Parentingjoy | Celebrating the Joy of Parenting

March 9, 2012
by Angela
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Place Value Mat

I mention in my earlier post that I created a set of Place Value Mat that I use with my Base 10 Blocks. I also said that I made up a little story based on Max Lucado’s (christian) children books on the Wemmicks.

The Wemmicks are little wooden people created by Eli, a carpenter. They are quite lovable but they can be quite foolish too. They have a kind of herd instinct and like to be ‘In’. Hence, you read about these little people going through fashion fads like having colored noses or collecting dots from each other or collecting balls and boxes. They will try to outdo each other in being ahead in the fads. The main character in this series of books is a little Wemmick called Punchinello. Punchinello would get swept up by the latest fads and eventually get overwhelmed trying to keep up. In the end, he always goes back to Eli, his creator, who will set his thinking straight again.

My boys are familiar with the Wemmick stories, so when I explain using Wemmicks, they can catch on very easily and remember. First of all, I explain that there are 3 houses – Ones, Tens and Hundreds. Ones House is a small little house. Tens House is a big Mansion and Hundreds House is a huge building. Hopefully, by the time they learn up to 1000, they do not need such illustration anymore, so I did not create a Thousands House. Then I explain that the little cubes are called Ones, the sticks are called Tens. I also tell them that the square slab is hundreds and the big cube is thousands. As I explain, I get them to count the squares on the stick to show them that each stick is made up of 10 cubes, and so on.

After they are familiar with the Houses and the Base 10 Block, I explain how it all works using the little story I created. Here’s how I explain place value using the Wemmicks story :

The little square cubes (Ones) are like the Wemmicks. They are very silly little things. They love to be big and they want to move into the biggest house they can. But when they are Ones, they can only live in the Ones House because it is a small house and Ones are small. They can only move to the bigger Tens House if they managed to make themselves into a Ten. If there are ten little Wemmicks, they will immediately stack themselves together to make themselves into a Ten so that they can move into the Tens House. (Illustrate by stacking the little cubes into a stick of 10 and placing it in the Tens House.)

But the Tens House is not big enough! To be a really super Wemmick, you have to stay in the biggest house, which is the Hundreds House. In order to stay in the Hundreds House, the Tens have to wait until there are 10 of them in the Tens House so that they can stack again to turn themselves into a Hundred. (Illustrate by joining 10 sticks into a hundreds slab.)

So at this point, the boys will understand that once there are 10 little cubes in the Ones House, the little ‘Wemmicks’ will eagerly hop on top of each other to stack themselves into a Ten, so that they can move into the Tens House. In this way, they learn “carry over” in addition.

What about “borrowing” in subtraction?

Sometimes, Eli wants the Wemmicks to help him with some jobs. He will ask for, say, 8 Wemmicks, or 13 Wemmicks. He will first go to the Ones House because the Wemmicks in the Ones House are not all stacked up so it is easier to get them out. Let’s say there are 5 Wemmicks in the Ones House now. Eli comes asking for 4 Wemmicks. (Move 4 cubes out of the Ones House) How many Wemmicks are left in the house? (Kid can answer “1″ easily.)

There are 15 Wemmicks. (Get kid to put the Wemmicks into the Houses.)

At this point, I will make sure the kid automatically forms a Ten to put into the Tens House instead of squeezing 15 Ones into the Ones House. If the kid has problem with this part, I will go back and explain this again until it becomes second nature. So now there should be 1 stick in the Tens House and 5 Ones in the Ones House.

Eli comes asking for 7 Wemmicks to help him make a boat. He goes to the Ones House first and find that there are only 5 Wemmicks inside. What should he do?

Kid should understand by now that there are not enough Wemmicks in the Ones House. In other words, you cannot deduct 7 from 5. If kid cannot understand this part, then it is back to simple addition and subtraction within 10 using counters until the concept is very clear.

There are more Wemmicks in the Tens House! Eli goes to the Tens House and ask the Ten to break up and move back into the Ones House so that he will have more Wemmicks he can get for help. So the Tens break up. (Illustrate by breaking up the stick into individual cubes.) They move back into the Ones House because only Tens can stay in the Tens House. So sad. (Yep! Dramatise!) Now there are 10 more Wemmicks in the Ones House. This means there are altogether 15 Wemmicks in the Ones House (count to show that there are 15). Eli takes 7 away to help him. How many Wemmicks are left? 8. Can the 8 make themselves into a 10 to go back to the Tens House? No. So the 8 Wemmicks, or Ones, have to stay in the Ones House now.

