How to help my child with primary school Chinese
Every year in January, the visits to my blog spike and the queries are search terms like “P1 Chinese” , “non Chinese parents with children studying Chinese”, “how to help children with Chinese homework”, and “help with Chinese as mother tongue at local school”. Every year I see the surge in the site stats, and remember that I was once there too and struggling. That’s why this blog started.
This post is for you. I’m not trying to sell you anything, and I don’t have a business. I don’t speak Chinese. This is just to let you know that it’s not impossible for your child to learn Chinese and give you practical resources to achieve this. In fact, it’s quite possible for your child to excel, and there are ways to make learning Chinese at school a smoother journey for you and your family. I can confidently say this having put three kids through the system – each with differing academic aptitudes and interests.
Can I really help my child with their Chinese?
Yes, you can if you really want to.
Some parents read my blog and say they can barely read in Chinese or they don’t speak Chinese well enough to teach their kids. It doesn’t matter. I don’t speak a word. Other parents put their children into expensive enrichment classes (which I have nothing against if it works for the child and family). However if your child is really weak at P1, then ironiclalyl the brand name tuition centres won’t even take your child in, and private tutors can cost you your kidneys.
I took to solving the problem myself through a lot of leg work and research. I connected the dots to find resources which the school teachers didn’t know about. I discovered effective technologies so that our life didn’t have to be a constant struggle of Chinese homework and failed tests. It’s worked for us, and I know many other families now who have tried similar approaches successfully.
What’s the trick?
#1 Pat yourself on the back. Chinese is a great language to learn. It’s great that your children are on the journey. Now embrace it and believe that it’s possible.
#2 Don’t expect wonders overnight. Consistency is key. Remember that 5 – 10 minutes a day EVERY DAY will beat that one hour class each week, that you’ll probably miss every now and then anyway due to scheduling clashes with birthdays/illness/public holidays/CCA etc etc. So rather than finding the perfect class or the worlds-most-amazing tutor, try to get a solid routine at home which includes some reading, listening, playing and writing in the language. This is a marathon not a sprint.
#3 Get the right resources for your child. I’m suggesting a few here which we’ve loved. If you’ve found others, please share on in the comments so this post becomes even more helpful.
Resources for learning Mandarin Chinese at home
Every child and family is different. I’m writing this assuming you as a parent have ZERO knowledge of the language and that your child has a very basic understanding of spoken Mandarin, perhaps picked up from a kindergarten laoshi or an introductory language class.
Important note: Some children (<5%) do have their own unique learning challenges and may not thrive in Chinese. Interestingly, dyslexia in English rarely correlates with dyslexia in Chinese, and vice versa, as the languages use distinctly different parts of the brain. If your child is struggling in English, perhaps they’ll flourish in Chinese.
Basic speaking skills
If your child is already weak at this, they’re unlikely to improve much at school. With 30 kids in a primary school class, there’s not enough time for individual conversations. Given speech and communication is one of the key early elements of language acquisition, you really need to ensure this becomes solid.
If you don’t have access to native-speaking play hosts or nannies (we’re not bzillionaires afterall) then check out affordable online 1-to-1 basic conversational classes. Plenty of options available through Outschool, Preply, Vivaling, Instant Mandarin, etc. Make the classes short, immersive, personal and focused on conversations. We’ve used a language partner based in Beijing for many years now, and for USD7 per 25 minutes, it’s well worth it. Expose your child to the right Chinese and get rid of the ‘angmoh’ accent.
Milestone to note: a child should be able to hold a 5 – 10 minutes conversations about their daily routines, interests and feelings and answer simple questions.
Reading
Some non-Chinese parents have a goal for their children to speak Mandarin and ignore the necessity of reading. This is a flawed approach. Research proves that literacy is required to become fully bilingual in a language if it’s being learned in a classroom environment (it’s a little different if the language is acquired in a full immersion environment). Ultimately if your child is enrolled in local school in Singapore, it’s not an option to ignore reading.
For a child with totally no concept of characters, start with very basic books like Sage 500 (covers the first 500 characters) or an app like Maomi Stars (which contains all the P1 syllabus, along with more basic words too). If needed, an intervention like the Reading/Writing course provided by LingoAce or LingoBus can help with basic initial character recognition too.
For a child who recognizes 100+ characters, go straight to Le Le Chinese Reading System. This is worth its weight in gold. It consists of three levels of books which cover ~1200 characters through short stories, with a reading pen which reads out each character individually. It reads it in a veeerrrry slooooow voice so the child will pick up the tones too. These books are designed in Taiwan and used to cost a fortune in Singapore, but now they’re much more affordable too (and you can use the discount code on my blog to get further 5% off). If you take 5 minutes a day to read a book or two, the child will be through the first 100 books in 3 months.
For a child who recognises 1000+ characters, it’s time to get your child reading other simple graded readers or bridging books and wider literature. At this point, invest in a scanning dictionary pen (like Youdao Dictionary Pen or Alpha Egg) so the child can read the words and fill in any gaps themselves by scanning the characters. I’ve written lots of book suggestions in earlier posts.
Milestone to note: a child should be able to read texts of 600+ words by end of P1. To be on-par with Singapore syllabus, a child in P1 should be able to complete all the Le Le “red” level books (the first 100 books) prior to starting P1, and then complete the “yellow” books (the next 100 books) during their P1 year.
Character writing and Spelling Tests / Tingxie
It’s difficult to help a child revise spelling lists if you cannot read out the words; it’s also difficult to correct penmanship when the parent doesn’t know what the character should look like. This is why you need the Skritter app. The app can take all the spelling words (they’re already uploaded in fact for the MOE syllabus), and read them out to the child, and also correct their stroke order and penmanship. Skritter will also keep track of words which are learnt and use spaced repetition to ensure the characters enter muscle memory. We have an account for each of my three kids, and they use it independently 5 minutes (or less) daily and it’s been a huge burden off my mind. If you really prefer pen-and-paper method, then the Alpha Egg Writing pen will also do similar but isn’t tailored for MOE words.
