Do you feel your children could have been learning more and better if you don't need to work? What are you tips to keep the learning quality while you work? (A little story about my situation: 1. We decided to HS mainly to keep my DDs's Chinese learning going. I am from Taiwan. My DD1 speak, read, and write in Chinese fluently. 2. I maintain a cello studio at my house. I teach cello during after-school hours on four of the week days. If my children go to PS, they will not get to see me until after their dinner time and I don't want a life style like that. During these hours before my husband comes home around 5:30, my DDs watch Chinese cartoons or play educational games on their computers. Occasionally I hire a Chinese speaking tutor but I really prefer to save that money.) It's been working out well since DD1 was in K-1 grade that I was able to cover most studies in the morning. This year she enjoys spending more time on piano and cello. On top of that, she asked for adding Latin, more French, cursive writing, and more time on Science... I guess I should be happy about this but I just can't manage it anymore to fit every subject DD1 wants to learn in the mornings and handling DD2 who is in her terrible-two stage. sometimes I feel so guilty that I imagine to quit teaching all together to be more devoted. But we really can't afford to do that. Thank you in advance.:001_smile:

That's too bad. But on the bright side, Yo-Yo Ma doesn't play very much in this ensemble(a little sad for me as a cellist). They were here in Austin two weeks ago. Tell you friend to watch out for the green hair....

I second alpidarkomama's idea. Once I received three mini busts of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven as gifts. For 10 years I wasn't sure where to place them.....

It's fun to learn new things! So "collège" roughly equals to the middle school age and "lycée" equals to high school, right? We've been to France twice (my husband's contrebasse mentor lives in Paris)and possibly more visits in the future. Merci beaucoup!

Wow, I haven't really thought about the college level yet. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge. Now I will be able to prepare further. Sometimes I really wish my native langage is a latin-based language. It just takes so much time and energy to implement(keep it interesting) writing and reading Chinese. One skill I have been doing since DD1 was as little as 3, was to learn to translate simultaneously on EVERYTHING we discussed. I am no expert on learning, but this skill seems to help her brain switch quickly back and forth and not stick with one langage in one thing. I have noticed that DD1 seldom has trouble interpreting English content into Chinese for my Chinese friends. I think this is a good skill to maintain bilingual. What do you all think about that? Thanks,

Hi, I'm kind of new in this forum as well. We are just gong into the Third yr of homeschooling. Besides music, language art in mandarin Chinese is our main focus. At home we have beginnng books about nature, science, kids magazines, and math practice in Chinese. We used them a lot until this year when her learning went beyond these books. So we just use whatever books we found in English but discuss it in my native tongue(just can't spend 1k on books and ship them to the US anymore) I found it's easier and less confusing when discussing science or math, to use the terminology in English anyway. It's also for practical reason-- I just don't have that much time to teach my dd1 every subject *twice* in both languages. (she does still do her +- & multiplication table quicker in Chinese. LOL) So far we r very thankful that we had the option to homeschool to preserve our DD1's Chinese skill and cultural heritage. Homeschooling also allows our DD2 ( 2&1/2 yr old) to be set up using Chinese as her first language. Both of them watch kid's shows from Taiwan(satellite) I think it is possible in my experience but it will get a little tricky with time planning as they learn faster and more later. Good luck!! Good luck,

Hi, Liping Ma's curriculum looks very interesting since it delays the use of Pinyin until much later. It is truly reinforcing the graphic memory of Chinese character reading. I like that idea a lot, since I did that with both my DDs. But I can see that'd be a problem for parents who are not native readers. The introduction of that curriculum does say(in simplified Chinese) that it is designed for second generation Chinese living in non-native speaking environment. A curriculum I bought for my DDs is called MaiZhou Chinese(based in Los Angelas). There is one textbook per grade. It's colorful, using objects, daily life events we encounter in the US in its content. it comes with an audio CD of the content, flashcards, and a workbook. I love their flashcards which has the order of strokes printed inside of each character to help students learn writing more easily. Since it does use pinyin from the very beginning, DH was able to follow where my DD was learning. http://www.mzchinese.org/English/index_English.html We now only use it as a supplement because it's getting too slow for her. But I can see MaiZhou Chinese working well with children living in the Americas(=MaiZhou)who have already some basic training. But I have to say that I am using the traditional edition since I am from Taiwan. I picture the simplified version being the same. Good luck,