This way, they learn the concept of “borrowing”, why they need to borrow and the actual process involved instead of simply learning the procedure and step of “just cancel the ’1′ on the left, put a small ’1′ on the right; now you have ’15′. Can ’15′ minus 7? Yes.”

Sometimes, I use number cards along with this place value mat. In other words, under the houses, I will put number cards that correspond with the number of cubes in the Houses. In other words, let’s say there are 2 tens in the Tens House. I will put the number card ’2′ under the Tens House. Slowly, the kid will understand, for example, that the “2″ in 126 has a value of “20″ and it is not just a “2″.

I hope this gives you some idea how to use Base 10 Block to teach Place Value. Some kids may not need such illustration but some kids do need extra help like this. Making up story makes it easy to understand and makes the learning and the topic more interesting. They tend to remember better. My #2 is not the ‘maths kind of person’. He may have problem doing certain maths sums. The moment he puts his hands on the Base 10 Block and the mats, he usually will get it easily, sometimes even without me explaining to him anything. Sometimes, without taking out the manipulatives and just staring at the maths sums on paper, I just have to ask him ‘are there enough Wemmicks’ or something like that, something will ‘click’ for him and he will get it.

You can make up your own story and create your own version of the Place Value Mat. By all means, use something that is familiar to your child. Wemmicks work for mine because they are familiar with the story and understand the nature of the Wemmicks. This is infinitely more fun than to just draw 3 boxes and tell them for “126″, the left number goes to the left box, the middle number goes to the middle box and the right number goes to the right box.

If you are happy to use my Place Value Mat, you can download the file here. Just print out, laminate and cut out to use. If you can’t think of your own story and want to use the Wemmicks tale, why not check out the actual books and have some Read-A-Loud time first? This way you and your kid will get to know the Wemmicks better and at the same time have some nice read and bond time. There are several titles :

You Are Special

You Are Mine

If Only I Had A Green Nose

Best of All

Your Special Gift

Punchinello and The Most Marvelous Gift

These books are also available in the library.

February 28, 2012
by Angela
2 Comments

My Favourite Mathematics Manipulatives

I use mathematics manipulatives a lot to teach mathematics at home. For very young children, who are very tactile and visual, the best way to approach maths, which is a pretty abstract concept, is to go from concrete towards abstract. The Singapore Maths is based on this concept. First, you introduce the concrete. After that, from concrete you move on to pictorial. Finally, from pictorial you move to the abstract, which are the numbers. Mathematics manipulatives fit into the first step of the whole process.

What are mathematics manipulatives? Essentially, they are tools you use to teach mathematical concepts concretely. A very simple and common manipulative is counters. Counters can be anything and do not have to be fanciful ones you buy from educational stores. You can use normal household items, such as beans, ice-cream sticks, straws, bottle caps, toothpicks, cotton buds, buttons, etc. Basically, they are anything that you can count. They are used to teach simple counting to very young children so that they know that 1, 2, 3, 4….are not merely sounds of numbers that you rote recite, but they actually mean something. They represent quantities. Visually, they are able to see that 1 is less than 2, 2 is less than 3, 3 is less than 4, and so on, and the way you arrange the counters will not change the actual quantity. They can also be used to teach very young children how to sort and classify according to colours, shapes and other attributes. Later on, they can be used to teach addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. They can also be used to teach odd and even numbers, as well as patterning and graphing. In other words, they are simple yet flexible, with wide ranging use.

These days, you can find all kinds of manipulatives in education stores. There are practically manipulatives for every kind of topic and situation. Some are really fanciful and, of course, expensive. The sales people in the stores will try to convince you that you need all kinds of stuff to help your child learn better. However, don’t be surprised if they are not very good at explaining how the manipulatives works. I find that the simpler the manipulatives, the harder it is for the sales people to explain what the manipulatives are used for (beyond the obvious). Yet, in my experience, the more useful manipulatives tend to be the simpler ones. This is good news because it means you really don’t have to spend a lot of money to buy a lot of fancy stuff. Try to resist the urge to buy “themed” ones no matter how attractive and fun they look, e.g. supermarket themed counters in the form of canned food with food counters inside complete with a cash register and shopping trolley and whatnots. While you may improvise and use simple toys, such as dinosaur or animal figurines, as manipulatives, it is usually not a good idea to buy manipulatives that blurs the distinction between a teaching tool and a toy. Besides the problem of the kid being distracted by the play factor from actual learning, such manipulatives are usually limited in their use. You get better mileage out of something basic and simple that is flexible enough to be used for a wide range of topics at a fraction of the price.

