Nurturing a Love for Chinese #3 - Watch it!

When Dumpling was young, we were pretty much a "no-tv" household. When Dumpling was a tad older, I relented to allowing her to watch ONLY Baby Signing Time DVDs as I am a certified trainer in that area and am a big advocate on signing to babies.

One comment that I got was "wah, so you think that you are Madonna?" when the person found out about the no TV policy. 

Years on when I know that Dumpling can somewhat regulate her TV hours, I started letting her watch... Chinese cartoons! YUP, I am that anal (that's not all, you will read more about it later :p) I made this decision because I wanted Dumpling to have a more natural way to acquire the usage of the language and this was not something that can be done in the classrooms. And what a better way that cartoons? So after searching around, I found out that the 'Pleasant Goat' series was BIG in China and we decided to give it a try. We have also tried many other titles and here are my recommendations.

The Pleasant Goat DVDs (we have three sets of it) were quite comical and the story centres revolves around a Wolf tries (and repeatedly fails) to catch goats from the goat village. And often, he is being outsmarted by Pleasant Goat - 喜羊羊。

Lately, we have started to let her watch Doraemon instead and things that she caught on from the show? Names of various household items and inventions! 

It was also through online shopping at dangdang.com where I found out that Barbapapa comes in DVDs too and I placed an order IMMEDIATELY for this series. Originally a French title, the books are colourful and imaginative. The storyline revolves around a family of 'aliens' (?) which are shape shifters and use their abilities to help others. Dumpling loves the books (even till this very day) and she was simply thrilled when she saw the DVDs. 

And here's the anal part. :) Being the tiger mum that I am (when it comes to Chinese), Dumpling watches many movies in Mandarin audio instead. From titles such as Madagascar (as above) to Harry Potter (YUP, YOU READ IT RIGHT!) to Gold Compass (which I did not really enjoy because I was not comfortable with many of their references to a term called daemons and the storyline). 

We've watched movies like these in Mandarin and she could be exposed to complete sentences and conversations in Mandarin too. 

I was told that on cable, for Disney channels, there is an option to choose Mandarin audio. Other kids friendly titles which we have enjoyed are definitely Disney movies such as Ratatouille, Finding Nemo and other children shows like Alvin and the Chipmunks, Kung Fu Panda and Smurfs (we have the latter title in cartoon, Mandarin too!)

So does it help? Certainly. While I am not advocating daily TV screening (we don't) but whenever we can, we'd let her watch (and watch with her) movies and cartoons in Mandarin for the added exposure. It adds a different dimension to learning Chinese and makes it fun especially when they are young. :) 

This is part of a 10-part series:

Part 1: Read Read Read (books of a different kind)

Part 2: Speak It, Use It

Part 4: Play It!

Part 5: Write it! (小书 Small Book)

Linking up:

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram! 

Parenting with Love - Playing Dirty = Success?

In this somewhat elitist and KS (kiasu: afraid of losing out to other people) society, I have personally encountered some pretty unpleasant parents who would go all their way out to make things happen for their kids, sometimes at the expense of others. About a year ago, I was coordinating for a workshop for a group of parents, I basically threw it out there to let the parents decide if they prefer a 3-day or a 5-day workshop. I have also clearly indicated then, that we will proceed with the majority's choice.

At that point in time most were going for 5-day workshop as those parents felt that they did not want their children to be rushed through and wanted the children to enjoy the workshop more. If I recall correctly, we had only 2 - 3 who chose 3-day simply because they were busy on other days. One particular parent did not want the child to miss out on too much 'school' as the child 'needs to study'. However, the parent was also keen on the workshop and I guess, wanted the best of both worlds. Despite the fact that it was shared (openly in the group) that we were proceeding with a 5-day, because this parent had my mobile number, the parent decided to reach out on a personal level.

