Wednesday, June 24, 2009

边玩边学习

当孩子学上20个字以后,我们可以开始跟他们玩游戏。游戏可以帮助他们学得更快。以下有几种方式可以共参考:

游戏[一]

随便选出5张卡摆在地上,让孩子拿着一把尺或一枝小棒。你念一句词语,让孩子用尺或小棒指给你看。速度要越念越快。这样孩子会觉得很刺激好玩。

游戏[二]

准备一些连接词例如:,然后运用这些连接词和孩子学了的字来做造句。让孩子学得更轻松,不妨做一些好笑的造句如:

小狗唱歌’。

爷爷苹果洗衣’。

奶奶小猫冲凉’。

把字卡摆好在地上,念给孩子听。利用以上的造句构造不停的换字卡做些好笑的造句,孩子很快就会把学过的字记起来,而且是过目不忘。

游戏[三]

把学过的字卡,都摆在地上,来玩个比赛找字卡游戏。如果有其他孩子一起学习,一起比赛会学得更快。要不然,我们可以跟他们一起比赛。

念一张字卡,让孩子在字卡堆里把出所念的字。我们也一起找,偶尔让孩子先找到,偶尔我们先找到。看看谁找到更多的字卡。

游戏[四]

随便选出6 - 8张卡摆在地上,然后要一口气把他们念完,不能呼吸。首先是我们做个孩子看,然后再让孩子自己试试看,看看可不可以做得到。

注:

这种学习字卡和游戏方式,用在3岁到7岁的孩子身上最有效。年纪太小的孩子未必能完全了解字卡的意思,所以未必能达到良好的效果。而对年纪大的孩子们,这种学习方式可能有点儿太幼稚了。所以必须要把握好时机。

Sunday, June 21, 2009

学写字

学习华语,除了要会认字,还要会写。每一个字都有不同的构造,如果不会写的话,是完全没有办法用拼音把它拼出来的。

当孩子开始上小学时,习写字往往就是孩子们很大的绊脚石。还有一点,写华语字时,常常会 “眼高手低”。就是说,有很多的字,我们都会认、都会念,可是就是写不出来。所以,无可否认的就是 :要会写,就必须常常练习。

可是怎么样才可以让孩子每一天都乖乖把一页字写完呢?

怎么样可以让孩子们每一天都乖乖来听写呢?

这都是家庭学习里不大可能做得到的事情。而且,这种学习方式,会让孩子很快就对学习反感,慢慢的也会对华语产生恐惧感。老实说,这种传统的方式还不一定可以达到良好的效果呢!

最近,当我教我的女儿学习华语时,我察觉到了这个问题 :她在听和认字方面都没什么问题,可是一旦写起字来就吃力。于是,我尝试了好几种方法,我发现以下的两种方法很有效,而且也不吃力。

方法[一] 用毛笔学写字

在小学,小朋友多数是在三年级以上都开始学习写毛笔字。我的女儿六岁时,我就让她用毛笔来学写字。我不要求她把毛笔字的一笔一划都写的好;写的有劲,我只要求她拿毛笔的手势要对。因为她们年纪还小,是没有办法很好的控制手的力道。但为了不要影响他们日后的正统学习,所以务必要求他们正确的持笔手势。

我会叫她把昨天学过的字,用毛笔来习写。每一个字练习3 至 5 次。我比较喜欢采用墨砚,一方面方便使用,另一方面孩子喜欢自己磨墨。而且,墨汁带有一股异味,不好受。

材料:

1. 麻将纸
2. 一枝大楷笔
3. 墨砚

在写之前,将麻将纸摺成3至4寸大的方格。摺好之后,把麻将纸打开来,麻将纸上就有像字写字簿上的大方格了。这些大方格帮助孩子写得整齐又不浪费。

方法[二] 你一笔;我一笔

就如所说的,“你一笔;我一笔”- 我心里想着某些字,然后我先开始写第一笔,接着让孩子想想如何下第二笔。我再接第三笔,第四笔等等。。。以此类推。

我们可以告诉孩子说:“看看你可以猜到我心里想的字吗?”

当孩子没办法接的时候,就说 :“pass”。那我又继续接第二笔、第三笔,一直到孩子可以接下去写为止。

在学习写字的当儿也学习到了如何计算笔画和更深入了解笔画的顺序

偶尔我会和孩子玩游戏。谁写最后一笔,谁就得一分。他们往往会在脑海里计算笔画,看看要“pass”还是要写才会赢。这些“心算”无形中也帮助孩子更容易的把字记起来。

材料:

1. 麻将纸 (可以把纸摺成大方格)
2. 两种颜色的彩色笔 / MARKERS

用flashcard学华语

有一天我在书店看到一本书 - 如何教宝宝学华语。内容是说如何教小宝宝学认华语字。于是,我就买下了这本书,希望可以找到一个好方法来教导我的女儿轻轻松松的学华语。

方法其实来很简单。就是因为很简单,所以刚开始的时候,我不太相信能够做得到。我尝试了一段日子,发觉这方法还不赖!