Here are some of my favourite manipulatives. I actually have quite a few manipulatives due to the education tools business I used to run a few years ago. However, there are only a few that I use the most.

Snap Cubes (Or Linking Cubes)

Snap Cubes or Linking Cubes are very versatile and can be used to teach a wide range of subject. You will see this in Singapore Primary School mathematics textbooks. You can practically use this right through to Primary 6 level, so you do get a lot of mileage out of this. Some of the topics you can use this to teach include : patterning, sorting, grouping, addition, subtraction, number bonds, multiplication, division, ratio and fraction. Using the Model Method to solve maths questions is a very big topic in Singapore Maths, and these cubes can be use to create a concrete form of the model.

These cubes usually come in 10 colours, 10 cubes for each colour, making up 100 pcs altogether. You can, of course, buy more according to your needs.

The the colours are useful for visual discrimination. E.g. 2 of blue and 3 of red makes 5. This is a good way to teach number bonds, part-whole model (Primary 1 syllabus) and simple addition.

Here’s my little one learning simple number bonds using the Snap Cubes.

Base 10 Blocks

If I can only own one set of manipulatives, I think this will be it. Base 10 blocks are so essential for the teaching of Place Value, and place value is such an integral part of maths, you cannot go wrong getting a set of Base 10 blocks. You can also see this a lot in the primary school maths textbooks. You use Base 10 blocks to illustrate that 10 ones make 1 tens, 10 tens make 1 hundred and 10 hundreds make 1 thousand. It is the same as the Montessori Golden Beads. The kids learn why they have to “borrow” or “carry over” when they do simple addition and subtraction. This is called “re-grouping” and is in the Primary 1 syllabus. (I remember when I was young, I was only taught the “method” of “borrowing” and “carrying over” without explaining why. Basically, we only needed to memorize the steps and execute as necessary. These days, maths are taught so differently and children are not expected to compute like a calculator but to understand the concept behind the steps.)

My experience may be limited. Nevertheless, it is almost a given that if a kid cannot understand the ‘carry over’ and ‘borrow’ part of addition and subtraction, using Base 10 block to explain will help. For me, I made up a little story based on Max Lucado’s children book character, Punchinello and the Wemmicks, to go along with the use of the Base 10 blocks. It makes it easier for the boys to get it. I also printed “Houses” to go with the Base 10 Blocks.

Pattern Blocks

I think most people tend to dismiss these pattern blocks as unimportant, “play” sort of stuff. I know I did. In actual fact, these are very important especially for preschool age kids to develop visual spatial discrimination. I didn’t know how important this skill is for maths until I attended a talk on Singapore Maths! Besides learning about the attributes of various geometric shapes, these can be used to teach symmetry, fractions, patterning, sorting, geometry, etc.

Doing things like this :

Will translate into skills to solve problems like this :

This is Primary 1 Maths. This skill is not confined to lower level maths only.

Transparent Counters

I included this because I really like them, not because it is a very important, must-have items. Transparent counters are more versatile in that they can be used like normal counters, and at the same time, they can be used on things like Hundred Board to teach concepts like odd and even numbers, skip counting, etc.

Fractions Set

This can be really useful for teaching fractions. I have them because I had them as stock last time. However, you don’t really have to buy such a set. Even if you wanted a fraction set like this for the teaching of fractions, you can easily get templates of it off the internet, print them on colored stock card, laminate and cut to use. Just google terms like ‘Fraction Circles Templates’ and you will find some you can use.

How to Use Maths Manipulatives?

I know that many people are a bit turned off by manipulatives because they think it is difficult to use and they have no idea how to use them. The fact is that you don’t have to be a trained teacher to know how to use these tools and it is not difficult to learn how to use them. Some of it is quite intuitive, and as you use them more, you will get the hang of it and also start getting ideas how you can use them to teach other things.

There is one thing you cannot do with manipulatives :
You cannot throw the sets at your kid and expect your kid to go figure out how to use them and you expect these manipulative to be magical cure-all that will cause your kids’ maths results to improve by leaps and bounds this way.

When I was selling these educational stuff, one of the things that parents told us all the time was that they have bought such things before and their kids had no interest in using them at all. When probed further, we discovered that this was exactly what they expected : chuck these expensive, brand new “learning aid” to the kids and expect them to use them. When we tried to explain that “you’ve gotta use it with them”, we got looks that probably meant “Are you kidding? I have better things to do!” or “Isn’t this the job of the tutor?” or “This is beyond me.”

