cellocoffee Posted February 5, 2012 Author Share Posted February 5, 2012 Cellocoffee,What do you use for Chinese history? Thanks! Besides the books, I use a rather simple one called 增長智慧的歷史故事--世一出版 and team it with 中國寓言故事-李炳傑編著 國語日報出版 But I am finally getting my 說給兒童聽的中國歷史故事 CDs and books in a couple of months. With both girls needing more attention and hands-on help from me, I decided to rely on the CDs more with the older one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cellocoffee Posted February 10, 2012 Author Share Posted February 10, 2012 I am just curious if any one else is pursuing this...... 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.... Same here and that's why I started this post originally. Right now we still maintain Mandarin learning everyday and she goes to a community Chinese school on Sundays. I used to make her write down the key words on every subject we learned each day. Now I just talk about it and show her the words since we don't have enough time to study the same thing twice. But my 8yo already learned to use Chinese dictionary and thinks it's interesting to see other characters under same parts 部首 I feel this part of word study foundation has been laid down right. I think the skill to use dictionary and use word cards to make up simple sentences are fun and more self-directed so your child won't feel been pushed as much. Just try your best, don't get stressed and try to keep Chinese learning fun for her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest perdirent Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Hi cellocoffee, I'm a Singapore mom living in Iowa. I just joined the forum, I have no idea how to insert info about my kids at the footer. Anyway, I have 2 boys, 6 and 3. We're working on their chinese but quite slowly. We just have so much on our plate. I just started homeschooling 6 months ago, and we've been using mainly Singapore textbooks. We have access to CCTV on the internet, and various disney cartoons in Chinese. My kids like Doraemon too, somewhat violent to little ones. My son (6) is doing Singapore Math (American level about 3rd Grade) and English (American level about 3rd to 5th grade). Just like your daughters, he just started learning the cello and piano. He has a professional cellist as his instructor but he is very traditional, great for advanced students (my son's doing both suzuki and schroeder). Hopefully we'll find a suzuki cello teacher (hard to find in my area) who could relate better with a 6 year old boy. We have done a little bit of French and are still exploring the right curriculum to keep advancing. There are so much I know my kids could do, but it's getting quite costly (lessons and private lessons) and time consuming (activities for 2 kids). Are you guys staying in Taiwan long term or just a visit? I wish we could stay a long term in Taiwan or China to improve my kids' Chinese. Staying in Singapore didn't help as much. Most kids speak English there. Sigh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cellocoffee Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 My son (6) is doing Singapore Math (American level about 3rd Grade) and English (American level about 3rd to 5th grade). Just like your daughters, he just started learning the cello and piano. He has a professional cellist as his instructor but he is very traditional, great for advanced students (my son's doing both suzuki and schroeder). Hopefully we'll find a suzuki cello teacher (hard to find in my area) who could relate better with a 6 year old boy. We have done a little bit of French and are still exploring the right curriculum to keep advancing. There are so much I know my kids could do, but it's getting quite costly (lessons and private lessons) and time consuming (activities for 2 kids).Are you guys staying in Taiwan long term or just a visit? I wish we could stay a long term in Taiwan or China to improve my kids' Chinese. Staying in Singapore didn't help as much. Most kids speak English there. Sigh. Hi, sorry for the late reply. We just came home from a ling road trip: TX-Chicago. It sounds that your son is really advancing in math. Congrats! For cello teacher options, there is a good teacher search tool on the Suzuki Association of Americas site where you can just punch in your zip code to find suitable teacher in your area. We try to go visit my family in TW as long as we don't break our piggy banks too often. By the way, there is a new on-line Chinese book store in the US now. They ship books with a flat rate. http://www.chinesebookonline.com/ Good luck, Cellocoffee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstlynn Posted November 11, 2012 Share Posted November 11, 2012 resurrecting a somewhat old thread, but I am toying with several ideas and would love to have some of you chime in if possible. I am thinking of teaching my kids conversational chinese...I used to speak chinese semi-fluently, but have forgotten all the reading/writing...any ideas of a good curriculum/books/cds to use? we have watched some online chinese dora and I point out words to them, but is there something more structured I could use? thanks! lin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makita Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Lin - I am pleased that you resurrected this thread for I haven't been on the forums in years. My kiddos have been learning Mandarin for a while now (DD is in her 4th year? and my son is in his 2nd). We chose to go with simplified Chinese and use Better Chinese as our main curriculum. I have a Squidoo lens, Fun With Mandarin that highlights some of our favorite resources for teaching Mandarin ... I also blog about how we approach our language studies on the Better Chinese website. I look forward to being active again on the forums. