kids... that speak whatever language :) I think it's incredibly wonderful to have your children maintain some fluency of Chinese... My friend's g-pa went back to China about 10 or so years ago... after being gone 50 years.... He was able to get into speaking Chinese again by reading through the Bible each day..... and when he went back had a blast being the "tall white guy with no accent".... People would stare around looking for who was speaking Chinese... and then look up :) Anyway, I wish... only wish... that my children were so fortunate :)

 

:)

[LBS]

some Chinese books for sale in the Sale and Swap Board right now. I'm thinking how cool that my computer will show the character fonts....

[HejKatt]

Merci, Cleo. I know it's not very common. Sometimes I wish we lived in a region where both Mandarin and English are common spoken languages....

Singapore?:D

Hi cellocoffee, I grew up in Singapore and I can say that the language spoken at home plays a great part in it. Primary instruction is in English and you can decide whether to continue education in Chinese and Mandarin at secondary level (after 6th grade). It was mostly the children who spoke Chinese at home who went that route.

 

Personally, I'm sticking to as much everyday conversation in Mandarin that I can push in, and then switching between them during instruction if it helps. Mostly that's mathematics because of the base-10 system in Chinese. I simply don't have the vocabulary to teach other subjects like Science in Mandarin (I stayed in the English system), and I give you great credit for staying the course as you've done.

 

 

 

some Chinese books for sale in the Sale and Swap Board right now. I'm thinking how cool that my computer will show the character fonts....

Hmm LBS, perhaps you're looking at my posting ? :) If you need instruction on entering Chinese characters and have a Windows machine, I might be able to help, PM me.

Edited April 11, 2011 by leeyeewah
clarified a sentence.

[cellocoffee]

My dd has a friend whose mom afterschools her to keep her Mandarin fluent/native. She doesn't homeschool, though.

Most families do that to make sure their kids' English is ok. Thanks for sharing.

 

I see there are two cellists in your house. Awesome!!

[cellocoffee]

 

 

Sorry for rambling. I'm just still working through this one, if you can't tell!

 

Ha ha I am working it through myself. That's why I am posting this thread. We live in TX!! Spanish will make a lot more sense for us as well.

I decided to maintain my DDs Mandarin solely, for the reason of keeping their cultural heritage. (Seriously, if people think their kids need to speak Mandarin to win the game in the future, that's just too much effort for one little thing. I always tell people if their children turn out to be successful CFO of some sort and need to do business with China, they can always just hire a interpretor.)

 

I have wall-to-wall shelves of Chinese books for children and adults.

We have Dish Network of programing from Taiwan and China.

We read and study poems, legends, and history of China and Taiwan.. the WTM way.

 

It's just.....so much time and so much effort required to keep it up with their English......sigh........ Although, THEY DO ENJOY IT. So I guess it is worth-it.

[cellocoffee]

Personally, I'm sticking to as much everyday conversation in Mandarin that I can push in, and then switching between them during instruction if it helps. Mostly that's mathematics because of the base-10 system in Chinese. I simply don't have the vocabulary to teach other subjects like Science in Mandarin (I stayed in the English system), and I give you great credit for staying the course as you've done.

 

 

Hi, nice meeting you.

At this point I am not worried about my kids' progress in Mandarin learning. DD1 just turned 8, she reads and writes Chinese. When we visit my families in Taiwan, she fully communicate with everyone there. (We use traditional writing and she is fine with that.)

 

Both my girls grew up only knowing Chinese until they are around almost 3. .

 

It's just so tiring and I wonder if there is anyone doing the same thing..

 

Thanks for sharing again!!

[JEMama]

Hi! I'm just at the beginning of my homeschoolong journey with my oldest son (5). I wish I had spoken only Chinese to him from the start, so that he would speak it more now. Unfortunately, I feel like I'm starting late... I do have a Mandarin lesson time. He learned his bopomo phonetics pretty quickly, and is now learning to read/write traditional characters. He is doing very well... But I wish he would speak more. We play Chinese children's songs in the car, and he can sing most of them... But I guess singing is not the same as speaking. My younger son is 1. I'm trying to talk to him more in Mandarin, so hopefully he will be more comfortable with it, and both boys will pick it up together.