It is not difficult to use maths manipulatives but you have to start using them. If you do not know how to use them, simply google terms like “uses of [manipulatives]” and you are likely to get answers. There are also books that teach you how to use various maths manipulatives. Here are some places where you can start :

1. Maths Solutions – Hands on Help
This is a pdf of how to use manipulatives in the classroom, with some information on the benefits of manipulatives and how to use some of them.

2. Ultimate List of Manipulatives Printable
A whole list of things you can print!

3. Tips for Manipulatives Use
A list of pdf files giving tips on how to use various manipulatives.

4. Developing Number Concepts Book 1 : Counting, Comparing and Pattern, by Kathy Richardson
An excellent book that is full of maths teaching activities that use manipulatives to teach maths concept. It also has lots of templates at the back of the book which you can use. Great for teachers and parents alike.

5. Developing Number Concepts Book 2 : Addition and Subtraction, by Kathy Richardson
A follow-up book from Book 1, covering Addition and Subtraction, again using manipulatives.

6. Developing Number Concepts Book 3 : Place Value, Multiplication and Division, by Kathy Richardson

What about Virtual Manipulatives?

There are now lots of websites with virtual manipulatives. Virtual manipulatives are essentially virtual form of whatever concrete manipulative you see. Personally, I do not see the point of virtual manipulatives because the point of manipulatives is for hands-on, tactile, multi-sensory learning. Virtual manipulatives are essentially 2D and only involves the use of the hands (which only move the computer mouse) and eyes.

With everything going high-tech these days, one can argue that children are learning things differently nowadays. E.g. instead of reading text, they are watching videos and music more. The theory on learning and brain function is constantly evolving with time and at this point, nobody can be sure whether things are going to be better, worse or just different. Brain function and learning is a whole different topic altogether, which I will not attempt to write about. Call me old-fashion but I am not too keen on all the electronic stuff, especially when young children are concerned. I think at the moment, there are enough evidence to support the reduction of screen time for young children. So if you ask me, I would go for the real stuff than virtual stuff any time.

February 20, 2012
by Angela
0 comments

Learning an Instrument

Of my three children, one is learning the piano and one is learning the violin. As for myself, I learned the piano when I was a child and managed to finish Grade 8. I was the only one in my family who learned an instrument. My siblings were not interested. The reason why I wanted my children to learn an instrument is because I want them to be able to appreciate music and because I think everybody should have an avenue of expression, be it through dance, art, music or writing. Since I am more familiar with music, I let my children learn music. I also sent them for art classes and even dance classes, just to see where their inclination lies. Those didn’t last long. However, music becomes the default because it is easier for me to coach them. Since the piano is my instrument, it becomes the default instrument that I let my children learn first.

The difference between learning an instrument now and learning an instrument during my time is that parental involvement is more important now than before. When I was learning the piano, my parents didn’t have to do anything except to provide the instrument and pay the fees. The learning is strictly on me and my teacher. My mother certainly didn’t have to help coach me at home. She could not even if she wanted to because she herself did not learn to play the piano. The case is very different these days. I find myself having to coach my children in their practice. Sometimes I wonder how mothers who do not have any music background can wing it. It is almost expected that the mom (or dad) has to be a kind of “assistant teacher” at home. If there is a problem with the child’s playing, the teacher raises it with the parent and the parent is expected to make sure the child practises correctly at home.

I digressed. What I wanted to write is actually my opinion for some of the questions I get from friends around me regarding the learning of instruments.

Question : How do I know whether my child is interested in music or not?

My Opinion : There is no litmus test to this. In my opinion, music appreciation is a very innate thing. Most babies and toddlers will jump around, dance and move with music. As long as it is something that they enjoy, they will be interested in it. I guess the real question that the parents want to ask is actually “How do I know whether my child is interested in learning (a certain instrument)?” These are two very different questions. As I said, most kids, in fact, most people enjoy music. Adults enjoy all kinds of music. Mostly pop music, I guess. That’s why things like iPod sell so well. Even my eldest, who is not learning any instrument, and whom I jokingly call a philistine, enjoys music and will drum along with the beat and rhythm.

As for whether a child is interested in any particular instrument, I think the best way to find out is to let him try it. Sometimes, this involves a bit of risk-taking. For instrument such as the violin, the initial outlay is small and you can always get a 2nd hand instrument quite cheaply to let your child try out. For the piano, most parents hesitate because the cost is so high. At some point, one just has to bite the bullet, take a risk and make the decision.

Question : I really don’t want to spend all that money to buy a piano. I am not sure if it is a short-term interest or not.

