All About Your Child

I have always believed in learning the smart way instead of the hard way.

When we were young, my sister and I have our own way of learning Multiplication 9, or more commonly known as 9 times tables, the easy way. My method works for me and her method works for her. So today we tried both methods on my son, Keatkeat.

The trick that works for my sister ~ the Finger Method

The concept is to use your fingers as a guide. This can ONLY be applied to 9 times tables.

Example 3 x 9 = 27

1. Tell your child to place his ten fingers down as shown in the photo below.
2. Since it is ’3′ x 9, tell your child to ‘hide’ the 3rd finger from the left. The hidden finger acts like a divider between the tenths and the ones.
3. On the left side of the hidden finger is the tenths. Since only 2 fingers are up on the left side of the divider, it represents ’20′.
4. On the right side of the hidden finger is the ones. Since 7 fingers are up on the right side of the divider, it represents ’7′.
5. So the answer is ’20′, ’7′ = 27

Just by looking at the fingers which are UP will help your child to determine the answer straight away.

From 9 times tables

The Slide Show below shows the 9 times table from 1 x 9 to 10 x 9.

I tried my method on my 7 year old Keatkeat, he can perform in written form but finds it harder to absorb.

Yet, the moment my sister shared her method with him and my 6 year old Binbin, BOTH understood immediately and could recite the full 9 times tables without a problem.

So I will not be sharing my method. If my sister’s method has proven to be easier for children to comprehend, I do not see the need to share mine. So ‘Thank You Sis’.

Is this how your child learn his or her 9 times tables too?

If you look back at my ‘old’ blog posts on the topic of teaching Chinese, my focus has always been creating an interest in the subject in my boys. Frankly, it is difficult to build an interest in something on someone else, when you, yourself is not interested in! *sigh*

Chinese is my weakest subject, has always been. Well, I used to blame it on my Parents because none of them spoke to me in Chinese. After I became a parent, I took the blame away from them and acknowledged that it was my bad mentality towards the language which resulted in my bad grades.

One needs to ‘Speak More, Write More, Read More’, if you want to master the language, or simply ‘Survive‘ it.

Then again, what do you do, when your child refused to speak in Chinese? Hates writing those Chinese character strokes? Take hours just to finish reading a short Chinese story?

Well, its a battle I have to go through with Keatkeat every single day. Yes, just Keatkeat. Binbin loves Chinese. Sad to say, words which the Kindergarten 2 child knows, his Primary 2 older brother does not or have forgotten.

Which is why I say, it voice down to the attitude of the child. The way I teach the both of them are the same, but why does one excel and the other struggles? ~ Interest.

Before I reveal my latest trick used on Keatkeat, please allow me to vent a little here by sharing what it is like to get Keatkeat to complete a Chinese homework from school:~

‘Mind Blocked’ is what I have to deal with every time we sit down for Chinese lesson at home.

For example, the words ‘Small Fish’, he would keep pronouncing these two words as ‘Small Rain’. When we separate ‘Small’ from ‘Fish’, he is able to pronounce individual words correctly. But when we put them back together, he will say ‘Small Rain’ again.

Doing motion without knowing what he is doing is another big hurdle for him and me to conquer.

For example, during ‘Zao-Ju’, which is sentence construction, he would ask, “Mummy, how to write ‘guo’.” I would open up his textbook, flip to a page where the word ‘guo’ can be found and suggest that he finds the word himself. Then after writing two more ‘Zao-Ju’, he asked again, “Mummy, how to write ‘guo’.” *faint*

The most annoying thing is, he is still on the same page where he WROTE the word ‘guo’! Simply raising his eyelids a little and roll his eyeballs slightly upwards, he could see the ‘guo’ which he wrote few minutes ago! As if it was not bad enough, the textbook where the word ‘guo’ can be found is still wide open! *eyes rolled*

Lets move on to reading a Chinese Story Book which does not have Hanyu Pinyin. We have began to stay away from Hanyu Pinyin because his school teacher suggested that we should, as Primary Three Chinese would not be focusing on Hanyu Pinyin at all.

Step 1: I would read the first paragraph with my index finger pointing each Chinese character as I read.

Step 2:Then I would ask him to explain what I had just read. If he misunderstood any section, I would then explain it to him in English.

Step 3: Step 1 is repeated.

Step 4: Now, its his turn to read. Whenever he cannot remember the pronounciation of any word, I would ask him to say out (without writing) the Hanyu Pinyin of that ‘difficult’ word. I would read for him again and ask him to repeat after me.

What happens next?

HE FORGETS AGAIN!!!

Yes! In just split seconds, he can just forget what he has just said! How Amazing!?

And after reading many times to him, when he finally remembers, he forgets another word which he Knew How To Pronounce Previously! *Scream*

My sis said I am really patient. Even she could not help but shook her head when she sat beside us witnessing the drama.

Throughout the reading or worksheet session, he would drop his pencil, flick his eraser, flip his ruler onto the floor. Then he will bend down, picks it up and forgets where he stopped! *Double Scream*

He will start looking for the question or the place where he has stopped and when he finally found it, ANOTHER THING DROP ON THE FLOOR! *Super Scream*

Alright enough of all these nonsense!

Ever since we tried this new approach, the above bad habits have changed for the better; but not completely though.

So what new approach?

Chinese Comprehension!

Yup!
That’s it!
Let me explain why it works. *wink*
Remember, my focus here is to let Keatkeat have interest in Chinese and correct his bad mentality towards the language.