 

It is hard to keep them speaking Chinese when everywhere outside the home they speak English. I guess we can only do our best to give them an environment where they can hear it spoken and use it themselves, and hope they retain as much as possible as they grow up.

 

I love the idea of teaching them Taiwan/Chinese history WTM style. Where do you get your resources?

[cellocoffee]

你好！！JEMama!! So happy to know you want to do the same thing!! It's hard, but it's possible. Don't give up. Both my girls didn't speak English until 2 and 1/2. My DD#2 just started speaking English. It does help them preserve it but with my DD#1's reading in English advancing quicker than her Mandarin. I try not to think it this way, but it does feel like a rat race trying to maintain her Mandarin reading and writing with joy.

 

I wish he would speak more. We play Chinese children's songs in the car, and he can sing most of them... But I guess singing is not the same as speaking.

Singing in Mandarin is different, but better than speaking in Mandarin IMO. This way they are not afraid of making the tone mistake and more dare to try to say/learn new words. Both my girls listen to the same children's rhymes (published by Shin-Yi 信誼 in Taiwan) Rhymes, songs, and good cartoons(DD#1 finished anne of the green gable-清秀佳人, 小英的故事, now watching Tom Soyer湯姆歷險記）Both of them watch Doraemon, and Miffy together. We don't have regular satellite or cable, we only have dishnetwork's ETTV from Taiwan. They watch the kids show about nature and travelling in Taiwan and China.

 

My younger son is 1. I'm trying to talk to him more in Mandarin, so hopefully he will be more comfortable with it, and both boys will pick it up together.

That's why we homeschool. During the day before daddy comes home from work is our Mandarin-only time(except discussion in Western history, English and Science).

Once your older one feel your determination of using Mandarin more, he will be encouraged to use it seeing that you speak to the younger one in Mandarin.

For a long time until recently, my DD#2 only felt comfortable with Mandarin-speaking friends and baby sitters. (My mom also came help me extensively until last year which helped the bonding with my family in TW.) Some people might consider my approach as being extreme, I strongly felt it's necessary since as you know, it is ultra hard to preserve a totally different language in an English-speaking environment!

 

It is hard to keep them speaking Chinese when everywhere outside the home they speak English. I guess we can only do our best to give them an environment where they can hear it spoken and use it themselves, and hope they retain as much as possible as they grow up.

That's why I completely "designed" their language environment to be filled with Chinese:books (carried back from TW), CDs, DVDs, visits to TW. I also carefully built a network of friends from Taiwan, Japan, India. We have dinner parties often enough to let my girls know there ARE other people living in TX but fluent in their native language, so they respect the difference in culture. I also wanted them to think its completely normal to be bilingual and that it's not "weird" or embarrassing to use Mandarin.

 

I love the idea of teaching them Taiwan/Chinese history WTM style. Where do you get your resources?

This is the most difficult part recently since DD#1 is reading so well in English(she's 8 and read Nesbit's books, considering she didn't know phonics until 4). I am using 說給兒童的中國歷史（小魯出版comes with CDs, pricy but worth it）Chinese fables(中國寓言故事 國語日報）中國童話（漢聲）and try to do narration/dictation with her.

 

I'm so excited that you have similar interest!!

[JEMama]

Cellocoffee, I am so thrilled to get your suggestions! I will definitely look into getting the books, cds, and videos you recommended.

 

Right now, my son watches muzzy and Pepe Pig cartoons in Chinese. The Pepe Pig series were bought from Taiwan and are supposed to teach Chinese kids English, but I play it In chinese for my ds so can learn Chinese! I just got back from Taiwan recently where I bought a stack of books that made my luggage overweight! While the books are cheaper there, it's so hard to be transporting them back to the States. Are you able to order you materials from the States?

 

I can see what you mean about how singing can allow the child to be more comfortable with the language. My ds is definitely trying more recently. Yay! He definitely has a hard time with tones, though. I can hear his American accent (or is it the English intonations and inflections?) through his attempts to speak sentences in Chinese. He wouldn't have that problem if he had started speaking earlier, I think.

 

We are in Seattle. While there are a lot of asians here, many of them don't speak their native language at home... Maybe because they've lived here for so long? Or perhaps because of cross-cultural marriages? My husband's family speaks Cantonese, but they lived in a Spanish-speaking country for most of my husband's childhood. His primary language is English now. It helps all of us to go back to Asia once a year.