My Opinion : I used to work in a music shop and once heard my piano salesman colleague answered this question. I think his answer makes a lot of sense. He said that if a child came home and told the parents that he found school boring and didn’t want to school anymore, would the parents allow him to quit school? Likewise, if the child said that learning the piano was boring, should the parents let him quit?

I guess his point was that learning an instrument is a commitment. And I agree with him totally. One way to mitigate the cost issue is to buy a second hand instrument, or borrow one until you are very sure. There are many children who quit learning prematurely and their parents are likely to sell the instruments. Look out for these resale instruments. You don’t even have to get a very good one. What is needed is just a decent instrument in good condition.

Question : I want my child to enjoy music so if it is not fun for him/her to learn anymore, I will not force him/her.

My Opinion : At the risk of sounding rather Tiger Mom-ish, let me get straight to the point – learning an instrument is not “play” and “fun”. It is not like your other enrichment classes like art or Speech and Drama, or Music and Movement, where things are meant to be fun or “learning through play” and all that. Of course, there is a place for all that Play and Learn stuff, especially for very young children. This is where you get all the group classes that teaches basic music appreciation and all that. But you might as well accept the fact that after that initial 2 or maybe 3 years, things will not be so much “fun” anymore. Learning an instrument, as I said earlier, is a commitment. It is a discipline. It is a lot of work. The learning itself should be enjoyable. Music is, after all, a beautiful thing. The sound an instrument makes should delight your soul. However, a lot of hard work is involved here and there is no way you can get away with it.

Here is where I totally agree with Tiger Mom (Amy Chua). A child cannot enjoy something she is not good at. In order to be good at something, she has to work very hard to perfect her skills. However, most kids will not, on their own accord, want to work hard at it. Hence, it is up to the parent to make sure that the child diligently work at practising so that she can become good at the instrument. Only after she gains a certain level of competency can she truly start to enjoy the instrument.

The initial years of learning an instrument can be very dreary, although I think things are much improved now, with more palatable music scores catering to the taste of little kids. In order to play nice pieces, one has to have a certain level of skill. To gain that certain level of skill takes years of drilling and practising, playing boring stuff like finger exercises and scales. While doing all that, the child still gets to play music but probably the more boring, uninteresting stuff, although as I said, things are much better now. Even playing nice music takes practice. It is really no fun to be stumbling through a piece of music. Even a child knows whether he plays well or not. After stumbling and stumbling all the time, he will think he is not any good at it and quickly lose interest, when in fact, there is nothing wrong with him except perhaps a lack of discipline and practice.

The role of the parent is to help give that push to make sure the child practises well. This is where it is like school. E.g. if the kid comes home with bad maths results, what would a typical Singaporean parent do? Get more assessment books for the child to practise until he is good at it. Do we say : let’s quit Maths, it’s too difficult? Of course not!

So if you are still thinking that you do not want to impose a boring activity on your child, then I think you should not consider letting your child learn an instrument. All is not lost because for young children, you can still send them for group music appreciation classes. Just because a person does not learn an instrument does not mean the person cannot appreciate and enjoy music. For older children, there are other avenues where music can become part of their lives, e.g join a school band (though still need to practise, but probably less so and probably more fun), or learn to strum a guitar.

Question : At what age should my child start learning an instrument?

My Opinion : One can learn an instrument at any age. I am just starting to learn the violin, along with my little one. However, the reality is that the later you start, the greater the handicap. Hence, it is always good to start young. How young really depends on whether the child is ready, and whether the teacher is willing to take in a very young child. Most places will accept violin students from 3 years and up, and piano students from 4 years and up.

Question : How often should the child take exams?

My Opinion : Less is more. Exam is really not that important. It would be really sad if the objective is just to take exam at every grade, quickly achieve a Grade 8 or Diploma and be done with it. The child ends up doing mostly 3 exam pieces every year, and knows nothing else apart from exam pieces. It is a waste of money and time and whatever qualification achieved is really a sham because the kid knows nothing else apart from exams and more exams.

So how many exams should a child take? I think 3 or 4 would be about right. The time that you free up from not having to prepare for exams can be used to play such a lot of other music and learn about more things at a leisurely pace. Music is so much more than exam. The child gains from a more well-rounded music education and is truly “qualified” when he get his Grade 8 or Diploma or even higher qualifications.

Question : Violin or Piano? (Or others?)

My Opinion : It is entirely up to you and your child. As I said, piano is a default with me because I already own a piano. My #3 learns the violin because I am kind of sick of doing piano with two kids, so it is more for variety’s sake. There were other considerations involved but those were unique to my family and my children.

Question : Group Class or Individual?