记得那时候,我的女儿有三岁吧!我开始用FLASHCARD 来教她。一天大概学5个字。我自己准备所有的材料,非常简单容易。
做法:

1。 准备一些A3 SIZE 的画册和红笔 (MARKERS)。
依年龄而定,年纪越小,字就必须大一些、粗一些。当我做FLASHCARD 给我三岁的女儿时,我将A3 SIZE 的纸切成三张。字体大。如下:

当她大概四岁半开始,我就将A3 SIZE 的画册切成六张。字体也变小一些,用细一点的红笔写。如下:
2。每一张纸写一或两个字。
3。字要用红色的MARKER 笔写。


在开始教之前, 有几点要注意。

第一
必须准备很多的字卡,目的是不要让学习中断。小孩子可以在这样的学习方式下学习是因为每一天都有新鲜的字。一旦没有新鲜字,小孩的兴趣就会大减了,这样就全工尽费了。

第二
选择的字必须要有关联性,例如:家庭成员;水果类;动物类等等。

再来,有一些形象字,我们可以用提示来帮助记忆,例如:爸爸、爷爷都有胡子,所以都有 “乂”。如 “下雨”= 有很多水点,所以,都有“丶丶丶丶”。如“伞”- 样子很像一把伞。

还有,利用重复字能帮助记忆和联想。如:苹果、水果、果子等等。如:西瓜、木瓜、冬瓜、蜜瓜、南瓜等等。

第三
必须先学习怎么样换卡,因为换卡的速度和顺畅性会影响小孩的吸收力。如果换得太慢,小孩会觉得很闷。如果换得不顺畅,小孩会觉得不耐烦。

第四:每一回的学习时间要以每个小孩的能耐而定。多半不超过10分钟。每30分钟再重复一次。
教法

第一天给他念五张卡,每30分钟,重复念一次给他听。
第二天,再5张新的字卡,念完了5张卡,继续昨天的5张卡。也是每30分钟,重复念一次给他听。

当我的女儿三岁的时候,我还在工作。所以,只有晚上才有时间教她读。每一天的晚餐过后,我给她念大概三到四回,效果还不错。

她一天可以吸收4 - 5个字。

Friday, June 19, 2009

Looooong Summer Vacation - What to do?

It is summer vacation now. What do we do with our children? They can't be watching TV all day long or playing nintendo DS and Wii all the time!

We should help them plan something in order for them to have a quality holiday. Apart from enrolling our children to some non-sleepover or sleepover summer camp or perhaps finishing up the holiday worksheets, there are many other ways to keep our children busy. I found some websites which can be of useful guide to help us plan an eventful summer break for our children.


1. Kids Goals.com @ http://www.kidsgoals.com/kids-summer-goal-setting.shtml.

In this website, there are some good reference of recipes and kids crafts we can do together with our children. The one I particularly fond of is the making of the Summer Holiday Memory Book. I think this forms a good start towards an eventful summer break.


I made the Summer Holiday Memory Book together with my daughter. We used recycled stuff like old magazines, old calenders and empty carton food boxes to make the book. It turns out to be quite nice. We will try to fill up the book with something everyday. There is also a link to a pre-designed template specially for this Summer Holiday Memory Book which young kids can easily fill it up with least assistance.

2. Hands On Crafts for Kids http://www.crafts4kids.com/projects.htm

This is another website that gives many ideas what hand crafts can do together with our children. There are just too many in there that you may need to spend quite a lengthy of time to search for something that really interests your kid.

3. About.com : Fatherhood http://fatherhood.about.com/od/activities/a/summervacation.htmg ives general ideas of some productive summer vacation ideas that may be going round in the community. Hence, it takes a little effort of us as parents to make some enquiries if there is any useful camps, reading programs, field trips that our children can participate in.

The other inexpensive way of spending the summer vacation is getting our kids to help up in the house chores. I made a template out of a party plate. I divide the party plate in 8 segments. Each segment carries a different type of chores that comes with a little wages. The rule of the game is they will only be entitled to the wages if they carry out the chores from start to end.

The idea is to build their responsibility to complete a task, to understand the importance of making and saving money, most importantly it helps to improve their aritmatics too.

Other ideas to consider may be visiting the National Library or the largest bookstore in town.
Make a day trip to some nearby places of interest which we may not have been visiting since we were kids.