 

I definitely want to try the history suggestions you mentioned. Do you separate your history studies so that you have a time of Chinese history and a time of western history? I'll definitely be looking you up as a resource from time to time... Is that ok?

 

On another thought... I see that your dd plays cello and piano. At what age did you start? And also I see that you are doing a combo of singapore, Miquon and Saxon. Do you do them on separate days? (sorry, this isn't what the thread is about... Hope that's ok).

Edited April 19, 2011 by JEMama
Added thought

[cellocoffee]

Hi, same here. Glad to know you!

I will send you a private message with my email address.

 

We get most our books from Taiwan. I try to plan for the whole year and get the essentials for my curriculum. I haven't tried to make international orders. Next time I am going to try some used book stores to cut down the cost. I also have been lucky to get tons of hand-me-down books from friends.

 

Another great resource is the children's magazine-巧連智. I usually look up Yahoo auction/Taiwan and ask my relatives in TW to bid on used ones with CDs.

I have around 3 years full of these magazines. They introduce bopomo, nature, science, math, and things to do/eat in TW. My girls love them so much(DD#1 is growing into their first grade level. DD#2 listens to their kindergarten level EVERYDAY!!)

 

I know a great Suzuki cello teacher who is from Taiwan but has two studios in Seattle. I can give you her info.

 

Best wishes to you,

[crazyforlatin]

I learned Cantonese when DD was a baby so that she could be bilingual. I'm not fluent but I do teach math in Chinese as I noticed a remarkable difference in the way she understood numbers when we made the switch. Only recently have I downloaded Cantonese stories from this radio station in Australia and checked out audiobooks in Mandarin from the library. It's time to teach Mandarin but since I barely can speak it, we have to learn it together on top of the other languages I am anxious to teach. I have tried looking for Chinese audiobooks of popular American books or English books, but haven't had any success. When I'm not teaching her, I expect her to converse in Cantonese with me and I do have to look up words all the time.

 

I wish I had more time to teach characters, but we're still working out our schedule and haven't been able to fit in more Chinese.

[crazyforlatin]

Not related to your original post, but I would love to teach or actually love to have someone teach DD how to play the cello, but strangely, the schools that I have inquired claim that there is not enough interest to hire a teacher :glare:. I don't think I could do it without ruining her technique, right?

[cellocoffee]

I learned Cantonese when DD was a baby so that she could be bilingual. I'm not fluent but I do teach math in Chinese as I noticed a remarkable difference in the way she understood numbers when we made the switch. Only recently have I downloaded Cantonese stories from this radio station in Australia and checked out audiobooks in Mandarin from the library. It's time to teach Mandarin but since I barely can speak it, we have to learn it together on top of the other languages I am anxious to teach. I have tried looking for Chinese audiobooks of popular American books or English books, but haven't had any success. When I'm not teaching her, I expect her to converse in Cantonese with me and I do have to look up words all the time.

 

I wish I had more time to teach characters, but we're still working out our schedule and haven't been able to fit in more Chinese.

 

Wow~~ Kudos to you teaching Cantonese, I think that's the hardest dialect.(I am half Hakka. I can understand Hakka and Fukienese)

 

Not sure how old your kids are. But I do a flash card making sentences game with our older one and she loves it. After practicing flash card(make piles for subjects, names of places and verbs, right side down, and let her flip each card) She can read much more characters than her classmates in the Chinese Sunday school.

 

Try to make many friends speak the language you want your DC to learn is a good easy way(but long -term), too.

 

Good luck!

[cellocoffee]

Not related to your original post, but I would love to teach or actually love to have someone teach DD how to play the cello, but strangely, the schools that I have inquired claim that there is not enough interest to hire a teacher :glare:. I don't think I could do it without ruining her technique, right?

 

That would be really hard and there is a risk of messing up the posture.

Where are you in AUS? I think there are some great string teachers. But it depends on which city.

[cloudswinger]

I'm not doing Chinese, but Vietnamese, which seems to be just as odd around here. I have had similar experiences as you. I also think some of it is very much cultural, since everyone has great respect for schools and I have had a hard time getting the reasons for homeschooling across to some family members. But I have had the satisfaction of being told how well my dd6 speaks Vietnamese when we went to Vietnam, especially when they find out that she's 2nd gen American.