My Opinion : Depends on the child. Some kids thrive in a group setting. Others don’t. My #3 dislikes a group setting. On the other hand, I think a group setting helped sustained the interest for my #2 for a while, until he felt confident enough to take on individual lessons. Bear in mind that the progress may be a bit slower for a group class setting.

Question : How Do You Know When To Quit?

My Opinion : This is a question that nobody can answer but yourself. Just like you don’t go into a marriage thinking about divorce, you don’t start learning an instrument thinking about quitting. That said, there will be children and parents who give up. I was one of them. I started my #1 on the piano when he was 5, at a group class. It was the Yamaha Junior Music Class. He was more interested in meddling with all the buttons on the electone, generally fooling around than actually learning. I took him out of the class before we even finished Book 1 because he was getting too disruptive in class and I was getting too fed up with him. When he was in Primary 1, his brother started the same class and he suddenly asked to learn the piano again. We sent him for individual lessons after he told us that he was very sure he wanted to learn. The whole thing lasted but for 9 months before he quit again. He didn’t like to practise. As I said, it is a rare child who would be totally motivated to practise. However, after months of dragging him through practice, and hearing how he played, I concluded that classical piano was not suitable for him and agreed to let him stop.

Please don’t ask me how I know for sure it is right to stop. It is really a judgement call. Sometimes, the kid just goes through a phase of not wanting to practise, but after that, will be quite happy to practise again. This sort of situation does not call for a complete cessation of lessons. You just have to bear with the grumbling for a while and wait for the phase to pass. Many children actually do not really start appreciating music and the instruments they are playing until they are around Grade 5 and above. That’s when they gain certain competency and start playing nice music, you see. That’s also about when some of them grow up and gain certain maturity to appreciate feelings and expressions. So you probably need to be mentally prepared to “drag on” at least until this stage and if the “relief” does not come, perhaps, you can consider letting your child quit.

That said, if you child, like mine, clearly does not seem to be very musical (especially in terms of classical music), then there is not much point to let him go on. For my “philistine” son, as I said, he still appreciates music. It is just not the sort he gets through classical piano or violin. I am encouraging him to pick up the guitar when he is old enough to play chords on it and he is actually more interested in that. Not the classical guitar though. I think that would be equally out of his league.

What if the child is actually quite musical but just hates to practise? There are ways to motivate the kid. Sometimes you need the carrot, sometimes you need the stick. Sometimes it is about what makes the child tick and sometimes it is just bearing with the tantrums until the phase is over. You can find out from other moms what they do to motivate their children. Find ideas. Be creative. Sometimes, the solution is just to take a short break and revisit the piece again. There are just so many ways to explore. The bottom-line is try to keep things positive and less of a fight. The kid may take twice the amount of time to achieve something but at least he is getting there comfortably at his own pace rather than giving up altogether.

What you really don’t want to do is to allow your child to quit on a whim, and then pick it back up again, then quit again, and then ask to start again, and so on. I think this just encourages the child to be impulsive.

The rest of the Questions

Such as which teacher is good, which school is good, which programme is good, who or what do I recommend, etc, these I will not answer because they are very subjective and it is best you do your own research and find what you are happy with.

February 14, 2012
by Angela
3 Comments

Bilingualism : A Case Study of My Kids

My three kids have very different experience in learning Chinese and their language proficiency is very different as a result. Same parents, different kids, different experience, different results. I think they make interesting case study on the effects of various factors affecting the learning of Chinese in Singapore.

I tried to speak Mandarin to him since he was a baby and among the 3, I think I spoke the most to him but sadly, still not enough. I would say at best 80% of the time, it was English and 20% of the time, Mandarin. At that time, I had not come across all the good Chinese children books yet so book reading was almost nil. When he was about 1 year old, he was taken care of by my parents when I went back to work. My parents are Chinese educated and we speak Mandarin at all. Not just your regular ‘market Mandarin’. It is quite common for our speech to be peppered with metaphor, idioms (成语 )and proverbs( 谚语 ) and Chinese history and culture is also not unfamiliar to us. So #1 spent close to a year in a Mandarin-speaking environment. At that time, he was not speaking yet. After I quit work to take care of him full time again, he continued to spend time with my parents through regular stay-overs.

Then he grew up and went to preschool. He had Chinese lessons in school and his Chinese teachers spoke Mandarin to him. His preschool was not particularly Chinese-oriented. I would say his preschool experience is quite typical of a Singaporean preschool experience. I did not do much about his learning and his Chinese. He wasn’t sent to an enrichment class to boost his Chinese standard, like so many preschool kids are today. When he went to Primary School, he had no problem coping with Chinese in school. He had already learned Hanyu Pinyin in preschool, so he did not have problems learning Hanyu Pinyin in Primary School. While he was in preschool, he already learned how to write Chinese characters. With some reinforcement at home, he could recognise and write enough characters to get by Primary 1 and 2 uneventfully.