小伟的生日变成了吹泡泡日

给孩子自己读的小故事,


今天是小伟七岁的生日。小伟请了他的好朋友们来一起过生日。


生日当天,小伟的好朋友们很早就来到他的家。

小伟的妈妈正在厨房忙得不得了。

小伟的好朋友们看到了,放下手上的玩具,说道:“我们来帮助小伟的妈妈吧!”

小伟和他的好朋友们马上跑到厨房,帮助小伟的妈妈做事。


小伟的妈妈很高兴,说道:“谢谢你们。你们好哦!”

他们帮助小伟的妈妈把食物和水果放到桌子上,再
把蛋糕也放在桌子上。

小伟的妈妈很高兴,说道:“谢谢你们帮助我。你们好哦!你们这么,我给你们玩吹泡泡吧!”

小伟和他的好朋友们很高兴因为小伟的妈妈给了他们每人一瓶泡泡。


他们玩得很开心。

你来吹,我来挡。看看谁的泡泡飞得高, 看看谁的泡泡飞得远。

玩着。。玩着。。大家都忘了今天是小伟的生日。

小伟喊着:“哇!你们怎么把我的生日变成了吹泡泡日呢!”



重复字:

好朋友 帮助 乖 吹 泡泡
hǎo péng yǒu bāngzhù gūai chūi pào pào

空中飞人的故事

给孩子自己读的小故事,

有一天,当我在操场上玩耍时,一个不小心,我了一个筋斗

哇!我的啊!

老师马上帮我擦擦背哇!

我的了!

回到家里,妈妈看了看我的,说道:“哇!你的怎么啦?”


我说道:“妈妈,今天我做了空中飞人因为我在操场上了一个筋斗!”

妈妈笑了笑说:”来吧!妈妈给你擦擦背吧!”

哇!我的全好了!




重复字:

背 痛 擦 哇 摔 筋斗
bèi tòng cā wā shūai jīn dǒu


Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Let's play Together. Yes or No?

Yesterday was the first day of summer holiday. My daughter invited her classmates over for a "Let's play day". Naomi and Seo Jeong were such wonderful playmates. They listened. They shared. They didn't argue at all. They were just the Perfect Playmates.






"we were playing cooking just now, and now we are playing doctor."

"After this, we want to go for a swim and then, we will watch high school musical."



"I want to be doctor too!"

"Excuse me, Lv's mum, could you be our patient?"

"oh no, my mum would like to do her usual stuff at the computer."

"thanks darling!" I was saved hah!

"Opsh.. you have pain in your arm, we need you to take urine test and poo poo test."

"Wow! You are such a good patient. I will give you this little doggy as a gift."

One hour later, I interrupted their play : "Anybody wants some snacks?"

Within seconds, they planted themselves a nice seat in front of the TV. This is the time they got to eat all kinds of things without having to ask mum first! Simulteneously the high school musical movie started too... They sang and danced along, while crunching their seaweeds and biscuits!

Next on the line, SWIMMING! "Let's get change." Oh my god, they didn't even check the clock. The play time of 2 hours was almost up and mum would be on the way to pick up any moment! I had to quickly pick up the phone and called their moms to stay home for another hour.

Such a fun-filled morning! As expected, the "Let's play day" ended nearly 3.5 hours later!

Well, the point is, as parents, we line up lessons after lessons for our children preparing them a bright future ahead. We must not forget that it is equally important to prepare our children to accept and be accepted in the grown-up world. "Let's play day" is one of the easy-to-organise event that are able to nurture such values.

"Let's play day" can be granted in the form of reward ie. since you behave so well over the last week, so you get to invite your best friend over to play.


Advantage of Playing Together
Playing together enhances social skill, keep them active and energized.

It encourages the quality of:
- sharing
- self-responsibility
- self-confidence
- togetherness
- understanding
- accept tolerance

6 Ways How to Ensure a Pleasant "Let's Play Day"

  • Limit the playmates to maximum of 2. As the numbers increase, the possiblity of argument is higher. They may not be able to interact positively.
  • Set the play time limit and make it short. Set fix start and end time for all parties. Be it your child as host or guest, we need to respect punctuality in order for children to understand that when it is time to wrap up, then it is time to go. Generally 1 - 2 hours will be sufficient.
  • Observe the play especially when it comes to new playmates. If you find that they can't really get along together, you may ask your child's permission before inviting him / her in the next visit.

  • Snack time - this is usually the highlights of the entire "Let's Play Day". Little tit-bits, finger food and drinks will be great for kids.

  • Set aside "the-must-not-share" kind of toy before playmates arrive. Some children may not like others to touch their best and super-cool toy car. Make sure you put them away prior to the playmates' visit.