In the parent's messages, it was mentioned that the parent did not feel that it was fair for us to proceed with 5 days (as those with 3 days where 'over-ruled'). I then proposed for the child to join us from Day 3 (pro-rata) but the parent refused to as the parent felt that by coming in only on the 3rd day, the child would lose out as compared to the other children who attended from Day 1.

The parent relentlessly continued to text in the hope of changing my mind to swing the entire programme to a 3-day workshop, despite the fact that 70% of the rest prefer a 5-day programme. But because 'we are friends', I guess that the parent wanted to see if I could help. Now, that I felt, was taking it a tad too far. I also wish to add that the workshop was in no way academic but something which is related to the Arts and I cannot see how that child will 'lose out'.

Another incident was for a similar workshop which I organised some time later and a parent called and reached out to the vendor for the purpose of asking the vendor what they can do if the child wants to have ONLY the lead role and nothing else. She apparently asked if there was something the vendor can do and arrange for BEFORE the workshop started.

Call me anal or a stick-in-the-mud, but I felt that the approach was a tad underhanded. But apparently, to some, in this competitive day and age, it is perfectly OK for parents to make side arrangements as such. Like in the latter example, of not letting the roles being assigned based on the children's capabilities and suitability. In the mum's defense, the mum said that it was because her child is very competitive by nature and does not like to be in anything less than the lead role and she was afraid that her child would be sorely disappointed and would not be able to accept a supporting role.

While I am certainly a very focused mum, I am sure that comparing to these 2 other parents, I do not quite qualify as a "tiger mum". In fact, when I told the hubs about these incidents, he was chuckling very hard while I sat there fuming away thinking about the 'approaches' these parents deploy in order to let their children 'succeed'.

Is success truly and can only be measured this way? In this blog, I have mentioned several times that as a parent myself, of course I want to and I am tempted to give my child the very best in life. But, I have to curb the tiger cub in me to want to 'control' the elements too much. And I certainly draw a line at being under-handed and using such methods of "not letting my child 'fail'".

While I would love and want Dumpling to be driven and motivated, I certainly do not want it to be at the expense of 'values'. And I definitely will not set such a stage for Dumpling so that she has only one route and that is the route to 'success' if success were to be defined as such. I'd want my child to be resilient, to use her judgement and learn to make decisions, to make mistakes and most importantly, to bounce back from the 'mistakes' after a fall. I want her to take responsibility of her choices and to even take calculated risks and that it is OK to 'fail'.

What about you? As a parent, how much of their paths do you attempt to carve out for your children? Do you allow them to make mistakes and 'fail'? How do you build resiliency in your children?

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Through her eyes #7 - A different perspective

There are many times when I feel old and jaded especially after having a bad day. However, when I reach home daily and I see the smile on my child's face, to hear her peals of laughter as she runs excitedly towards me, everything melts away.

And there are days that I marvel at the simple way children are able to find great joy in simple things. Dumpling said "Look mama, I am flying, just above the clouds!"

Perhaps sometimes, all we need is a different perspective, a different angle. :)

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Book Talk Tuesday - 100 层房子 Review + Giveaway!

When Dumpling first saw the cover (upside down and from a distance) she was confused and trotted over immediately. After seeing the cover the right way up (because the book, though printed in landscape, needs to be read in a portrait format), she went "哦！原来是房子。很好笑， 很有趣!"

:: The story
Written by Japanese Author,Toshio Iwa, the story heads off to a mysterious start when Tochi (多奇), receives an invitation to a 100-storey house. With the invitation comes a trail of questions and thoughts - 这是谁写的呢？(Who wrote this?)  这里以前明明没有房子呀。(The house certainly did not exist previously.)

The adventure was too good to pass off and Tochi decided to accept the invitation and explore!

Upon arriving at the 100-storey house, he was flabbergasted as he could not even see the top of the building! Who stays in this house? Tochi bravely entered and started on his little adventure.

He soon discovers that there are many tenants in this house and every 10 storeys comes a set of animals / insects as tenants.