Milestone to note: a child should be able to write >350 characters by end of P1 with correct stroke order. They should be able to complete Skritter with >90% retention rate of characters learnt.
Hanyu Pinyin
Even parents should learn HYPY. There is (unfortunately) a large emphasis on Hanyu Pinyin in P1, and it’s taught very quickly, with some schools starts spelling tests in the second week. Consider the iHuman Pinyin app ….. within a few weeks your child will know everything, and they’re unlikely to be complaining either as the games are fun.
Milestone to note: a P1 child should know all their Hanyu Pinyin within first term.
Composition and creative writing
Don’t worry too much about composition at this point. It will eventually be taught in school – you have until about P3 to get ready! Composition is probably the hardest thing to practice at home for non Chinese-speaking families. Focus on mastering reading and spelling first. Providing tools where a child can practice grammar, sentence structures, and learn new idioms are ways you can support composition. Apps like iHuman and Wukong contain a lot of sentence structuring. Books like Mi Xiao Quan have idioms. For on-off classes/camps in school holidays, you could consider LingoAce run specific composition skills workshops for younger students, or Vitamin M for P4 and above.
Milestone to note: a P1 child doesn’t need to be able to compose stories.
Comprehension
Comprehension is also hard to fully practice on the home front if you as a parent don’t understand any Chinese. Giving the child lots of listening opportunities is a good start. For P1 kids, a device like Luka Reading Robot can narrate Chinese books to your child, and you can interact afterwards to ask you child in English what it was all about and what they understood. It’s simple to let the child borrow books from the school library or NLB, and then have Luka read it fluently.
For more resources, have a look at ZB Schools and see their videos and short media stories written in Chinese, at levels appropriate for primary schoolers. Mandarin Bean has similar. For a slightly older child, watching Channel 8 documentaries can help. Vitamin M has a tool called Gamistory which is a set of 88 videos with interactive gamified content, to assist children with comprehension. Another option would be Instant Mandarin’s Story classes, where the child reads a story online and then discusses what it means live with the teacher.
Milestone to note: see if child can understand the videos on the ‘lower primary’ section of ZB School website, or read basic articles on Mandarin Bean.
Classes for adults
Take some basic classes for yourself so you can role model to your child that you’re trying too, and it will give you some basic tips around the tones, stroke orders, and being able to support on homework.
I get that you’re busy, probably juggling full time work and parenting, so choose a learning option that is flexible and suits your lifestyle. Two suggestions for online classes are Instant Mandarin (super cheap 1-to-1 class that you can book and cancel the classes at 3 hours notice! …. you can get a package and share it between yourself and child) or Chinese Mama Tongue (not-so-cheap group class where Averil will go chapter by chapter through the Singapore MOE school text book and give you the right tips to learn about your child’s primary school syllabus).
If you have four weeks to spare (…. hint hint June or December school holidays) head to GoEast Chinese language school in Shanghai and join an adult’s intensive beginner class in parallel with your child being in the children’s course.
Play in Chinese
In Singapore, you’ll find so many great ways to infuse Chinese into the other enrichment your child is already doing. Can the piano or swim coach speak in Mandarin? Try out a drama class with Zoom Academy in Chinatown. Do dancing with Singapore Chinese Dance Theatre. Try Chinese painting with Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan Arts & Cultural Troupe Join the Chinese Chess Academy or Singapore Weiqi Association. Join a Chinese Children’s Reading Club through your local NLB library. Doodle along with Dim Sum Warriors in their livestreams. Stream songs on Spotify and sing along. No doubt these activities will be cheaper than a private language tutor, and they’ll be an immensely more fun way to immerse in the language. There are so many of these around.
Like I stated at the start, this is a list of resources for parents who don’t speak any Chinese. If you’re a parent who does understand some Chinese, then there are even more great resources out there and waiting for you. As a start, checking out Eileen Choo’s blog which has hands-on suggestions of ways to learn Chinese together with your child. Another I love is Hands on Chinese Fun where Singaporean mum MJ shares the amazing journey of her son and their reading adventures.
If there’s a resource you LOVE and would like to share, please recommend it in the comments below or drop me a line. I’m always keen to share great discoveries to help other parents.
Disclosure: I’ve raved about Le Le Reading System for years to the point that they have now offered me a special discount code for readers (type LAHLAHBANANA at checkout). I’m sharing it because it will be guaranteed the cheapest way you can get these books in Singapore, as they don’t sell retail. As of 2022 (when I stopped fulltime work) I do get a small commission from every purchase of Le Le books. This is the only product you’ll find on my blog where I get paid a cent. It works well because I’m very confident you’ll find the Le Le books useful, and this small income helps to offset the domain hosting costs for the blog, which lets me keep sharing lobang with you. 😊
About this Blog
This blog is about 5 years old – I update it seldomly these days. The blog was started to document to other mummy friends how to find resources to help their kids with Chinese at school. A key driver of my unexpected foray into blogging was that we didn’t have $$ to spend on Chinese enrichment classes, so I decided to spend on smart home resources instead. In doing so, I discovered many families were in similar boat to us, and no one was talking about!
So what’s changed in the Chinese learning scene from when I started this blog until now? Honestly, in Singapore the in-person tuition classes have become even more expensive, and technology has improved rapidly, so the cost differential is EVEN BIGGER. So I hope by browsing the older posts on this blog you’ll discover ways to make learning Chinese less costly and more fun for your whole family.