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:

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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

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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!