When Dumpling and I first read this together, we had to stop at level 40 and call it a night as it was bedtime. The next morning, immediately upon waking, Dumpling grabbed the title and turned on the light to read on. She was most anxious to find out who the mysterious host was. :)

:: Illustration
The illustration in this title is quirky and fun. Every 10-storey has its unique features in what is a suitable home for the tenants. From foliage for the family of frogs...

To a hive of bees

And my favorite family of bats (and how everything is upside down!) This was clearly Dumpling's favorite too as she pored over this page for some time, looking through the various activities each 'storey' was engaged in.

Certainly a delightful read for children, this title is wonderful as a read aloud for children from 2YO. To read independently (though font size is a tad small), I would think that it is suitable for 6YO onwards. Regardless of which age group, I'd imagine your children will have loads of fun following the various scenes from each storey and to finally being able to discover who the host is. :)

I am pleased to share that Read with Me Mommy is sponsoring one copy of this title (hardcover!) for a giveaway. :)

Earn credits using Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 (For Singapore residents only)

The more credits you earn, the higher your chances! :)

That's not all! Just for Beanie N Us readers, you stand to enjoy a 10% savings when you key in this code BEANIENUS at the checkout! 

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Disclosure: I received a copy of 100 层房子 for the purpose of the review and to share my experience. 

Nurturing a love for Chinese #2 - Speak it, use it!

I recently had lunch with an associate who runs a Chinese enrichment centre and had an engaging discussion on the nurturing of a love for the Chinese language. She shared that for her, it is a concern when she sees parents mainly leaving it to enrichment centres but do not attempt to follow up from home.

To put it simply, a weekly enrichment of less than 2 hours, while good, will be even better if parents attempt to support by speaking to their children and do "read alouds" / read together with their children. You may be asking how do we do it and here's sharing 3 ideas. :)

1) Assign a Chinese speaking role to someone
For us, this 'role' goes to my parents. It was initially very hard for them as Dumpling was not exposed to Chinese till 16/17 months old and the inertia for them to start communicating to her in Mandarin was really high. I kept reminding the folks and I have to say that it takes a lot of effort on their end but after toughing it out for 3 years, it is really nice to be able to hear Dumpling communicating with them freely in Mandarin.

2) Dedicated Mandarin speaking time each day
If (1) is not possible, try setting aside some time daily for a pure Mandarin exposure. One of the things which I initially started with was that I would communicate to Dumpling only in Mandarin during meal times. I'd ask her questions, help her along if she struggles with expressing herself in Mandarin and even when it was one-way most of the time when we first started, at the very least, I know that she had some exposure to the language and I was exposing her to some vocabulary, etc.

I then increased it slowly to cover craft time as well and this is also where my Mandarin improved slowly too. :) A lot of parents also tell me that their children would not reply to them in Mandarin but in English and that is pretty common. But I'd urge you to continue with your attempts because at the very least, some form of exposure is better than none. If they were to reply in English, it also shows that they are able to understand the question. You can then paraphrase their answers in Mandarin so that they know what the response should be in Mandarin.

3) Introducing Mandarin in fun, bite size approaches - CHANT IT & SING IT!
The resistance towards the language for young children happens when there was little exposure, when the children feel that it is hard (e.g. is not able to express themselves fluently due to lack of knowledge) and when it is not fun.

Something which Dumpling really enjoys are fun 儿歌 which involves actions. Here's one to share:

You can also do other popular English rhymes / songs and search for the Chinese versions too. Here's are 2 to share!

:: Itsy Bitsy Spider



:: London Bridge 

This is part of a 10-part series:
Part 1: Read Read Read (books of a different kind)
Part 3: Watch it!
Part 4: Play It! 
Part 5: Write it! (小书 Small Book)

Linking up:

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram! 

Book Talk Tuesday - 贝贝熊系列 (Berenstain Bears)

One of the 'classics' (to us at least), that I enjoy reading with Dumpling when she was young is the Berenstain Bears series. too. First written in 1962 by husband and wife team - Stan and Jan Berenstain, the story is based on a family of four - Sister Bear, Brother Bear, Papa Bear and Mama Bear. It depicts the daily lives of a typical family but importantly, its stories always add on a moral or safety element.