  • Early time's up warning - Rather than abruptly end the play day, it would be a good idea to warn them that they have 10 more minutes left.

If you would like to read more about this topic, these are the useful websites:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/142829/how_to_host_a_successful_playdate.html?cat=25

http://www.parents.com/preschoolers/socializing/social-growth/plan-playdate/

http://www.parents.com/preschoolers/socializing/social-growth/plan-playdate/

Friday, June 12, 2009

I am thrilled!

Yesterday was a great day for me! I got my first work-from-home job. For the first time over the past two years, I felt so contented and thought that life is just so meaningful having to spend time with my family at the same able to make some pocket money. 12 June was indeed a day to REMEMBER!

Having tight dateline, I had to put aside some of the chores and even "neglect" my girl for a couple of hours. I told her that I had some assignment to do. Though she was a little bit confused how on earth I could actually got a job from the computer?! Anyway, that was not the point. The point was .... please read on...

I told her I would be busy the the next day or two and had asked her for a favour. She helped me to clear away the dishes on the table, she even wiped the table. Sometimes we didn't know our kids could do so much. The point I wanted to share was I saw Lv being so capable in the absence of me!

It is important to educate our children from young to do simple chores. Be it just beating some eggs, mixing flour, smashing tomatoes, clearing away their toys ... whatever. By giving them the training from young, they tend to be more helpful in doing housework as they grow older.

That was why Lv was able to help up during the "emergency". We always fear of the mess they "might" create, hence we choose to shoo.. them away. This unfortunately would discourage them from helping in the future.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Simplified Important Goal 将重要目标简单化

Little Story for Our Children,

In one of the important tournaments, a high-jump athletic was facing the final crucial jump to the Gold Medal. The coach told her that : "Once you jump over this 2 centimeter, you will get the new house." She didn't manage to jump over the crucial 2 centimeter.


In Los Angeles Olympics, when the injured diver, Louganis, faced the final strive to the Olympics Gold Medal, the coach told him that : " Your mom is at home waiting for you. Once you are done with this last strive, you can go home and eat the meat pie your mom made." Louganis used all his preseverence and vitality, he succeeded finally and won the Gold Medal.





给我们孩子的故事,

在一次重要的比赛上,一位国内跳高运动员面临着冲击金牌的最后一跳。教练对她说 : “跳完这两厘米,你的房子就到手了。” 结果他就是没跳过这两厘米。




在洛杉矶奥运会上,当受了伤的跳水王子洛加尼斯是同样面临着冲击金牌的最后一跳时,教练对他说的是 :“你的妈妈在家等着你呢。跳完这轮,你就可以回家吃你妈妈做的小馅饼了。”洛加尼斯用他的毅力和精神风貌征服了裁判。


This story tells parents and children that .....

Using the same modivation tactic, a new house and mom's meat pie, what is the different impact over the athetlic's respond? At certain important moment, if we impose extra pressure over ourselves, it will affect one's capability to perform. If we simplify the important goal, take it easy, we will be able to perform beyond our exhibit and succeed.

这个故事告诉为人父母和孩子们 。。。


同样是激励性诱导,一所房子与妈妈的小馅饼,在运动员的心理上引起的反映有什么不同呢? 在重要时刻,如果一味地加重自己的心理负担,反而会影响到人的能力发挥。如果将很重要的目标简单化,轻松化,就会超常发挥取得胜利。


Story extracted from “TaiHai Publisher", Beijing.

故事采自于 :帮助孩子成长经典故事全集,台海出版社, 北京

Right Direction is More Important than Working Hard 方向比努力重要

Little Story for Our Children,

One night, a guy was trying to search for something in the room.

Another guy asked : "what are you looking for?"

"I lost a penny." He said.

"Did you lose your penny in the middle of the room or near the wall?" The second guy asked.

"Not at both places, I lost my penny outside in the garden." He replied.

"Why don't you search outside then?" The second guy ask again.

"Well, there isn't any light outside." He answered.

You probably think that this story is very funny. Unfortunately, among us there are people who search for things they want in life at the wrong place.

给我们孩子的故事,

夜晚,一个人在房间里四处搜索着什么东西。

有个人问道: "你在寻找什么呢?”

“我丢了一个金币。”他回答。

“你把它丢在房间的中间,还是墙边?” 第二个人问。

“都不是,我把它丢在房间外面的草地上了。” 他又回答。 那你为什么不到外面去找呢?”

“因为那儿没有灯光。”

你肯定会觉得这个人很可笑。然而,我们中的有些人每天都在错误的地方寻找它们想要的东西。


This story tells parents and our children that .....

