Chinese was never my best subject in school. It has always been a miracle I could maintain a blue or black ink (instead of red) year after year, when none of my parents speak that language.

I have very little faith…and *huge laugh* you could see how pathetic I am when I did the T-Rex post, whereby the ‘chinese’ word for dinosaur was taught wrongly (by me). *covering face in shame*

To me, when it comes to teaching, the most important thing is to make IT interesting. Without the interest of the child, all effort will go to waste. Going the Learn-By-Hard method is not my style.

So for a subject that even I do Not have interest in, what could I do to make it more interesting for my sons? Especially Keatkeat?

1 ~ I have tried playing games : See post “Hanyu Pinyin”

2 ~ I have chosen to let him learn online : See post “How To Teach Hanyu Pinyin”

3 ~ I have used stories to help him recognise Chinese words better : See post “Chinese Character”

4 ~ I have sought help from cartoons : See post “Study Chinese”

5 ~ And my lastest method was going into Comprehension : See post “How to Teach Chinese When Your Child has NO Interest in it?”

After using 5 different approaches, guess which one worked for Keatkeat?

Just in case you are wondering, why do I mention Keatkeat only when Binbin is in the schooling age as well? Well, sad to say, Binbin knows and recognise more Chinese words than Keatkeat.

Yes, Keatkeat is in Primary 3, obviously he should know more Chinese words. However, my above sentence is referring to words that BOTH were exposed to and most of the time, Binbin can remember and Keatkeat cannot.

So the one whom I focus on more is Keatkeat.

Anyway, Chinese aside, Binbin has always been amazing in everything, be it learning abilities, attitude, personality, he is one boy who does not make a parent worry much. Not even when he is sick. He cleans himself up, he asks for warm water, he washes his soil pants without us knowing…. I am very thankful that I was chosen to be Binbin’s Mummy… *heart melt*

Ok, back to the topic, so which of the 5 method worked for the totally-no-interest-in-Chinese 8 year old?

It was story-telling. Yup the third on the list.

I used to think that I need tools to teach Chinese, guess its not true. All I need was creativity, heart and determination.

It is still working till this day. But does that mean I gave up the rest totally? No! Its just that if you have a kid who has almost zero or negative interest in Chinese, you may want to try this story-telling method.

It just might work for your child too.

To end this post, let me share with you Keatkeat’s favourite chinese word now. It is based on this story, “One Japanese, holding a knife (dao), standing at the door (men-kou), killed four person.”

Can you guess what word is it?

I need tools to teach Chinese, or maybe not.

Alright, so who was 1st Runner Up?

And for what type of Competition?

It was KeatKeat!!!

Though he only passed by 7 marks for his latest CA for his Chinese, which I can perfectly understand, given the standard of his Mother’s Chinese, he came in SECOND for this Chinese Draw and Guess Competition for the whole Primary 3 level.

His Chinese teacher gave him a card at a time with Chinese Words written on it. He needs to recognise the word and draw out the ‘thing‘ for the top Chinese Student in his level to guess and this top student will need to write out his guess in Chinese Word and it must match the Chinese Word written on the teacher’s card.

Among the top five artists in his level, he was the only one who recognised the Chinese word ‘Can -Guan’ ?visit) and he drew people at the Zoo. One of the 4 artists could not recognise the word, the other three drew restaurants. So he was the only one who scored a point for that round. Whoo-Hoo! *clap clap clap*

Yes, the Mother’s written chinese sucks and so does her elder son, but hey! nonetheless, he still managed to be the First Runner-Up for a Competition that is done in Chinese. *Super Grin*

Yeah! *Big Round of Applause*

Keatkeat complained to me that his classmate J.D. who queues behind him keeps stepping on the back of his shoes, resulting my boy to trip a few times.

According to Keatkeat….

First day, he questioned J.D., “Why do you keep stepping on my shoe?”

J.D. : “Because you walk too slow.”

Then Keatkeat tries to walk as close to his classmate who queues INFRONT of him, to ‘prove‘ that he is not walking too slow, but J.D. continues to step on Keatkeat’s shoes.

Second day, Keatkeat was pissed, “Stop stepping on my shoes!”

J.D.: “Who ask you  to walk so slow?”