 

I do most subjects bilingually, only science in English, partly because I don't have the vocabulary, partly because English ended up being the universal language in scientific circles anyway. Right now we're doing Ancient western history, and I plan to parallel it with some Ancient eastern history. The frustrating yet cool thing is that I'm not fully bilingual myself, but we're learning together.

[cellocoffee]

Hi Cloudswinger,

Glad to hear your voice on this. Thanks for sharing your story. Now I don't feel so lonely and sometimes as a fool as Don Quixote fighting the wind mill.....

 

Good luck to your journey!

[Velleta]

I have two girls adopted from China who still speak Mandarin fairly fluently after three years home. It is a struggle to find materials they can listen to. They are blind, so we don't worry about books or other print materials. I'm not sure how I would teach Chinese braille :-) But where can you order materials for listening? I don't read Chinese characters much at all, and obviously, neither do they. I'd love some suggestions of where I could get additional songs, stories, or audiobooks for them to listen to in Mandarin.

[cellocoffee]

Hi Velleta, I admire your love and strength for your girls.

Most of my resource for mandarin learning is from Taiwan, including really well-made audio books. There are a couple book store chain that have a website for US customers to order books. But the down side is you will have to type in Chinese to search.

 

So I tried YouTube. I found several clips under "Chinese story for children" but I think they will be too elementary for the age of your girls.

 

Here is a kid's show made by the public TV station in Taiwan. Each episode has a moral lesson, story telling and a mind/physical strength race for little kids.

Maybe they will enjoy it. At least this show is my girls' favorite.

(warning: the grandmother in this show is obviously a man.)

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E6%B0%B4%E6%9E%9C%E5%86%B0%E6%B7%87%E6%B7%8B&aq=0

[Guest Lindaw]

Hi, I am Chinese and new here. After school I taught my daughter (fourth grader) English. What I worry is her English language, not Chinese. Chinese is our native language, you know. She can read and listen well in English but writing and speaking are far behind. So excited to find this forum.

[Tattarrattat]

It's so nice to read up others' stories regarding Chinese teaching.

 

We speak Cantonese, Mandarin and English at home. I have been teaching the kids Mandarin, but haven't done enough. They used to go to Chinese school on weekends, but we are currently taking a break from it. We plan to enroll them again for next year though.

 

Glad to "see" everyone here! Thanks for this thread!

[sparks]

Merci, Cleo. I know it's not very common. Sometimes I wish we lived in a region where both Mandarin and English are common spoken languages....

Singapore?:D

 

Greetings from Singapore :001_smile:

 

We are beginning our HS journey and we do both English and Mandarin. English is still the main language of instruction and we do Chinese as an independent subject. There is a set of very good material from China called si4 wu3 kuai4 du2 (you don't do pinyin in Taiwan? I have no Chinese character here :(). But it teaches word recognition in a very fun way :). What about a Chinese penpal for your child?

 

I am mulling over whether to do Latin at all now. We are keen to do more than just basic conversational Mandarin and looking at classical Chinese too. Doing two Classical languages seem a little too much.

 

Just wondering if anyone attempted doing two classical languages, or will it be too much?

[stripe]

There is a mom on the MEP homeschoolers list who is multilingual who is using the Spanish MEP with her French-learning kids. Anyway she posted this Taiwanese math stuff that's really cute. If you want to PM me your email address, I'd forward it to her for you.

 

http://mathtext.project.edu.tw/index.php?d=ani is the animated stuff but there's also a text and workbook. Extremely cute too.

[cellocoffee]

 

There is a set of very good material from China called si4 wu3 kuai4 du2 (you don't do pinyin in Taiwan? I have no Chinese character here :(). But it teaches word recognition in a very fun way :). What about a Chinese penpal for your child?

 

I am mulling over whether to do Latin at all now. We are keen to do more than just basic conversational Mandarin and looking at classical Chinese too. Doing two Classical languages seem a little too much.

 

Just wondering if anyone attempted doing two classical languages, or will it be too much?

Hi, thanks for your info on 四五快讀（I just guessed the characters.？）I really really appreciate! But as you can see, I used 讀 rather than 读. In Taiwan we use traditional 正體. So that method won't work much for my kids.