If we are thinking that it is easier to look for gold at the beach and we spent all our effort in finding gold there, then at the end of the day we would get beach sand. If we want to succeed, it is crucial to find the right goal. This is utmost important to our child's future.

这个故事告诉为人父母和我们的孩子。。。

一个想找到金矿的人,如果他认为在海滩上挖掘更容易,而因此就在那儿寻找金子的话,那么他找到的肯定只是一堆沙土。如果要有所收获,必须选择正确的目标。这对孩子的一生都很重要。



Story extracted from “TaiHai Publisher", Beijing.
故事采自于 :帮助孩子成长经典故事全集,台海出版社, 北京

It is practicing piano time!

"My kid doesn't want to practice playing piano."

"She didn't touch the piano for the whole week."

"Every time she plays, she throws tantrum!"

"Should I just stop her from playing totally?" The answer is "NO!"

First, we have to understand that even for children with musical talent, it is a great challenge to get them to practice everyday because nobody likes practicing. So, our children are not alien in anyway.

Secondly, our parents once upon a time had forced us to learn piano. Ask ourselves this question: "Do you blame your parents for forcing you to pick up this skill?" The answer is "NO". In actual fact, nobody will blame their parents for making them a pianist, guitarist, drummer or whatever..... They would be thankful to mum for her persistence and patience instead.

Thirdly, we have to accept the reality that "forcing" children to practice any musical instrument is basically a constant variable if they ever take up music lessons. The question now is how to make it more pleasant for both.

I have read articles from books and tried many ways. I would like to share with you the effective ways which I have used and it has been working quite well.

1. Schedule it into daily routine

Discuss with your kid how to schedule their daily routine. Do schedule in their play time, TV time, computer time as well. Fix the time and sequence of each chore everyday ie. practicing piano always come after TV time for example. Make sure we guide them everyday until it becomes a routine.

2. Short practicing time

Young beginners especially do not need very long practicing time. For a child of 5 to 7 years old, the frequency of practice required daily is only 10 minutes. Children usually have short attention span. In fact, they will achieve more at shorter intervals.

Daily Frequency Practice Guide
5 to 7 years old 10 minutes
8 to 9 years old 15 minutes
10 to 12 years old 20 minutes

Sometimes, I play "trick". Let say the time is up, but she is still in the middle of "enjoying" the practicing. I will tell her :"OK, time is up. Enough playing for today. We continue tomorrow." The moment you said this, she will want to do more.

After a while, we don't really look at the time anymore. They tend to spend longer time practicing. Now, my girl spent at least 20 minutes every day sitting in front of the piano.

3. Set a small target each day

Before she starts the practicing, I will say:"OK, today we just play 5 songs." They will do the counting and will complete the target with not much of argument. Don't overwhelmed our kid with too high target. It should be something that can be handled by them easily.

4. Respect each practice day

During the practicing time, there should be no disturbance and distraction like TV or phone calls or talking ..... Sit down and listen, enjoy the playing. Though for young beginners, it takes quite a lot of patience for parents to really "enjoy" their music. But, bear in mind that we want our children to respect the practicing time, we as parents must also respect their practice. So, please stop whatever we are doing, just sit down and listen.

5. Allow children to explore

Sometimes our children like to "smash" the keyboard making terrible chaos. At times, they tend to enjoy what they are playing. Try to avoid saying:"Stop doing that, the piano is very expensive. You will spoil it!" Perhaps it would sound more appropriate to say: "It is nice music there, but perhaps a little lighter would be nicer!" That was how famous composers found their inspiration anyway!

Lv starts to understand the important of bass. She sometimes mix in her own style from the song she learned too. She even tried to write them down on manuscripts book. At home, we have digital piano, sometimes she would switch on the classical music from the digital piano, and she pretend to play the song. All these exercises are good training to their ears.

8. Reward

This conclusion point is the last and the most important of all. I reward my child for each and every practicing. We don't want to spoil our children, so in drawing up the reward system, we need to be careful, not too "generous" so to speak. As I said, children have simple mind. They will be happy with even a "Darbie" doll for as long as it is cute.

I reward her with stickers. Every 10 minutes of playing, she will get 4 stickers. If she shows extra effort in practicing or she plays well, I will reward her more for that day. Once she collects 100 stickers, she can claim a nice gift. If you want, you can set an absolute amount per 100 stickers. Means if the gift your children want are too expensive, then he / she should use an equivalent stickers to exchange for it.

Don't
  • Don't threaten to retract the reward already granted just because they throw tantrum during one of the practices. We can penalise them by not giving any reward for that particular day.
  • Don't renegotiate / reduce the reward as our children progress. This is very demoralising to them. We have to honour what we have promised. They will conclude very quickly that it is basically no point being hardworking after all.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Does one solution always lead to another problem?

