For a long time I have been thinking and searching for an "ideal" chinese home-learning program that could aid me in delivering lessons that are fun and easy to grasp by my children. Given the lack of such resources on the internet where such chinese programs are shared and explained in English, I was in a desperate need to work out something on my own so that I could supplement my children's learning of the chinese language. While they are able to converse in mandarin fairly alright I know for sure they needed help in order to know how to read.

I was introduced to the 四五快读 program a couple of months earlier and when I learned that there was a 30-page parent's/teacher's guide packed with loads of ideas of games and insights on how to assist the child to learn and retain the lessons learned, I knew I've found the "right" material that I've been searching for all this while.

In order to make this program work, the parent/teacher is required to put in their full commitment and discipline to deliver the lessons to the child daily.  Having said that, the author did mention about using pockets of free time or even during going about our daily routine/activities, there are opportunities we could deliver lessons to the child, all it takes is just a couple of minutes or even seconds.

Honestly, I was a little overwhelmed by the 30-page (super tiny chinese text) introduction and guide for the parents/teachers! Upon reading the details, it somewhat intrigued me to want to find out more.  (disclaimer: I am sharing my thoughts and highlighting certain points that I thought are worthy of sharing; this is by no means a direct translation of the 30-page parents'/teachers' guide; it's still better for the teacher/parent to read the 30-page teaching guide in entirety to fully grasp the value of this program and to know how to implement the lessons accordingly in order to achieve the optimum results).

The first 8 pages of the parent's/teacher's guide offers the user insights on the importance of the ability to recognize chinese words in order to read chinese literature or materials. It also suggests how being an early reader could build a smooth path in gaining proficiency in the language thus a positive learning experience when the child has entered formal school. There's a huge emphasis on reading aloud to the kids and encouraging the children to read on their own as early as possible.

From Page 9 – 13 details on the uniqueness of this program is being explained. Here are some highlights I thought was worth sharing:

• It's said that there are over 3,000 chinese words in record and within it are 560 basic words; once these 560 words are learned/remembered the child is able to read simple printed materials.
• While there are 2,400 high frequency words that make up 99% of words in the press and magazines.
• This program aims to guide the child to be able to read 80% of most children's chinese literature.
• Upon completion of the program it is necessary to provide the child with good children's chinese literature for him/her to practice reading (with parent/teacher's guidance and encouragement).

From Page 15 – 19 listed the 14 principles of delivering the program to the child in the early years. Here are a few pointers:

• Learning to recognize chinese words through games – this is due to the nature of young children; being active, curious and with short attention span. So engaging them with games is crucial in delivering the lessons effectively.
• Consistency in delivering the lessons at the usual time, place and by the same person.
• While explaining the meaning of a word to the child, we need to engage him/her with active interaction through Q&A, dramatization, lateral thoughts. eg. the word 飞 , we can ask questions such as what does the bird do in the sky or which transportation is the fastest that we can use to travel to a faraway place (鸟在天上做什么呀? or 我们要去很远的地方,乘什么交通工具去最快?)
• Provide concise explanation, avoid using too many words to explain the meaning of the word the child is to learn.
• Teach the nouns first as they are more concrete.
• While teaching word recognition, the parent/teacher must ensure that the child's focus is on the word being taught. It only takes a few seconds for the child to see and have a visual impression of the word.
• End each lesson when the child is still interested to continue. This way the child will always remember the positive emotions he/she had about learning chinese and would anticipate for the next lesson to commence.
• Do not insist that the child must learn if he/she shows no signs of interest. This is to avoid resentment towards the chinese language. Meanwhile, introduce some chinese IQ activities/games to lead the child into learning the language eventually.

From Page 21 – 24 is a detail guide on how to coach young children to recognize chinese words (specifically those who are picking up the language and those who are already speaking the language).