However, by the time he was in Primary 3, and the expectation was much higher, he started having more problems with Chinese. He could, for example, read all the characters in a passage but had no idea what he was reading about. He could not string proper sentences together, much less express himself effectively. All these pose a problem for composition and comprehension. While having all these issues at school, he has no problem talking to you in Mandarin, albeit in a rather ‘broken’ form of it. He is not completely tongue-tied when it comes to Mandarin.

Recently, I have resorted to forcing him to read Chinese books, copy Chinese phrases and basically doing most of the things kids are made to do these days just to deal with the exams. He still does not attend any enrichment classes. I am a little doubtful about the effectiveness of enrichment classes at this level. Besides, it is not as if I do not have the ability to teach him. The issue is more of whether he is willing to co-operate with me!

This boy is probably the ‘worst’ of the lot. While I spent about 20% of the time speaking Mandarin to #1, I spent 0% for him. He wasn’t the most easy baby to care for and with an older boy to take care of, I just didn’t have that energy or time to do deliberate things like that. By the time he was 3 years old, he had ZERO Chinese ability. As he was a very clingy child, he did not spend time at my parents’ place until he was about 4 or 5 year old. This boy was also a very quiet child, refusing to open his mouth to speak unless he really wanted to. Once, he stayed with my parents for a period of two weeks, and I wondered whether he spoke at all during that time. It was comforting to hear from my parents that he did and he also spoke some Mandarin to them.

He went to preschool school when he was 4 years old. His preschool experience was not quite the same as #1 even though they went to the same school. First of all, as I mentioned earlier, he was a very quiet child. He would sit quietly in class and listen and would not participate nor open his mouth to talk, especially in a language he was not good at. His teachers, typical of a lot of teachers, would conveniently leave him alone to handle other kids who were more rowdy in class. He also had the misfortune of getting a Chinese teacher who was not very experienced. Nevertheless, he did have more opportunity to speak Mandarin in school than at home. With zero exposure at home, school was already a major improvement.

When he was in the last one and a half year in preschool, I started coaching him actively in Chinese character recognition using his brother’s Primary 1 字宝宝 word cards. Fortunately, this boy seems to have greater aptitude in learning languages than his brother even though he may not seem to be as intelligent*. So he actually picked things up pretty quickly. I was getting very hopeful!

* I know I should not make judgement like that but as a mother, I should know the abilities of all my children. A more accurate and general assessment is this : These two boys are as different as chalk and cheese. #1 is your typical ‘man’ kind of boy, quick at picking up mathematics and could not be bothered with words. At Primary 1, for picture composition, asking him to write 1 sentence per picture was like trying to squeeze blood out of stone. Writing a story was like getting from Point A to Point B and he saw little point in meandering around details. #2, on the other hand, is rather more ‘arty’. He is not very good at mathematics but he is better at languages. At kindergarten level, notwithstanding grammar and spelling errors, he could write story at least 7-8 sentences long. If I asked him to write about a field trip that we went on, he would have no problem writing and illustrating. While his brother would not touch a book when he was at lower primary level, this boy is reading books that his brother was reading last year, even this year! The only problem is that he is also a rather dreamy sort of person, so he can be very “blur” and takes a longer time to learn something. So there you see the difference in inclination and ability.

This boy also refuses to speak in Mandarin no matter how much I tried to get him to do so. If I threatened to ignore him unless he spoke to me in Mandarin, he simple shut up and leave. He would rather not say anything! I think it is largely due to his lack of vocabulary and his fear of failure. When he was in K2, I found great Chinese children literature and started buying a lot of books for the boys. He was interested in the books. But with a toddler in tow, I hardly have time to read to them.

When he entered Primary school. He did not seem to have much problem with Chinese, judging by his results. He also does not go for any enrichment class. He is really a paradox. While it seems like there are a lot of things he does not know, yet he seems to be doing pretty fine in school. Of course, it is still early days and we can only really tell whether he is really going to be ok or not when he reaches Primary 3. I am hoping that with a little coaching, his innate aptitude for language will eventually carry him through.