 

I am still planning to teach Latin and a bit of French, very slowly. But since she is really curious about these languages and their relation to English, I'd better just feed her some. Besides, the Latin curriculum should help her with her grammar study. I am hoping it'd be 一石二鳥 one stone two birds.

[cellocoffee]

There is a mom on the MEP homeschoolers list who is multilingual who is using the Spanish MEP with her French-learning kids. Anyway she posted this Taiwanese math stuff that's really cute. If you want to PM me your email address, I'd forward it to her for you.

 

http://mathtext.project.edu.tw/index.php?d=ani is the animated stuff but there's also a text and workbook. Extremely cute too.

Can't open it with my Macbook. But it's interesting because it's made by the education department of Taiwan. ha ha

 

Thanks.

[stripe]

You need to be able to open RAR files, I think, and some ar EXE. Some are PDFs of text and workbooks, while others are animated.

[nutella08]

What an impressive undertaking! I just joined the forum so am entering this conversation late but I would love to learn more from you.

 

My kids spoke primarily Mandarin until around age 3 when they attended a Montessori preschool, then English has become dominant. Actually, it was rather terrifying how quickly the English came & the Mandarin went! When I first started homeschooling DD for Kinder and was still unsure, it was just easier to use the wealth of resources available in English including WTM. We have Mandarin as a "subject" and do basic arithmetic in Mandarin as well. However, I would like to do more history & science if I can find good curriculum. I'll definitely take a look at your recommendations. 說給兒童的中國歷史 with the CDs would be perfect. What do you do for science?

 

We briefly subscribed to Dish Network's Chinese programming but found we didn't have much time for TV as the kids got older. However, I'm always looking for good audio resources (CD & radio podcasts). There used be a excellent daily program I think 閱讀哇哈哈 at http://www.ner.gov.tw/ which read stories with short topics on history & science. Unfortunately it's off air now. I'm still searching for a good replacement if you know any.

 

In California, we are fortunate to have a large Chinese community. However, I'm not in contact with other Chinese homeschoolers. We do have a playgroup/co-op with other native speakers so the kids can practice & enjoy their heritage in a fun setting. Our emphasis is more on listening, speaking then reading/character recognition and less on writing at the early ages. Because most families & our resources are from Taiwan, we use traditional characters. But we've decided to use pinyin instead of ㄅㄆㄇ since the kids already know phonics.

 

One thought about it all being "tiring" … I don't do true bilingual education on all subjects as you do and I'm already exhausted. I see you also follow Suzuki method which is very time intensive for the parent. At the beginning of this year, I enrolled my kids in a local WTM based history & science program in English. I will probably also outsource LA in the Fall as well. I know it cuts into Mandarin/family time. But for me personally, it has helped me focus on the aspects I cannot outsource and also maintain some sanity.

 

It's great to find you here. Keep up your amazing work!

[Country Girl]

Greetings from Singapore :001_smile:

 

We are beginning our HS journey and we do both English and Mandarin. English is still the main language of instruction and we do Chinese as an independent subject. There is a set of very good material from China called si4 wu3 kuai4 du2 (you don't do pinyin in Taiwan? I have no Chinese character here :(). But it teaches word recognition in a very fun way :). What about a Chinese penpal for your child?

 

I am mulling over whether to do Latin at all now. We are keen to do more than just basic conversational Mandarin and looking at classical Chinese too. Doing two Classical languages seem a little too much.

 

Just wondering if anyone attempted doing two classical languages, or will it be too much?

 

Sparks,

 

Do you have any information on where to find the curriculum you are talking about? We are in China, but I don't speak or read the language so I don't know which curriculum you are referring to. We have a language tutor but it is her first time teaching kids so she needs to find a curriculum to use with them. I was thinking I could pass this suggestion on to her.

 

Thanks!

[HejKatt]

Sparks,

 

Do you have any information on where to find the curriculum you are talking about? We are in China, but I don't speak or read the language so I don't know which curriculum you are referring to. We have a language tutor but it is her first time teaching kids so she needs to find a curriculum to use with them. I was thinking I could pass this suggestion on to her.

 

Thanks!