As I was enjoying the days of not having to fetch my girl from friend's house in the middle of my cooking, I soon realised that it was not as simple as that.

I have another problem to deal with now.

She became tired after the play at friend's house. I shouted, I screamed, I nagged, I muted from talking to her.... when she refused to do her chores. At night before going to bed, she would apologize to me nicely, and as usual I accepted and tugged her to bed nicely too! She promised she would not do that again.

But, two days later, things seem to be back to normal again.

I shouted again, I screamed again .... things went round and round like a merry-go-round.

Finally, I decided to find quiet moment for both of us. I sat down with her. For once, I didn't scold her, I didn't raise my voice.

What I did was I tabulated her past one week agenda into a table. Monday to Sunday on Vertical axis. Her chores like Play, TV, Piano, Study, Bath .... on the Horizontal axis. She was quick enough to understand the table. She saw all the ticks on the "Play" and "TV" but none on the rest.

I asked her:

"Did mummy allow you to play? " {yes}

"Did mummy allow you to watch TV?" {yes}

"Did mummy listen to you, letting you play and watch TV as you want? {yes}

"Did you study Bahasa Melayu properly?" {no}

"Did you listen play piano properly?" {no}

"Did you listen to mummy?" {no}

Last 2 questions:

"If you don't listen to mummy, should mummy listen to you?" {.........}

"Do you want mummy to listen to you?" {yes}

In the old days when we were young especially coming from an Asian family, there was basically no room for negotiation as far as what our parents told us to do. We basically follow instruction. Otherwise, canning would be the next thing we would get. But today, parents have changed, the world has changed. Like it or not, the old dictatorship method is no longer workable with today's children.

Children have brilliant thinking and in-depth mind nowadays. I created the table for her to see herself as an outsider. I posted her questions to lead her to the problem. The rest of the equations will be done in their little mind. As the proverb says, where there is a will, there is a way. The WILL is the urge that makes our children move forward.

Since then, she has been very well behaved. At the end of every week, I rewarded her with 50 stars and a colourful certification I printed from my laptop if she has all ticks on her weekly table.

She was so proud of the certificate she received and she shared the good news with her dad that very evening she received the first certification. Actually, children has simple mind. They are very contented eventhough the rewards are just some stickers of their favourite cartoon characters.

How? Bagaimana?

As children learn, it is important to stress how much they know rather than how much they don't know. This explains why our children like to watch the same DVD over and over again and yet they are not bored over it. The reason is rather simple. The more they watch, they more they feel familiar about it, the more they feel comfortable with it too.

I adopt the same rule of thumb when I teach my daughter Bahasa Melayu:

  • I repeat simple phrases -- I always speak the same phrases to her. I do mental aritmethics. I add on to longer sentences day by day. For example, "keluarkan pensel". Every time when she needs to write, I will say "Keluarkan pensel". I always say it with the same intonation as well. After a while when she is familiarized with the phrase, I will say "Keluarkan pensel dan pemadam". I will keep going and going until one day I will say :"Bolehkah kamu keluarkan pensel dan pemadam kamu?"

  • I read aloud -- Every sentence and paragraph I will read to her, slowly and clearly. She will "ting" [at very high pitch] to alert me that she doesn't understand. Otherwise, I will keep on reading. One day when I feel that she is confident enough to read some words, I will ask her if she would like to try to read instead? If she said yes, let's do it. If she said, no, then leave it. I continue to read to her. Don't rush this. The moment they read out and it turns out to be lousy, it will be very difficult to get them to open their mouth again.

  • I praise her, I don't correct her -- I only praise when she did something nice, like she is able to pronounce some words clearly or she can spell some words though some other words was spelt wrongly. I will say :"I can see that you are able to spell many words correctly nowadays." or I will say :"I can hear you more clearly when you read." Remember to keep these words within ourselves:" No, not like that. Why you can't pronounce it properly?" It is just very simple. We are willing to work extra hard when our boss praises us, not scolds us!

  • I have no expectation over targets -- In the past, I set targets like what she has to learn everyday. I got very frustrated at the end of the lesson, because she probably did 1 or 2 out of 5 on the list. I started scolding her for doing things too slow blah blah blah... But now, what I did was I would praise her for having completed 2 things instead. Bear in mind, not only children, even we adults can't perform well under pressure!

  • I don't TEST her! -- As we teach, we are eager to know how much our children absorb, how much they have learned. Remember! DO NOT TEST THEM!! It doesn't mean that we do not test them at all at the end of day. But, don't be eager to find this out too early. I have taught Lv Bahasa Melayu for 10 months now. I only started to test her one month ago. And, very importantly, majority of the questions I tested her was something that she already knew. I will introduce here and there some new vocab. All in all, out of 50 questions I gave her, she would be able to answer at least 45 of them. Again, it is confidence we are dealing with here.