I am from Taiwan. My husband is a Texan. Before we had family, I knew I want my kids to speak my native language. My oldest daughter didn't speak English until she was 3. Now my 2 & 1/2 yr-old is just testing her English with their dad.(DH's level of Mandarin is sufficient to fool them up till she turned three.) We got Satellite program of TV programs from Taiwan. Since they were born, they stay home with me and use Mandarin. We have a wall full of books in Mandarin, DVD, CDs in Mandarin. I also make sure I hang out with many friends from Taiwan to let the girls hear more conversation in Mandarin from other people. Everyone has their unique way of expressing ideas and using vocab. I also spent money to fly my parents here to TX to hang out with my girls for months. Now both my girls can view TV shows in Mandarin and fully understand the content. My 7yr-old speaks Mandarin like native kids in Taiwan. She reads and writes in Mandarin. It is very hard for my in-laws to understand our decision for such a serious language immersion. But both my DH and I know it is worth-it. Although we don't live in Taiwan or China, it is possible for us. So good luck.:001_smile:

Hi, I am not good at French. But two years ago we had to go to Paris for a while so I got RS French and also the book Joan in Geneva mentioned. I totally agree with her. My 7yr-old could not use RS as long time as I could. She preferred the Play and Learn French, and even better, Muzzy French. She could watch and use them everyday for more than 30 minutes and actually carried some conversation when we were there. But of course, without practicing, we both forgot quite a bit. Good luck,

Hi, Lynn, I only found the teacher hand book useful.

When it was time to teach my DD#1 to write, I related it to teaching my students how to hold their cello bows. Children who have better finger and hand strength seem to perceive the task better. Then I attended a HS conference where this company had a seminar on how to help children hold the pen right confirmed my thoughts. So I made sure DD has a good hand-eye coordination and that her writing hand is strong enough before she started any writing program. I started myDD drawing on easel since she was 3. We just did lots of drawing from using her arm to smaller drawings using her hand. When she wanted to write or make up a story, I wrote them down for her. Then at the seminar I mentioned above, I bought these toys to strengthen her hand/finger. She liked this one the most. When she was 5 &1/2, we started with the old WTM writing program suggestion (Zaner-Bloser, found on Ebay very cheaply) for about a year until her writing was relatively neat. Then we stopped formal English writing for a while since I wanted her to focus on her Chinese writing. I think there are 2 reasons my DD#1 sails through English writing without tears. 1. Visual & hand-eye: She was used to recognizing Chinese characters which contain much more complexed strokes earlier much (she was reading simple characters around 3)before I let her learn English alphabets. 2. Finger strength:lots of play dough and rubber toys to squeeze using thumb-index-middle fingers. This year 2nd grade, we have been on and off using the Getty-Dubay Italic. But she is anxious to start Peterson cursive CD-R, which I planned for next year. Good luck!

Sorry, I meant 2nd.

Never thought about that! :w00t:I think I will try that with my DD2 when it's time for her. I especially like the 1st grade content. I think you will like it. Do you have this book by E. D. Hirsch? It gives us more book options for each subject for each G, M or Highschool level reading. Now recall last year, we switched to WTM approach: more read-aloud & narration and heavier on history, I suppose. Good luck finding your other programs.:)