 

Not Sparks, but my sister in Shanghai forwarded this website to me. It has several resources for teaching Chinese, e.g. PinYin rules, radical names. This is the site her dc's Mandarin tutor uses.

http://www.lbx777.com/

 

Also, I'm going to go out on a limb here. I believe this is the curriculum sparks mentioned, using that PinYin. I believe dangdang is more popular in China, but also have the Amazon link in case you find that easier.

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20645184

http://www.amazon.cn/%E5%9B%9B%E4%BA%94%E5%BF%AB%E8%AF%BB-%E5%AE%9D%E5%AE%9D%E7%AF%87/dp/B0011AQ7K0

[sparks]

Not Sparks, but my sister in Shanghai forwarded this website to me. It has several resources for teaching Chinese, e.g. PinYin rules, radical names. This is the site her dc's Mandarin tutor uses.

http://www.lbx777.com/

 

Also, I'm going to go out on a limb here. I believe this is the curriculum sparks mentioned, using that PinYin. I believe dangdang is more popular in China, but also have the Amazon link in case you find that easier.

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20645184

http://www.amazon.cn/%E5%9B%9B%E4%BA%94%E5%BF%AB%E8%AF%BB-%E5%AE%9D%E5%AE%9D%E7%AF%87/dp/B0011AQ7K0

 

Country girl,

Yes those are the books I was talking about. If you are in China , Amazon.cn is a better choice?

 

I love getting Chinese books from China :) . Those illustrated and written by their homegrown artists and writers are really beautifully crafted!

[Guest Shanghai Jenny]

HI!

I am new to the board. I live in Shanghai with my husband and three daughters. My oldest daughter attended local (chinese) preschool and kindergarten half day and is orally fluent in Mandarin. She recognizes some characters as well. Now that she is in grade one, I am having a hard time deciding how to pursue teaching pinyin. She is reading very well now in English (we speak primarily English at home), so I am thinking now might be the time to start. Does anyone have experience teaching the pinyin system alongside English phonics? Any advice or curriculum? Her first grade peers in chinese school are learning pinyin, but I feel worried about confusing her. Maybe I am worrying too much, though!

Thanks!

Jenny

dd- Wendy, 6

dd- Vera, 4

dd- Geneva, 1

Edited September 4, 2011 by Shanghai Jenny

[nutella08]

Dear Jenny,

 

I don't think you need to worry too much, especially if your DD already reading well in English. Pinyin is pretty easy to "pick up". You just need to point out the funny consonants (q,x,c), do some practice example to get used to the vowels, and tones ... usually takes a few days, maybe a couple weeks? I've never followed a curriculum but earlier on, I found a little song that grouped all the consonants together sung to the tune of ABC/Twinkle. But the jingle wasn't necessary. The kids seem to consider pinyin rather intuitive, just needed extra practice to solidify the skill.

 

I've taught pinyin to my 2 kids and also several other kids in our playgroup. We usually start at about where you are: after the kids are already comfortable reading English (around K-1, solid phonics through Montessori/HOP), reasonably fluent in spoken English & Mandarin, and recognize quite a number of basic characters (between 100-200 so they understand characters are the goal, pinyin is an aid). Well, I can speak both languages & know pinyin also.

 

All along our character learning, we use flashcards with Chinese characters on the front & pinyin on the back. I've been using Anki for the last month. That makes flashcards so much easier. Good luck!

[Guest denccd]

We are working with our 4 year old son in mandarin. We are currently working with ㄅㄆㄇ (as that is what he is also learning in his Saturday Chinese school) as he gets older I would like to thread the mandarin into more subjects. He seems to have more of a hold on English at this time (not sure how come he has been exposed to mandarin since he was 9 months old) . What ㄅㄆㄇ resources do you use? Other chinese resources? My husband the fluent speaker worked with pinyin in China so we are learning this all at the same time.

[JadeOrchidSong]

Cellocoffee,

Hats off to you for your wonderful work!

I am trying to find a book about China history in Chinese that is accessible to my boys who have some but not great Chinese listening ears. 說給兒童的中國歷史 with the CDs: Will this one fit the bill? Where do you get it?

I am teaching Chinese with Ma Liping Chinese first, but now transited to Singapore Chinese, which I am quite pleased about. We do Chinese more as an independent subject.

Glad to see so many people here.

[nutella08]

http://www.tienwei.com.tw/product/goods_detail.php?goods_id=538

 

We ordered it from the publisher in Taiwan. It's rather bulky but not too heavy: 30 CDs + 10 books. If your kids' listening comprehension is still developing, I would highly recommend listening to a sample before ordering.