FIRST Bahasa Melayu Lesson - Unit 1 Kenali Saya

I recalled the first Bahasa Melayu lesson I taught Lv. It was about knowing yourself "Kenali Saya". The story was probably about 12 - 15 sentences. Almost every sentence has alien vocab. to her! And not only one, but many aliens in a sentence!


the story was something like this ......


KENALI SAYA
Nama saya ialah Lam Hui Ni.
Saya bersekolah di Sekolah Antarabangsa Singapore.
Saya berumur tujuh tahun.
Dalam keluarga saya ada empat orang ahli, iaitu ayah, ibu, adik dan saya.
Saya tinggal dengan keluarga saya di Shah Alam.

Swee Leng ialah sahabat baik saya.
Dia tinggal dengan keluarganya di Shah Alam juga.
Pekerjaan bapa saya ialah jurutera.
Ibu saya pula ialah seorang suri rumahtangga.
Adik saya berumur dua tahun. Namanya ialah Lam Hui Fei.
Ibu bapa sayang akan saya.

Saya sangat sayang kepada keluarga saya juga.
Keluarga saya sangat bahagia.


p/s: BTW, the "bold" words are aliens to her


I wanted to crash my head to wall. What has she been learning in kindergarten for the past one year?

I tried several approaches.
First approach : I explained each and every vocab. as we read along. Then, I realised that she was not learning a single word from there.


Second approach : I started to draw arrows here and there indicating the meaning of each alien in English. That didn't work as well because the moment i covered up the English words, she managed to pull some out of her memory but still very hesitant.


Third approach : I started to "dismantle" each and every sentence in the story and I taught her Step by Step.

My worksheets look pretty simple and as I said, it is "totally-not-fancy" but the fonts are really BIG! Below are some of the worksheets I did for her.





To download the entire Unit 1 Kenali Saya file in PDF format : Click Here

To download other UNITS in PDF format : go to Quick Downloads

By doing this in a step-by-step way, she managed to understand the story within the next 3 days. And, more so, it opened up her mind that "Well, Bahasa Melayu is not so difficult to learn after all!" She moved on from there quite nicely and steady now.


Our children can learn great things. As long the material is right, they can do miracles!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

How I teach my daughter Bahasa Melayu?

In mid of 2007, my husband had an opportunity to work in Vietnam. After evaluating the pros and cons, we decided to embark onto this "expat" cruise, because our daughter gets to go to international school!

Since then, she progresses very well in English. I was very glad because English, as we all know is a very important international language. She will have a bright future I thought to myself.

Then, counting the months and years before Lv will reach university, it is going to be another 10 years or so. Me and my husband know that we are not planning to stay on "expat" cruise forever and we know that Lv will have to get back to local school one day.


So the problem becomes too obvious now.


How is Lv going to adapt to the local school which requires her to
master Bahasa Melayu
in addition to English and Mandarin language?

I started to browse around for study material in bookstores during the last summer break. Brought back some material and I started her right away.

My head was blowing off!! She has no basics in Bahasa Melayu except some simple phonics and some simple vocabulary. The truth was ~~ There was a big gap between her current standard and the actual Primary 1 standard.

I knew I have to find ways to narrow this gap. I started to work on my own material. The material i did was drafted according to Primary 1 standard. There are "totally-not-fancy" print-outs material.

I am sure there are many parents like me would face the same problem. Some are struggling, some don't know where to start and some I believe may have given up trying. But, I believe If it is the right material, they can. So far she has been picking up the language quite well.

Cheers...

Friday, June 5, 2009

Knows when to come home....

We are staying in apartment. Usually after school, they are many children playing in the playground or the swimming pool. My daughter will meet her friends there as usual ~ Come, lets play at my house! is their usual thing.

Every time when she goes to friend's house to play, the "stressful" thing for me is having to persuade her to come home for shower and dinner. I had to stop in the middle of my cooking, changed into something decent though is sweat everywhere, then go to pick her up. Sweat and smelly on one hand, and on the other hand, my girl didn't want to come home with me. My soup is boiling, I am boiling too! Gosh! what do I do .....

"U don't get to play anymore!"

That was the first thing i would say to her the moment we reached home. And from that day onwards, the moment she got down from school bus, her face turned sad and sour. Whenever her friend invited her over, she would look at me with her most pitiful expression....