Austin

Hi, I am new to the forum. I bought the 1st grade teacher's handbook, day-to-day planner and the instructional sheets for my DD7 for her 1st grade work. First I bought their back then out-of-print CK Sequence for K-8 by recommendation. I love that book for its overview. But it was not specific enough for me since I didn't go to school (Taiwan) in the US until my graduate school studies. Since we do secular HS, I didn't look at any other curricula. I loved the 1st grade teacher's handbook. It gives specific informations for each subjects(especially for music as I was trained academically in classical music). But the day-to-day planner was WAY too slow for HS situation. I figured it was designed for class setting. Then the worksheets for science was too easy and not in depth as much as I desired. I ended up still planning every subject on my own. We did used the What your 1grader should know to supplement with my DD's reading and math. In the end, I switched to Sonlight 1/2 compressed course(take out the religious part. We are buddhists-taoists) since I just don't have time to sit down and plan(Our situation is again a bit unique since we focus on Mandarin learning/Chinese literature. I have to write up the plan for that. And I teach cello at home part-time.). SL planner and worksheets give us more flexibility(4 or 5 day a week option) and more depth than CK. After all, we still didn't follow SL planner strictly. The major reason being that DD7 is an avid reader but also a huge fan about history. So although she devoured all the SL readers(the Q&A section in SL was somewhat too simple for her), she dwelled on Ancient Egypt for almost a year and now she seems to enjoy reading more about ancient Greek mythologies so I haven't pushed her to the next chapter. That said, every once a while my husband and I would sit down and go through CK 1st grade to make sure that we are covering every thing well and approaching all subjects in a good balance. Just my experience.:tongue_smilie:

For parents who are looking for music theory/ear training aid for your children's music learning, I have been using this software for myself, my husband(semi-professional bass player), and my 7-yr-old daughter for a while. The ear training software is called Auralia$99. The theory one is called Musition$99. We bought the combo deal($159 before the educator's discount). It basically takes the student from zero musical training to AP music theory level. For this great amount of content, I thought the price is OK. I had one student learned to tune her cello on her own after practicing ear training with Auralia for a year when she was 9. My 7yr-old LOVEs learning her piano(traditional method) and cello(Suzuki) ONLY by ear. She can play all her Suzuki book 1 songs but is still reluctant to READ MUSIC for her piano assignments(I still record them on my i phone to help her). So I had to make her practice note reading on Musition and it has helped her tremendously, not merely reading drills but through understanding the contour and relating graphic to audial. The intonation/pitch/rhythm dictation exercise really helps her In Japan or Taiwan most children take piano before they take a mono-melodic instrument. Here I have noticed the restraint from progressing among my students, due to their limit of music theory understanding and rhythm/pitch training. This year I am making all my cello private students getting one to practice at home. BTW, I am not affiliated with this company at all. I just thought to share this info for those of you want to help your children(or yourself, since it's a lot of fun) grasp music/instrument learning. Have fun, Shu-Yi, cellist Euna, 7&3/4, Chinese bilingual/cello/piano/art/SL1-2/Miquon-Saxon-Singapore Lydie, 2&5mos, Chinese phonic symbols/numbers/Muzzy French 1

New member here: 0-3 yr: only Chinese from 3yr and on: Chinese, English 6 yr and on: French(inspired by a trip to France and also DD's piano teacher is French) Maybe 8 or 9yr: Chinese, English, French, Latin ____________ cellocoffee, cellist DD 7, Chinese/English bilingual/cello/piano/art/SL1-2/Miquon-Singapore2-Saxon2/WGrammar/Wordly Wise/English poetry-tutor DD 2, Chinese/pretend to play the cello/dance/play dough