I have already shared about how I ended up teaching the youngest boy myself instead of sending him to preschool. I have also shared about how I am teaching him Chinese. In summary, I decided I had to do something about his Chinese. I had to avoid making all the mistakes I made with the two older boys. So one baby step at a time. I started with reading lots and lots of Chinese story books to him. I also taught him to recognise many Chinese characters. In terms of getting him to speak Mandarin, I am still at point zero. With two older brothers and a father who speak English with him at home, I am fighting a losing battle. Again, this boy only speaks when he wants to, which is almost never. However, when he does, he speaks accurately, not like a westerner trying to speak Mandarin. I attribute it to the exposure he gets through all the reading. In terms of spoken language, he is still at Point Zero. He needs to practise and open his mouth.

The great part is that he is not averse to Chinese due to the stories and the fact that he could recognise and read many characters. So fear is not a factor. He is even quite happy to practise tracing characters. At this point, I do not know how well this boy will turn out. He is my ‘experiment’ and I feel like what I am doing now is preparing the ground and sowing the seeds. We can only know how good the ground is, and how great the harvest will be, in a few years time.

February 2, 2012
by Angela
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Tradition

We just celebrated Chinese New Year last week and as usual, we visited the same people on the same days, did the same things, had the same goodies. When things get done the same way many times, it becomes a tradition. I realise that mothers tend to be the ones who establish the tradition in the family. In my own household, there are certain things we do for Chinese New Year every year. For example, we would buy new clothes, new underwear, new pyjamas, new socks and shoes for the children. We would have new bedsheets, sometimes new floor rugs too. We would buy New Year goodies, set up the same decorations every year. It has been our tradition for several years now and I would cook a pot of minestrone soup on Chinese New Year eve for our dinner for the First Day and Second Day. I know having meatless minestrone soup for Chinese New Year sounds odd. It all started when I decided that after all the rich food and pastries that we had throughout the day, it would be nice to have something that is more nutritious, less fattening and easier on the digestive system to end the day. It was a hit with my husband and the boys. Since then, this has become our tradition.

I realise that a lot of the things we do for Chinese New Year are practices that I learned from my own mother, who probably learned it from her own mother, plus and minus some modifications of her own. My husband would never bother with such things. He does not see the point of going into all that trouble. He does not get why I insist on keeping the new stuff until Chinese New Year and not use it immediately upon purchase. I have a feeling it is a men thing.

If we don’t make special occasions special, then every day of the year will be just another ordinary day. Eventually, the special days will lose their meaning. It is bad enough as it is when we can have new clothes, new shoes and eat good food every day of the year, unlike in the past when people only got to have these during Chinese New Year. This is not just for Chinese New Year but all kinds of special occasions. I know it is very popular to think that Valentine’s Day is too commercialise. Why waste money on flowers when you can get the same at probably half the price on a normal day? Even women these days could not be bothered about such things in the name of being practical. Yes, it is true that a lot of special days are commercialised for businesses to make a killing. It is true that we probably can save a truckload of money if we buy things on normal days and not just wait for special occasions. But the question is : take Valentine’s Day, for instance. How many people will actually buy flowers on a normal day? I suspect apart from newly minted love birds, there are not too many.

I think special days serve an even greater purpose now in our society when everyone is busy all year long. They serve as a reminder to slow down, think of the special people in your lives, and take the time to do something special for them.

As for festivities like Chinese New Year and Christmas, how often do we get a chance to meet up with friends and relatives whom we see only once or twice a year? When I was young and single, I used to hate Chinese New Year very much because of the famous dreaded questions “Have you got a boyfriend yet?”, “When are you settling down?”, and then later on after I got married, “When are you going to start a family?” and “When are you having the next one?”. After I got married and have kids, I started to appreciate Chinese New Year more. First of all, I think of our parents and know that in their old age, they will appreciate having their children and grandchildren around during a festival that is so important to them. Then I think of my children and I think I do not want them to grow up without this celebration with extended family. I do not want them to lose their cultural heritage. I want to pass on the practice of celebration to them so that they can pass it on to their children. Traditions like this don’t just bind people together. They bind generations – past, present and future – together.

As for the unwelcome questions from busybodies, as I grow older, I learn to brush them off and not be affected by them. I learn to appreciate these people who ask and not mind their asking.

Life will be pretty boring and meaningless without festivities and celebration. In every festivity and celebration, there are traditions involved. Some traditions are passed down from generations to generations and some are created along the way. Some last and some don’t. The women tend to be the ones who establish and carry on the tradition. Regardless of whether you work at home, out of home, or are a homemaker, perhaps it is time to think of the tradition in your own family and how to carry it on. Years later, our children will not remember a typical day. They are more likely to remember these special days and the tradition that comes with these days.