So, i made a deal with her. First, i taught her how to read the time from her watch. The moment the watch turn 5:00, its time to go home. If she comes home on time, then tomorrow is another play day. No questions ask! If she didn't, she will not get to play in her friend's house in the next two days. Of course, I do not penalize her for not reaching home at 5 exactly, as long as she reached home by 5.15pm or 5.30pm, it is absolutely acceptable because the point is she knows how to stop and when to come home.

It has been going on quite well now. Every time she goes out to play at friend's house, she has been able to reach home no later than 5.15pm.

Encouragement or Enforcement?

I met a friend yesterday. She is from Thailand. She told me that this coming two weeks her children were doing nothing but playing in school because the school exam was over.

It was a stressful exam for her children, not just academic wise but language barrier too. She saw her children studying very hard for the exam and she was very proud of them. She encouraged her children that don't worry about the outcome, mum is already very happy because you are trying your best!


She is such a great mum!

In today's world, children are asked to do a lot more things compared to those days. The expectation of today's parents are a lot more higher. Many parents enforce the children to learn this and that until they have hardly time to play.

When the children scored 90 points, instead of saying "Well done!" we said:

"y u lose 10points? u should have gotten at least 9 points! English is your strong subject. Now u lose 10points, it will affect your overall grade... " blah blah blah...

or sometimes v will tell our children:

"u better spend the next 2 hours sitting here and study, don't go anywhere. if u score less than 90 points, u are going to get it from me!"

or when they scored less points, v said:

"If u listened to me before, u won't be getting this kind of marks!"

All these "enforcement" imposed on our kids, how far has it worked?

I think perhaps instead of forcing and stressing our children to study hard before the exam, perhaps it is a good idea to give them some encouragements instead.... they may not scored the best result, but they are definitely performing at their best form!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

I beat mum by 5 minutes!

I recalled how I taught my daughter, Lv to sleep in her own room. She was 4 years old then. I started with telling her bedtime story and I promised her that I will stay in bed with her until she dozed off. Initially, i had to read 4 or 5 story books before she got really tired and dozed off. Many occasions I was the one who dozed off first!!

After days of "persistence", she finally dozed off before i could even finish 1 story book. As she grew older, I let her read story books on her own. Once in a while, she will read me a bedtime story, or we will read our story books together. The idea is make her less and less dependent on me. Soon, I don't read bedtime story to her but I will stay in bed with her until she dozed off.
Then, the hardest part comes... "how to detach myself totally".

One day, a friend shared with me her "successful plan"! It really works.

One night I told my girl this:


"Mummy is a bit busy in the kitchen preparing for the potluck lunch tomorrow. So, can u do me one little favour? U sleep now and I will visit you in 5 minutes time."

She bought my lie...

The next day, i told her:

"Wow! u did a great thing yesterday. So, lets do it again. U sleep now, I will be just outside and I will visit you in 5 minutes time."

Goodbye kiss, I off the light and went off. She did it again.

The next day, i told her the same thing. she was smarter then, she said to me :

"Mum, 5 minutes equals to 300 seconds and that is very long time. " Ha! Since when she can do 3 digits multiplication!!

So, we renegotiated our deal.

We agreed at 3 minutes per visit.

How it Works?

  • Make a lie ... well, ask for a favour to sleep alone for one night.
  • Visit at 5 minutes interval for the first 2 nights This will give him / her comfort that you keep to your promise.
  • Prolonged the 5 minutes visit. How long per visit depends on kids, preferably when you visit him / her, your child should have dozed off by then.
    • Praise him / her for being a good the next day.

    • Be FIRM. At times when v tug them to bed, they will hold our hands, pull our skirts just to make us stay in bed with them. Don't ever get "cheated" by this.
    • Goodbye kiss, switch off the lights and just go
      !

    It took just a few days, soon it becomes an achievement to your child that I beat mum by 5 minutes! Now, I am glad that Lv no longer needs my company going to bed. She sleeps on her own in her very own bed, in her very own room.

    What Expert Says...

    http://www.parents.com/toddlers/sleep/101/stress-free-guide-to-bedtime-/

    Tuesday, June 2, 2009

    Hurray! I have my own blog!!

    Yes, Hurray! I have my own blog!!

    I suppose I am one of the last few on earth who will still make a big huh-hah over having own blog! Haha!! Thanks to my dear friend, Bee Cheng, for sharing this with me.

    Well, nevertheless, I will make today a special occasion anyway ~~ "The Opening of Mum's Diary". I always like to make celebration over special things that happens to me and my family. The annual official celebrations in Malaysia, as where I come from, or in Vietnam, as where I am staying now, are just not enough... or precisely speaking, many of the celebrations r not too relevant to me!

    Lets start make our own celebrations! Happy Mummy's Diary!