While Dumpling and I have read the English versions, we have purchased the Chinese versions instead as part of daily Chinese reads. 

For the Chinese version, one thing which stood out for me is unlike some translated titles which I have come across, the illustrations are sometimes left as they are - with 'labels' and 'road signs' etc., in English. However, as you can see below, Bear Kingdom and School were both translated.

The titles in this series are vast and ranges across a broad spectrum of 'parenting' concerns and issues - from The Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV to The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist; from The Berenstain Bears Learn about Strangers to teaching the little ones about not being too frivolous with money in The Berenstain Bears' Trouble with Money, etc. 

Each page is still kept quite short with about 5 - 6 lines with the illustrations still covering most of the pages. This is great at keeping the children engaged.

The series shares very true concerns of children (depicted by Sister Bear and Brother Bear) and adults alike (by Mama Bear and Papa Bear). But what it does is that it also adds on a positive angle to new experiences such as Sister Bear below being worried about going to school and eventually, her enjoyable experience there.

What I like about this series is that the issues faced are often 'true' and that it is heartwarming and funny; with Mama Bear being the rational and patient parent who sometimes also has to put up with...

Papa Bear's antics and bad habits. In the picture below (The Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV) Papa Bear was as addicted to the TV as the kids! :)

This is certainly another series which you can consider for explaining various tricky issues / concerns with the kids. And we definitely would recommend the Chinese series as an additional exposure to the language too. :)

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Through her eyes #6 - Papyrus

As I was in my zoning mode, I suddenly heard an excited shriek last Saturday "Mama, Mama, look! It is Papyrus!" We were at a floating platform at one of the ponds in Jacob Ballas and I went "What? Papyrus?!?!" I have not seen the 'live' plant, only the end product from one of our homeschool field trips at the Art Science Museum to watch the Mummy Exhibition. 

I turned around and saw this:

And true enough! My daughter's eye sight seems to be better than mine! If you have not seen Papyrus before, take a walk through Jacob Ballas this weekend - you will probably find hidden gems at every turn. :)

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Nurturing a love for Chinese #1 - READ READ READ!

I have been asked numerous times on how do I nurture Dumpling's interest in Chinese especially when mine is a 'mixed' marriage and the hubs is not really all that good in the language. (*cough cough* that's kinda putting it mildly). So here's starting a series 1 of 10 (tips) that I have.

:: READ, READ, READ AND MAKE IT FUN!

Many of my friends are sending the kiddos for Chinese enrichment and that's great. One thing that I do is to encourage them to read LOADS to their children and the earlier you start, the better. To this date, I recall the look of utter confusion on Dumpling's face when I first read a Chinese story to her.

In our usual fashion every evening, I'd sit her down and read aloud to her since young. At 16/17 months, I decided to pick up a Chinese title and read out to her. Suddenly, she looked up, frowned at me and asked me "Mama, what?" That was when I first freaked out and understood the arduous journey ahead of us in mastering the Chinese language.

Some comments / replies I get when I advise parents to read aloud to their kids:

- My kiddo is just not interested! He'd run around / walk away when I read any Chinese titles

My advice is to continue to read aloud because some children are not visual learners. What we are trying to do is to expose the child to the sound of the language, vocabulary and sentence structure. If possible, perhaps you can have the read aloud in an enclosed area (a room or in very young children, play yard).

Vary in your intonation and inject some 'life' as you read. Make it fun for your children. You can even extend to craft work after the read aloud. You can make story boxes or do shadow play too.

- I do not know the language so how am I able to read aloud to my child? 

Audio books will come in really handy in this case. You can also invest in one of those talking pens for the same purpose. I recently came across a really neat website that has online books and some are on a 'read to me' mode (uses flash)

Here's one of Snow White 白雪公主

- My child walks away the moment she sees that it is a Chinese title. What do I do?