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happycc Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 I am working on teaching my kids Cantonese and I TPR our lessons. However I really want us to learn Mandarin though and need to find a tutor to work with us. Anyways, what has been a good Mandarin simplified textbook to use for absolute beginners. I really like the All in one Chinese and love the video http://www.allinonechinesefun.com/video http://www.cheng-tsui.com/store/products/allinone_chinese_fun_1 We are also learning Spanish from a Spanish tutor once a week. We also watch Salsa Spanish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JourneyUp Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 I know that this is a old post, but I am new to this forum and really excited to find out that Chinese speaking homeschooling families are not so rare. I am a native Chinese speaker (so is my husband) and we have been homeschooling since 2011, but I'm not sure if we can be called a Chinese/English dual lingual homeschooling family. I alternate between Chinese and English during instruction time, depending on whatever is easier at the moment. Chinese is mostly just one of school subjects. I would love to do more but, well, homeschooling is challenging enough. I want my kids love learning including Chinese. So I don't want to push too hard. I've been using some of the resources mentioned here, such as 四五快读，å°é²è¯´ä¸å›½åŽ†å²æ•…事，汉声的ä¸å›½ç«¥è¯ï¼Œç‰ç‰ã€‚One of the biggest obstacle for my children is to learn and retain enough characters to be able to read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HejKatt Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 I am a native Chinese speaker (so is my husband) and we have been homeschooling since 2011, but I'm not sure if we can be called a Chinese/English dual lingual homeschooling family. I've been using some of the resources mentioned here, such as 四五快读，å°é²è¯´ä¸å›½åŽ†å²æ•…事，汉声的ä¸å›½ç«¥è¯ï¼Œç‰ç‰ã€‚One of the biggest obstacle for my children is to learn and retain enough characters to be able to read. Welcome, JourneyUp! We use 四五快读 too. Like you, we too feel that time is a constraint - Chinese is a difficult language to maintain without the immersion environment. I posted this link on the Chinese Homeschooling Social group, it shows how much time per subject is spent in Shanghai schools - they spend a lot of time on Chinese! But I like their emphasis on the basics, though I have trouble achieving their focus. How does your school day look like? http://www.starbaby.cn/zhishi/3208-1.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happycc Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 How much time to spend on Chinese is reasonable for a homeschooling family with nonheritage students? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yinanyinu Posted May 19, 2014 Share Posted May 19, 2014 DC spend 7 hours a week and some nominal additional amount of time doing homework. I don't know if it's reasonable but we'll keep it up until they start complaining. They are non-heritage, but have spent most of their lives in Chinese-speaking countries. I think it all depends on what you or your children want to achieve. HTH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HejKatt Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 Sorry to bump an old thread, but I just recently learned about this book through parents at an upcoming Mandarin Immersion school nearby - A 'Parent's Guide to Mandarin Immersion' by Elizabeth Weise. http://www.amazon.com/A-Parents-Guide-Mandarin-Immersion/dp/0990365905 Much of the book allays parents' concern about having a child in a Mandarin Immersion (MI) program, e.g. when does English catch up (about 2nd or 3rd grade). Because it isn't entirely aligned with the homeschooling scenario, I'd suggest borrowing a copy from the library first. Where this book really shines however is its resource section - since it is new so I found the resources are updated and very helpful. She lists readers, comic books, online TV shows, apps and a link to promotional rates on 5QChannel. On a side note, I've also found chinese-forums.com useful - they first pointed me to these lists for vocabulary in different subjects used by NY exams. http://www.p12.nysed.gov/biling/bilinged/bilingual_glossaries.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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