Doing Chinese Comprehension is ‘Killing Many Birds With One Stone’:

1. One passage a day. So all he sees is one page of story and one page of questions to answer. Two pages seemed really easy for him to ‘swallow’. (Pressure/Stress is lessened.)
2. He will read silently on his own with a pencil in his hand, underlining words which are alien to him. (Cultivating Good Reading Habits)
3. After which, I will tell him the pronunciation of the underlined words. (Learning new/forgotten words)
4. I will read to him. (Training his listening skills and level of attentiveness)
5. Then he will read. (Reading Habit again)
6. He can move on to the questions ONLY when he is able to read the whole story WITHOUT asking me, “Mummy what word is this?” (Accomplishment)
7. Answering the questions. (Train him on his level of understanding and speed of finding the appropriate answer)
8. Writing down the answers. (Focus on correct strokes of the Chinese Characters, Writing speed and Forming proper Chinese sentences is put to practice)

Can you see?

One stone killed so many birds!

Ever since we started doing Chinese Comprehension regularly, Keatkeat’s resistance towards the language has decreased tremendously. There are many books, which focuses on Chinese Comprehension ONLY. You can get them easily from any bookshops which sells assessment books.

Keatkeat’s Chinese has improved much, but has he reached the standard which is acceptable to his Chinese teacher? Errrmmm… Nope! More work need to be done.

Anyway, one thing for sure, he no longer detest Chinese language now. *phew* So I would say its a great leap forward. *smile*

Is your child interested in Chinese language? How do you teach your child Chinese?

There is no school for my Primary 2 boy today. In fact, because of PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination) oral examination today and tomorrow, there is no school for all Primary 1 to Primary 5 pupils, as the Primary 6 students need a quiet environment to get through their oral examination.

The school has thus declared today as eLearning Day for all pupils from Primary 2 to 5.

Their objectives of this eLearning Day is to provide pupils an alternative learning experience facilitated through technology, to enhance pupils’ and school’s readiness in the event of school closure and to enhance the life skills of pupils in the 21st century, such as independent and self-directed learning.

All P2 to P5 students are given specific assignments t to be completed from home and could only be taken from the school’s eLearning portal from 8am to 12.30pm.

They had to login with their Birth Certificate and school ID in order to begin.

So while I am getting this blog post up, he is sitting next to me enjoying his eLearning Day. For the first time, he would NOT hear me say, “Keatkeat you have spent too much time infront of that rectangular screen. Stop now.” *laugh*

With this introduction of eLearning Day, will there come a time whereby students no longer goes to school and all lessons would be taught through the internet? Oh no! Then teachers would become jobless!!!

Does your child school have eLearning Day too?

I do not really bother about how a pencil is held. But if it starts to cause unnecessary uncomfort or distraction when my children are doing their school work, then its a sign that something needs to change.

Since preschool, I  had never liked the way Keatkeat gripped his pencil. It was way too low, so much so that his fingers were holding onto the ‘exposed wooden part’ of the pencil, where its slanted, and his weak fingers kept sliding down to the pencil tip.

Even after thousands of times of reminding him to “Hold Higher”, Keatkeat still finds it difficult to change his way of holding the pencil.

As for Binbin, he holds his pencil as if he is writing Chinese calligraphy, which forces his fingers to exert more energy because there is little support at the bottom of the pencil, thus his fingers get tired very easily.

That was the case for a long time until I found this early childhood rubber pencil grip for kids during December last year. I did not blog about it back then because I need to test its effectiveness first.

So I gave it a few months to show its worth.

Keatkeat

Yes, its showing signs of improvement for both of them after more than 6 months, I guess, it is not a get-fix-quick kind of remedy. Habits die hard!

The kids really need more time with the rubber pencil grip, before they could start holding the pencil the ‘right’ way, without the rubber pencil grip that is.

Binbin

If your child is starting to learn how to hold a pencil, then this early childhood rubber pencil grip would probably do much more for him or her, as compared to my boys who had been holding their pencil the ‘wrong’ way for years.

This year, being a Primary 2 kid, the Chinese language teacher has started the ‘intense’ way to Study Chinese. Every other day, Keatkeat had to rewrite an entire Chinese story.

Though it can be hair-pulling when there are countless times Allan and I had to remind him to “Write the words Smaller!” (he is always writing out of the given box for each Chinese character), I still think that this is one of the best way to help any child to learn how to write and recognise frequently used Chinese words.

Key to learning any language: Read more, Write more and Speak more.

Studying Chinese  is more like a ‘no-choice-subject’ to Keatkeat. Not much of an interest, but thank goodness, having a patient Chinese teacher did help in his studies for this subject.

Since the school is doing the ‘tough’ part, I continued to do the ‘soft’ part, which is to increase his interest in studying Chinese with this:

Shi-Wan-Ge-Wei-Shen-Me, direct translation to English would be “100,000 Whys”, was something that I grew up with. Watching cartoons is what most kids love, so I decided to try out what used to work for me when I was a kid, on my boys.

I fell in love with this cartoon when I was a kid because I am always inquisitive and asking questions. Sad to say, few could be answered by the adults around me back then. But they were clearly answered by ‘Professor Tortise’ in the cartoon. I still remember treating him like my idol… *laugh*

The set comes with a book with written English and Chinese for every story told in the DVDs. It also comes with cute bookmarks too *smile*

We bought the Shi-Wan-Ge-Wei-Shen-Me (Tell Me Why?) from Popular Bookshop back in 2009 when they were having a promotion. The photos were taken back then too. (Just in case you noticed the change in Keatkeat’s features.)

Even though after so long, I still continue to play the DVDs for my boys. Well, simply because it helps his science too… *smile*

Did you buy this to help your child to Study Chinese too?