• Introduce words that the children are already familiar with in their daily life eg. 爸爸, 妈妈, show these words in print to the child
• Words of things that are of interest to the child such as toys, fruits, pets etc.
• Words of things that surround the child eg. furnitures, plants, electrical appliances etc
• Through reading a story, pre-prepare a set of word cards of the main character's name or interesting objects of the story and present to the child while reading the story.
• Pick out some words from a nursery rhyme or song that the child is familiar with
• It is important that the words in the word cards be printed on plain white paper with no pictures/photo on it. As young children are sensitive towards colours and this is a cause of distraction from focusing on the word that they need to learn. While the pictures are visual cues to what the word is on the card which will not be helpful in making the child recognize the word by itself.
• It is not necessary for us to introduce words of fewer strokes to a young child in the beginning. The author suggested that it's better to present words with more strokes than fewer strokes to the child – to the child it's like a picture to be remembered. Whereas the child gets easily confused with words of fewer strokes such as 三 and 川. 
• Teach words that look alike separately on different occasions, words such as “鸟, 乌, 马”, “甲, 由, 田, 申” as the child gets easily confused with one word and another.
• Some chinese words have several ways of pronouncing such as 好 , under the circumstance of 'being a well behaved child' 好孩子 the word 好 is read as 第三声 whereas 'hobbies or interest' the word 好 as in 爱好 is read as 第四声. During times of such, we teach the child to pronounce the word that is commonly used first.
• Start the kids in word recognition in short lessons of not more than a couple of minutes and progressing to longer duration of learning eventually. It's crucial to ensure that the child give focused attention on the word that you present even if it's just for a few seconds. Begin with only 1-2 words when teaching younger kids and moving onto short phrases and long sentences later on when the child has gained proficiency and shown keen interest in learning more. Remember, go with the flow of the child's interest level, if he/she is not keen, just put off the lesson to a later time.
• Revision is key as children tend to forget the words easily.
• Research has shown that word recognition is best done in the night; as when the child learns in the night, and goes to sleep, the level of retention of information is 60% as opposed to learning in the morning.
• Deliver lessons before an activity the kids enjoy such as before watching of their favourite TV program or before going to the playground etc. During such times, children have the best level of focus as they anticipate a fun activity to come after the lesson. Lessons during this period can be as short as a couple of minutes.

Routine of revision at Page 25

• Day 1 (Night) – Learn new words
• Day 2 (Morning & Evening) – Revised the new words learned the night before, once in the morning and once in the evening
• Day 3 (Morning) – To revise once of the words learned in Day 1
• Day 4 (Night) – To revise once of the words learned in Day 1
• Day 7 (Morning) – To revise once of the words learned in Day 1
• Break for 5 days – Revise once of the words learned in Day 1
• Break for 10 days – Revise once of the words learned in Day 1
• Once the child has revised the new words learned for 7-8 times the words learned will be internalized and he/she will be able to recall easily the next time they see the word again. Please refer to the teaching guide for the details on why this method of revision works

Games for revision Page 26 – 28

• Identifying words learned on magazines/press or other printed material
• Hide & Seek – parents to hide the word cards and make the child hunt and read it or vice versa where the parents do the hunting
• Classification of categories – word cards that are of various categories eg. vegetable, transportation, family members etc
• Dramatization – dramatize action words such as cry, laugh, walk, run etc
• Read the teacher's guide for more ideas.

Ending note From Page 29-30

• the author emphasized once again the importance of building interest in the language through word recognition and having the child learn to read independently as early as possible.
• Regular read aloud session and accompanying and guiding the child to read by him/herself to encourage early reading.
• Guiding the child to start from single word recognition to short phrases, to sentences, to short stories and to reading chapter books is the way to go.
• The key is to build an interest in reading in order to enjoy and love the language.

Once again, consistency and discipline are the key ingredients to make this program work. For the benefit of our children's education, I think it's worth the work Delivering lessons in short nuggets (3-10mins each time) and revising during leisure time work best for busy parents like us. More ideas on how to use this program will be shared as we go along.

In my next post, a video based on the first lesson of Book 1 will be shared. There will also be a free learning aid that I've created to go through lesson 1 that'll be made available for download/printing. Do stay tuned!

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