Keatkeat: “I am walking very fast already! Look! I am already walking so closely to him (pointing at his classmate queuing infront of him). If I walk faster, I am going to knock onto him.”

J.D.: “Still too slow.”

Third day, Keatkeat followed my instructions and went to tell his teacher the moment J.D. stepped on him, but the teacher did NOT do anything at all and asked Keatkeat to get back in line.

After 3 consecutive days of such stepping from J.D. and as a result of constant tripping, Keatkeat had hurt the nerves under his right foot and now he is limping.

Today is the fourth day, I told Keatkeat to suggest to his teacher about switching J.D. with him. Meaning Keatkeat should queue behind J.D. instead. “So that I can take revenge?!” Keatkeat exclaimed.

“No!!! Why do you have such thoughts?” I was disappointed.

Keatkeat: “Then why should I queue behind him?”

Me: “So that he will NOT be able to step on your shoes anymore. As simple as that.”

If the teacher refused to make the change, then he leaves me no choice but to write a formal letter to him to get THIS fixed.

Teachers complain that parents nowadays are too complain-y and parents complain that teachers have a could-not-be-bothered attitude.

Well, both have their reasons for doing what they do, so no point arguing on that.

But to me, if my child has already made a conscious effort to tell you (teacher) and you still choose to ignore the issue twice or more, then I, as a parent, have no choice but to step in.

I know Keatkeat well, if one provokes him too much, too often, this boy do throw punches and I do not want to wait till that to happen before I step in. I think 4 days of such nonsense must be stopped.

Enough is Enough.

Both have their reasons

Keatkeat: “Mummy, today H.N. cried.”

Me: “What happened to him?”

Keatkeat: “He went to the toilet to pass motion. When he came back, everyone (classmates) said he is very smelly, but H.N. kept saying that he got wipe his backside properly already. Then Mr. L. asked H.N. to go to him. Then Mr. L….. aiya I don’t want to say already lah.”

Allan and I: “What happened?”

Keatkeat: “Very terrible lah. Don’t want to say. Very embarassing. Very horrible. Don’t want to say already lah.”

Me: “Did Mr. L. striped H.N.? Did he pull down H.N.’s pants?”

Keatkeat: “No lah!”

Allan and I: “Then?!?”

Keatkeat: “Mr. L. very horrible! He asked H.N. to go to him and Mr. L. bend down and SMELL H.N.’s backside! And he said, “You need to go to the General Office to change.” Then H.N. started to cry because everyone (classmates) kept saying, “Eeeee…. H.N. did not wipe properly…H.N. got shit on his pants… Eeee… H.N. is very dirty….” But I did NOT do that! ‘cos I think he is very embarassed already.”

Allan: “How can he do that infront of the class! How would he feel if the Principal bend down and smell HIS BACKSIDE infront of all the other teachers?! How can he be so insensitive! If he ever do that to you, tell me!”

Me: “No Keatkeat, now that you know Mr. L. will do that during such situation. If he calls you to go to him, you must say, “Ok! I know what you want to do. I will go General Office myself!” Don’t give him a chance to shame you.”

Keatkeat: “Aiyo! That will not happen lah, because I always wipe my backside very clean. He will never get the chance to embarrass me.”

Since the first day of Primary 3, Keatkeat has been complaining to us about his teacher Mr. L. being very fierce, very strict and very ‘scary’. Nothing good came out from Keatkeat’s mouth about Mr. L.

Now, after this incident, Allan and I are in the don’t-like-Mr.L.-fangroup too.

Should The Teacher Do That?

No, no, no…. That is NOT the song he sang in the video, just that this song came to my mind when I typed the title down. *bleh*

Finally!
Yes!
Finally I managed to catch him on camera without him knowing.

Singing and doing school worksheets/homework at the same time!
Even moving his body a little as he sang…

When he discovered I was filming him, the ‘mobile phone tug of war’ began. *laugh*

So what made him agree to NOT delete the video and allow me to post it on this blog? 2 pieces of GoGos!!!
*faint*

Oh well, its a good trade-off, because its great to record such moments and be able to relive that moment again many years later… provided YouTube does not die on me… *fingers crossed*

So that is how he has been making his worksheet-time enjoyable. What does your child do to make his/her worksheet-time enjoyable?

This is the way I do my Worksheets