For young children, I'd encourage brightly colored illustrations and to make it more interactive and fun, lift the flaps are always good too.

One thing which worked very well for us has been for the kiddo to read the translated titles (to Chinese of course) of some English stories. The idea is that if the kiddo has read the English titles before, they'd find it familiar and less resistant to it. Some of the translated titles which Dumpling enjoys are:

:: Mr. Men and Little Miss

Same characters (79 titles in all) with the same funny tales - it was a good way to ease Dumpling into lengthier titles in Chinese. Plus with all the names of the characters being translated, it is also great for them to be exposed to good vocabulary.

:: Curious George

Everyone's favourite monkey - George! Dumpling was able to recognise the same starting sentence 这是乔治 after only a few titles. She enjoys George's crazy antics in the English version and the Chinese copies were no different.

Being the chocolate lover that she is, it was easy for her to fall in love with this title: George and the Chocolate factory. She learnt how to say 'strawberry filled chocolates' in mandarin amongst many other terms too!

Being the dog lovers that we are, she also enjoyed another title on dogs 

:: Elmer

Elmer is another lovely series which Dumpling read when she was around 3+ or so. There is a certain cheekiness to the stories in this series which would have her giggling. With the colorful illustrations, this series is a 'winner'. When I showed her the Chinese titles, there was no resistance at all as it was 'familiar' to her and she was once again captivated with Elmer 艾玛 and his cousin 韦伯 (Wilbur).

Funny storyline like the above would have Dumpling chuckling out loud too

This is part of a 5-part series:
Part 2: Speak it, Use it!
Part 3: Watch it!
Part 4: Play It!
Part 5: Write it! (小书 Small Book)

Linking up:

If you have enjoyed this post, please follow me on my Facebook Page where I share my parenting thoughts, food photos (be prepared for tons of them!), early shout outs for giveaways and interact with you, my readers! You can also follow me on Pinterest and Instagram! 

Book Talk Tuesday - The Bifrost Bridge + $25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash Giveaway!

About the Book

Title: The Bifrost Bridge | Author: James Bradley Clarke | Illustrator: Marcus Gran | Publication Date: January, 2013 | Publisher: Wynwidyn Press | Pages: 92 | Recommended Ages: 8+ Summary: The Bifrost Bridge is a Viking princess fairy tale intertwined with Norse mythology. Silya, the feisty ten year old Princess of Norway, eagerly awaits the arrival of her cousin and best friend, Princess Hedda of Denmark. The princesses are both looking forward to the summer solstice celebration, but trouble lurks in their future as magical villains see the girls as being vital for their deadly conspiracy. Hedda and Silya find themselves cast into a dangerous adventure filled with fire giants, female warrior angels and the God of Thunder.    

Purchase

Amazon | Wynwidyn Press Books

The Buzz

"A delightful and endearing adventure that winds Norse mythology and two young girls through a whirlwind of danger, friendship and standing up to evil-doers. The Princess heroines, Silya and Hedda, engage the reader with their charming day to day life at the celebrated summer solstice festival in ancient Norway... The book moves along easily and the characters are likable at once. A fun read for the parents, and challenging enough for the children because it may have a few new words and characters they may not know. It is an adorable story that will soon become a favorite." ~ 5 Star Review, Janet, Amazon

"Bifrost Bridge is a beautiful fairytale, mixing legend and adventure and creating a wonderful reading experience for both children and adults alike. I read this to my 7 year old daughter, and my 10 year old daughter read it for herself; both of them were captivated by the story. My 7 year old loved the idea of two princesses being such close friends, and my 10 year old loved all of the action and suspense in the story. I enjoyed the Norse mythology woven into the tale. It's a wonderful family story. I will be reading it to my sons next!" ~ 5 Star Review, Rebecca F., Amazon