 

http://www.tienwei.com.tw/GoodPic/ACHN--reading2.mp3

 

The series is wonderful but the non-colloquial language can challenging for overseas kids. FYI, the books are just brief discussions of CDs containing full stories, not complete audiobook versions like SOTW.

[JadeOrchidSong]

http://www.tienwei.com.tw/product/goods_detail.php?goods_id=538

 

We ordered it from the publisher in Taiwan. It's rather bulky but not too heavy: 30 CDs + 10 books. If your kids' listening comprehension is still developing, I would highly recommend listening to a sample before ordering.

 

http://www.tienwei.com.tw/GoodPic/ACHN--reading2.mp3

 

The series is wonderful but the non-colloquial language can challenging for overseas kids. FYI, the books are just brief discussions of CDs containing full stories, not complete audiobook versions like SOTW.

It is challenging!

It is fast and has very formal words as well as colloquial words. I am not sure it will go well with my boys. I think we can try to watch more videos instead. Are there DVDs you can recommend?

Thanks!

[nutella08]

Is your focus more to improve listening skills or learn history? It's been hard to find good history material for young kids. But folktales and traditional fairy tales work well for listening. We don't have many DVDs but my kiddos enjoy some online videos.

 

On youtube.com, do search for "童話故事".

Take a look at http://www.tom61.com/ There's tons of videos, some history stuff too. My kids enjoyed 小鲤鱼

 

Good luck!

[JadeOrchidSong]

I just checked the samples of Si4wu3kuai4du2 and I am very impressed. My ds9 learned Ma Liping Chinese Grade 1 and Grade 2. Grade 1 is highly recommendable, but Grade 2 is super hard. That's why we switched to Singapore Chinese. We are just done with learning Pinyin. It is a great way to learn the Pinyin and my boys are enjoying this program.

Si4wu3kuai4du2 is similar to Ma Liping 1. It looks to be very sequential and very systematic, much better organized than Ma Liping 2 and up. I am seriously considering ordering this from China.

Does anyone use this with success here? Where did you buy yours? What is the shipping fee?

Thanks! I am so grateful I can learn so much and be inspired and encouraged by you.

 

ETA: I just tried to order from amazon.cn and the price for the books is 133 yuan while the shipping is a whopping 770 yuan. It is almost $150. I need to think about a cheaper way to do this!

Edited January 23, 2012 by aomom

[sparks]

Hi

 

we use 四五快读 too. We like it a lot!

 

Where are you living? The shipping is exorbitant. Did you try dangdang? Have you heard of SAGE? It is a good complement to 四五快读.

 

 

I just checked the samples of Si4wu3kuai4du2 and I am very impressed. My ds9 learned Ma Liping Chinese Grade 1 and Grade 2. Grade 1 is highly recommendable, but Grade 2 is super hard. That's why we switched to Singapore Chinese. We are just done with learning Pinyin. It is a great way to learn the Pinyin and my boys are enjoying this program.

Si4wu3kuai4du2 is similar to Ma Liping 1. It looks to be very sequential and very systematic, much better organized than Ma Liping 2 and up. I am seriously considering ordering this from China.

Does anyone use this with success here? Where did you buy yours? What is the shipping fee?

Thanks! I am so grateful I can learn so much and be inspired and encouraged by you.

 

ETA: I just tried to order from amazon.cn and the price for the books is 133 yuan while the shipping is a whopping 770 yuan. It is almost $150. I need to think about a cheaper way to do this!

[JadeOrchidSong]

Hi

 

we use 四五快读 too. We like it a lot!

 

Where are you living? The shipping is exorbitant. Did you try dangdang? Have you heard of SAGE? It is a good complement to 四五快读.

Sparks,

Where did you get yours?

I know Dangdang, but I didn't check what shipping rate is like there. Can anyone recommend a place to buy this set with better shipping rate than 777 yuan? It is over $120 for shipping alone!

 

Thanks for the recommendation of Dangdang! I just checked to see how much I need to pay to get Books 2--7, and I only need to pay 75.90 yuan for shipping! What a great deal!