Hi everyone, I am new to the forum but I am old in teaching the cello (or 20 years, 8 years in Taiwan and 12 in the US, got a useless Dr. degree in it). I am a Chinese from Taiwan(democratic) but I have never been to China(so relatively not biased). IMHO, string instruments made in China has gone a long way since I started teaching cello 20 years ago. The main reason is that over these 2 decades, more and more instrument luthiers go to China to be on-site supervising their products. And possibly another reason is because tons of Chinese went to Italy or the US to study violin making and won awards every year. Although the quality of Chinese-made instrument still varies drastically, some of them which teamed up with US luthiers for specific quality control have become more and more desirable price v.s. quality to US or Euro-made. One of them is the Jay Haide brand. The name came from, Jay-the American partner from Ifshin San Francisco, and Haide-Chinese partner. It is one of my students' favorite brand. It really depends on what size your daughter is using. If she is using 4/4 and won't need to upgrade then buying one will save some money. If not, renting one seems more reasonable. The two on-line cos mentioned, Shar and Young Musician both have good reputation with their service and quality. One of my students bought a 1/2 cello bow from Shar. It broke in a month and they still let her switch a good bow. Shar offers in-home trial. http://www.sharmusic.com/Pages/Services/In-Home-Trials/ On the other hand, I have heard two musicians found their antique cellos from pawn shops. Too bad I don't have that kind of luck. Sometimes it takes me months to help a student find her "love" cello. But most of all, get some advice from her teacher. I hope she will find a good one perfect for her.

Hi everyone I am new here from TX.:001_smile: I started HS 2 yrs ago when my older DD was 5. From 5yr old to 6yr-old was our HS honeymoon time. Then her personality emerged and had more of her own opinions but most of all, she day dreams ALL the TIME. I have been reading books and learning about power struggles with kids. With some advices from other master HS moms, I tried the following tips that made some progress with my DD's work speed and our relationship: 1. first shorten the work=shorten the time each subject needed to be done. I explained to my DD that I was sad to see both of us got frustrated so I am trying a new way to help her finish it quicker with better quality. Once her better attitude and habit to work well is built then I 2. Find my child's learning strength, learning style: From observing what kinds of activities makes her eyes spark and engaged, I make sure to create some activities to help her get through the subjects she likes less. In my case it's math. So I make sure I don't forget to use manipulative and abacus. We apply real life math situation(let her be a coffee shop owner) to a new concept from Miquon or a new arithmetic learning from Singapore. I make sure any new concept is done with a very short segment of time and only give her review work with more content. I found my DD is a people person like me. She likes to observe what people do where ever we go. If works get dull, I just pull my kids out of the house to the library or most of time to Whole Food's. My girls get some muffins while I enjoy my coffee. This somehow energizes both of us and helps her focused and get work done much easier. 3. Find out her up/down time: we try to do new stuff first thing in the morning after breakfast and save review works and her favorite art projects in the late afternoon. Now my dd#2 is 2 yr old so it's much trickier this year to try to get things done with her wanting my attention all the time. But I make sure to end the day with a good amount of read-aloud to my DD#1 to both of us 4. My dh and I decided that computer/tv time should/toy should not the tool to haggle with how she works. "Works should be done no matter what and learning well is for her own sake" has been kind of a motto inbed in our daily conversation (not preaching). Hope things get better for you soon. -------- Cellist dd#1, 7yr old, Eclectic Chinese-English bilingual/Chinese poetry/cello/piano/art/SL 1-2 &Science/Miquon-Saxon2-Singapore/Muzzy French/Wordly Wise dd#2, 2-yr-old, Mainly Chinese speaking/pretend to play the cello/count to 10 in Chinese, English & French.

New member here: teaching my dd traditional & classical Chinese was my main reason to HS. Benefit of learning traditional Chinese is that it's easy to learn simplified after you gain the basics of using traditional but not the other way round as easily. IMO it's inevitable to learn some classical Chinese once you r in advanced level. Ancient proverbs and sayings r used daily to convey vivid ideas. My dh is not Chinese and my 7yr old is his Chinese tutor now. On the other hand, we plan to start Latin in the next academic year. Cellocoffee, cellist Dd 7, cello(of course)/piano/art/SL 1-2, miquon/Saxon2/Sing 2, Muzzy French, traditional Chinese using real Chinese poetry&literature Dd 2, pretend to play cello, can draw a smile, speaking Chinese 10 times fluent than English, count to 10 in 3 languages