"When I first looked into this book, I was sure that the world of fairy tales had been overdone so many times that I wouldn't see much difference between this one & my other classic favorites that I enjoyed over the years with my children... However, I was proven wrong.. This is such a beautiful and entrancing fairy tale! Mr. Clarke takes the often repetitive world of fairy tales and adds an elegant, dramatic twist to it, producing an epic and moving adventure that children will forever cherish! My daughter and I read it together and had many nights where we just didn't want to put it down! His characters, including the feisty Silya, are memorable and seem so very real! It's a hard thing to do that with children's fairy tales and again, I commend Mr. Clarke for releasing a wonderful new fairy tale to pass on to generations to come!" ~ 5 Star Review, Vicky R., Amazon

 
About the Author: James Bradley Clarke


James Bradley Clarke is a graduate of Hiram College, The University of Houston, and the University of Michigan. He currently resides in Oxford, Ohio, where he works as an academic librarian for Miami University. He grew up near Ann Arbor, Michigan, and he has spent most of his life in the Great Lakes region. The Bifrost Bridge is Clarke’s first work of fiction. The children’s book was first developed as stories Clarke started telling to his two daughters back in the summer of 2003. Both girls shared a love for classic princess fairy tales, so he invented original princess characters for both of them. As residents in Riverside, Illinois, Clarke’s family lived in walking distance of the Brookfield Zoo where the girls regularly admired the Norwegian fjord horses. When he learned this ancient breed of horse was used by the Vikings, a specific medieval setting for the stories came into focus. As a Hiram College student, Clarke had developed a love for the epic poems of Homer and Virgil, so he chose to borrow from mythology to provide magical elements. The girls became instantly enamored with these stories and they insisted on developing new adventures for the two Nordic princess characters. The first draft of a manuscript was produced during the summer of 2005. Clarke’s daughters were delighted with the bound copy they received as a Christmas gift later that year, so he began the process of becoming an author. Clarke has a love for history and a taste for plot driven stories about extraordinary individualism. Themes of fortitude and self-determination lay at the heart of Clarke’s writing interests.

Facebook (Book Fan Page) | Facebook (Author Fan Page) | Goodreads

 
* $25 Book Blast Giveaway *

Prize: $25 Amazon Gift Card or PayPal cash (winner’s choice) Contest runs: February 10 to March 9, 11:59 pm, 2014 Open: Internationally How to enter: Please enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. Terms and Conditions: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. A winner will be randomly drawn through the Rafflecopter widget and will be contacted by email within 48 hours after the giveaway ends. The winner will then have 72 hours to respond. If the winner does not respond within 72 hours, a new draw will take place for a new winner. Odds of winning will vary depending on the number of eligible entries received. This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook. This giveaway is sponsored by the author, James Bradley Clarke and is hosted and managed by Renee from Mother Daughter Book Reviews. If you have any additional questions – feel free to send and email to Renee(at)MotherDaughterBookReviews(dot)com. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Through her eyes #5 - Dumpling's daily activities journal - a FUN FUN FUN way to learn time! :) + FREE PRINTABLE!

Dumpling is getting the hang of telling the time and has been very excited in being able to "read" the wall clock. One of the things that she usually does these days upon waking up is to look at the clock immediately and tell us the time. If she is not quite able to (as in to the exact minute of for e.g. 7:37am because my wall clock does not have the numerals for minutes labelled on it), she'd sneakily wait for the minute hand to travel to the positions she knows and then read it off proudly (and LOUDLY, I must add).

For some strange reason, one fine day while rummaging through the storeroom, she found my beloved Gruffalo paper plate (which I hoarded for 2 years!!!). While all I saw is 'partyware', she saw a 'clock'! And asked for us to use it and make it into a clock! Here it is!

We made this together with a braid fastener in the middle to hold the hands and we have been using this to revise and to work on our "time" sessions. Along the way, I dug out an old resource which I have and that is a dry erase book which the kiddos can fill in the time and draw in the hands.