Edited January 23, 2012 by aomom

[Guest jennifer.clifford88]

 

I know it's not very common. Sometimes I wish we lived in a region where both Mandarin and English are common spoken languages.... Singapore?

We're struggling with our Mandarin. Having just moved from China- where studying Chinese was both obvious and natural... to Florida, where it is unnatural and abnormal... it's hard. We've put more energy into our Spanish study, because there are just so many more Spanish speakers around us here. We speak Chinese at home some. The girls enjoy speaking it and we do want to maintain it. But I don't ...

[Embassy]

Is your focus more to improve listening skills or learn history? It's been hard to find good history material for young kids. But folktales and traditional fairy tales work well for listening. We don't have many DVDs but my kiddos enjoy some online videos.

 

On youtube.com, do search for "童話故事".

Take a look at http://www.tom61.com/ There's tons of videos, some history stuff too. My kids enjoyed 小鲤鱼

 

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the link! My kids will enjoy watching those.

[cellocoffee]

Cellocoffee,

Hats off to you for your wonderful work!

I am trying to find a book about China history in Chinese that is accessible to my boys who have some but not great Chinese listening ears. 說給兒童的中國歷史 with the CDs: Will this one fit the bill? Where do you get it?

I am teaching Chinese with Ma Liping Chinese first, but now transited to Singapore Chinese, which I am quite pleased about. We do Chinese more as an independent subject.

Glad to see so many people here.

 

Thank you all for coming up to this post.

We just spent a month in Taiwan visiting family. I am very proud to say that when locals talked to my girls, their first reaction was always:" So you live in Taiwan? How come your Chinese is this good?"That comment just made me feel so worth-it to HS my children for these 3 yrs.

 

My 8yo also helped her American friends order food at the food court. On the other hand, she felt handicapped with her limited reading ability. This motivated her to study writing more seriously after we came back to the US.

 

About history books,

Honestly, I only have the used books for 說給兒童的中國歷史, we used other books about Chinese history for read-aloud.

 

I also use 中國童話 漢聲出版 to start our day. This series contains 365 stories. The idea behind is to read to your child one story a day and each story is tied to the season, or a holiday. Both my 8 and 3yo love them.

 

Good luck!

Cellocoffee

Edited February 5, 2012 by cellocoffee

[cellocoffee]

What do you do for science?

 

But we've decided to use pinyin instead of ㄅㄆㄇ since the kids already know phonics.

 

One thought about it all being "tiring" … I don't do true bilingual education on all subjects as you do and I'm already exhausted. I see you also follow Suzuki method which is very time intensive for the parent. At the beginning of this year, I enrolled my kids in a local WTM based history & science program in English. I will probably also outsource LA in the Fall as well. I know it cuts into Mandarin/family time. But for me personally, it has helped me focus on the aspects I cannot outsource and also maintain some sanity.

 

It's great to find you here. Keep up your amazing work!

 

So glad to know there are others out there doing this hard work to keep our children bilingual.

 

To answer your question:

I use English for Science. But I will say the key words in Chinese if I have time. On the side, she reads this Children's magazine called 巧連智 to learn something about the nature and science in Mandarin.

I have 4 yearfuls of these magazines which I bought used on Taiwan Yahoo auction to let her read and listen to(my family bought them and shipped them to the US). Many of these bundles come with CDs, occasionally DVDs or VCDs. I must say these huge amount of information play a big part of her vocabularies.

 

Now that my 8yo can read independently in Chinese with 注音, she has to include one Chinese book a day during her free reading time.

 

She has never learned pin-yin. 37 ㄅㄆㄇsymbols really aren't that complicated for a 4 or 5 yo to learn. I did it very very slowly with her. Now I am glad that she can pick up any easy reader type of books to read as long as there is 注音. Around the time she was 7, she noticed that all her Chinese learning materials had Pin-Yi. She told me once that Pin-Yin is not English but a different kind of phonics to her.

 

My thoughts on using ㄅㄆㄇ besides it not being really hard to learn is that when the children are ready to write ㄅㄆㄇ, they learn the basic strokes, like:橫、勾、撇、捺、點, as well as the writing habit for writing real Chinese character in the near future, like: going from the top to bottom, from left to right.

 

Just my little thoughts.

Good luck to everyone!

[JadeOrchidSong]

Cellocoffee,

What do you use for Chinese history?

Thanks!