Teaching is about togetherness Who did you teach? “My mom is learning Mandarin with me.” said the sixth-grader. Big smile. I looked at him and I saw the joy in his eyes. “My dad and my sister were so good…I taught them some expressions I’ve learned.” said a third-grader. More hands raised on the screen. Waving at me. I saw the excitement on their faces. This is a summer camp that created for distance learning at
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Learn from home The year I homeschooled my boy when he was in 7th grade many people were curious about it. When I was exploring the homeschooling option due to the relocation most of the parent friends were worried about my boy and me. They were skeptical. And, I could understand why. My homeschooling parent friends were supportive. They were so supportive that they took the time to walk me through their journey and told me their
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Keep A Happy Mindset – Teach Your Child A Foreign Language Learning, mindset, grit, and resilience These are the trending words we see and hear in the classroom, at school, and in the media. Teachers want kids to have a growth mindset. Parents want kids to have grit. And, experts and researchers talk to parents about raising resilient kids. Why is it important for kids to have a growth mindset, grit, and being resilient? What do these
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Language and culture go hand in hand – Teach Your Child A Foreign Language Culture is filled with surprises. Think about what you have been sharing with your child from home culture to the community culture. Family culture starts at home so is learning about the target language culture. Every time I have a cultural event at school or at the library child participants always teach me something new as they connect what they know about their
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Engage the senses – Teach Your Child A Foreign Language Children learn with senses since birth. Simple words and expressions in the target language lead kids to connect their understanding of the environment from one language to the other. Here are the top key questions you can ask in the target languages on a daily basis. What do you hear? (loud sound, soft sound…) How does it feel? (hard, soft…) What do you see? (big, small, colors…)
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Create a routine is to have the target language present in your child’s everyday life. It is a lifestyle and it is a part of your family activity. The best place to start is to anchor the target language with an existing routine. You can listen to a target language program during the commute with the kids. So it will look like this: go the car – buckle up – listen to Chinese songs/podcast/stories. Pick the program
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Have Fun with Games – Teach Your Child A Foreign Language Tip #3 The first tip in the series is “Start With Songs and Music.” And, the second tip in the series is “Incorporate Everyday Expressions.“ Now, here is Tip #3: Have Fun With Games Playing is also learning for kids big and small. Outdoor games and board games are all wonderful tools for language learning. Store-bought games, like Bilingual Zingo, can introduce new words in a
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The first in the series is “Start With Songs and Music.” And here is Tip #2: Incorporate Everyday Expressions Out of sight out of mind. Language learning occurs best when you and your child hear it every day. And, a great way to learn new phrases is to use them in your daily activities. “Great job!” “Time for snacks!” Using relevant, everyday expressions makes the new language part of your child’s daily activities. Soon, you’ll be sharing
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Teach Your Child A Foreign Language Zero to 5 is a critical age, a window of opportunity for second language learning according to multiple continued studies, and shared by Dr. Kuhl, the UW professor of speech and hearing sciences and the UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences/ I-LABS. A young girl walked over and told me, “I can count in Mandarin!” She counted all the way to 15, and her mother smiled as she gently
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Teach Kids Chinese: Play With A Purpose “Can I play with this?” An elementary school girl looks at the sand tray on the table and asks me this question. She continues and says, “Am I too old to play with it?” Her hand is going through the Chinese character cards on the table. She is speaking with a mix of English and Chinese to me. “Absolutely! Which character do you want to start first?” I ask her.
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