It then occurred to me that it would be a lot more fun for the kiddo if the activities listed in it are about her day instead. The idea is to make it 'applicable' for her where she tries reading and recording the time before she begins some of her daily activities!  

I printed mine into a booklet and above is the book cover

Since she likes looking at the wall clock once she wakes up, I incorporated that as part of the 'time' which she needs to record in this journal too  

 The page is designed for homeschooling and non-homeschooling kiddos

And I have included some fun evening activities as a checklist too!

Now, have you gone all excited about this journal? I am pleased to share that you can download this activity journal here! 

Edit: I printed my copy as a booklet but the file is in A4. You can laminate it and then write on it with markers so that it can be reused over and over again. :) This is our last stage in the journey of learning and writing out the time where we have already learnt the basics.  

I received several questions about how one can start off teaching time. I started off teaching Dumpling using a resource which I blogged about here. As an overview, the steps which we went through are:
- introduction of long (minute) and short hands (hour)
- teaching of o'clock (long hand pointing to 12)
- teaching of half past, quarter past and quarter to (use pizza slices, foam etc if you need to, to show half and quarters)
- teaching of counting in 5s so that the child is about to read in blocks 
- drawing of hands (Gruffalo clock is wonderful for that. We progressed from gear clock to our DIY clock where she needs to manually move each hand)
- writing the time in digital clock format (using digits)

For multiplication by 5s, it will take a bit of time. Manipulatives are good. We also used hands & feet - 5 fingers and 5 toes. There's a certain element of rote learning in this but the idea is to let the child understand that each block equals to 5 mins and if the child is stuck, he/she knows how to count in groups of 5 to get for e.g 40 the minutes (half past = 30, and then add on 2 blocks of 5). There are loads of songs on YouTube which are useful in getting the child to remember them too. 

(Please note that as with all the other free downloads in this blog, it is for personal usage and is not for any form of sales. I would also appreciate it if you do not edit it and then sell it as the entire purpose of this is to share this resource so everyone can use and enjoy the pack.) 

This is part of our Fun with Math series! 

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Book Talk Tuesday - 自己的颜色 (A Color of His Own - Leo Lionni)

Leo Lionni is one of our favorite authors at home as his books were amongst one of the first few that Dumpling started reading when she was able to read independently. From a parental viewpoint, I like that his titles caters to the different preschool ages. From simple titles such as Fish is Fish to wordier award winning ones such as Inch by Inch, Alexander and the Wind Up Mouse and Frederick, etc., we did not have a lack of stories to choose from. 

We had the chance, recently, to review some classic titles which have been translated to Chinese and 'A Color of His Own' was one of them. 

Like the English title, Dumpling enjoyed the Chinese version too. The story centres around a chameleon which has no 'permanent' colour of his own. Instead, the chameleon is able to change its colour to match its surroundings. It went on a journey to look for ways to have its own colour and found companionship and friendship along the way. 

The illustrations remain true to the English version where the colours of the various animals are bright and attractive. The story also introduces children to the simple concept of colours in short simple sentences. 

Dumpling enjoys the fact that she is able to now read this title almost independently. The wordier pages are only about 3 - 4 sentences long (as below) so it is manageable for the older preschoolers. 

What I enjoyed was that the story also uses good vocabulary and beautiful descriptive terms such as '冬天的寒风‘ 肩并肩‘, which I feel is great exposure. Though translated to Chinese, the title does not disappoint and in essence, delivers the beauty of the tale and more. A great title for toddler as a read aloud and for the older preschoolers to attempt reading independently! 

Now, I am pleased to share that Read with Me Mommy is sponsoring one copy of this title (hardcover) for a giveaway! 

Earn credits using Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(For Singapore residents only)

The more credits you earn, the higher your chances! :)

That's not all! Just for Beanie N Us readers, you stand to enjoy a 10% savings when you key in this code BEANIENUS at the checkout! 

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Disclosure: I received a copy of 自己的颜色 for the purpose of the review and to share my experience.