Recently, many friends asked how my little C learned chinese alphabet. In fact, I have always wanted to write about this aspect, but I was really conflicted. Speaking of this process, I really burst into tears, because it is really too difficult for overseas to learn Chinese!

In the process of children learning Chinese, we have also tried various and as interesting ways as possible, but the language environment is limited, and the learning process is always not as smooth as learning English.

Summarized the method of Xiao C learning Chinese and the use of different materials, as a reference for everyone, and for the pits we need to skip, I hope you can effectively avoid them.

Before little C was about 3 and a half years old, the way we treated her learning Chinese was to create a Chinese environment. The purpose is to let children read books and accumulate rich Chinese vocabulary, which will be of great help to the process of Chinese literacy in the future.

Providing a corresponding language environment is very important for children to learn the language. I remember we went back to China a few months ago. When Xiao C was in an environment full of Chinese characters every day, she started to learn to write Chinese characters by herself after only two days. When I go to a restaurant and wait for a meal, I will write according to the menu, learn to write from magazines on the plane, and learn to write from the advertisements at home. Before that, we never taught her to write Chinese characters.

This speaks to the language environment that sparked her motivation and interest in writing, so I really believe in the importance of language environment.

Being overseas, the environment for us to learn Chinese is not as good as in China, so we can only try our best to create it for our children. Regarding the creation of the Chinese language environment, our implementation methods generally include the following aspects:

Communicate in Chinese at home

Since the Chinese kids themselves were born, we have made a rule: working at home must speak Chinese.

Even if the child actively speaks English every day in the future, I will not tire of emphasizing this rule and asking her to repeat what you want to express in Chinese.

Introduce a large number of Chinese picture books, and insist on reading Chinese stories with parents every day.

Over the years, I brought back a large number of Chinese picture books from China. There are five large bookshelves placed in different corners of the house to ensure that children can pick up Chinese books at any time.

At the same time, I have always insisted that there must be a Chinese story in parent-child reading time.

Fragmented learning time, listen to Chinese for story audio

We will use the short time to let the children listen to the audio of the Chinese story. For example, when I get up in the morning to wash my face, brush my teeth, and change my clothes, I wait for these times on the way to and from school.

At first, the audio stories came from Huotu and the Mitu story machine produced by Xiaomi. Later, more Himalayan speakers were used, and it was more convenient to listen to Chinese stories in the car.

Add Chinese label to the game

Anyone who has seen many of the games I have shared with you knows that I have always insisted on including Chinese labels in the games to create as many opportunities for my children to fancy Chinese characters as possible.

In particular, we often make games based on the theme, and adding Chinese tags to the game is also based on the theme. After playing the game several times, children will be impressed with those Chinese characters.

Before that, I also did a lot of problem research, and started with a lot of learning activity materials recommended by social experience experts, but it turns out that many of our students’ building materials are not very easy to use, and some companies are even very boring.

As for how to help our children read, we might do the following:

Literacy games

Similar to the concept of "key words" in learning English, it is an entry-level content for children to learn common words first. So I set up different games to help children learn 300 commonly used Chinese characters.

Chinese word games are basically memory games, which help children to deepen their memory of these Chinese characters.

Share a few literacy games:

Game 1: Animal House

The blank stickers print out the Chinese characters of various animals and cut them out.

Ask the children to use Lego to build a house for animals

Please number the animal: put a Chinese character sticker on the door of the corresponding animal

Game 2: Chinese Zodiac

This game has been shared before, and many children like it very much, and it has also been well received in the circle of friends. Through this game, children will quickly memorize the Chinese characters for twelve animals. See the video for details:

Game 3: Give gifts

Cut out gift shapes from red cardboard, you can cut out a few more

Find a few from the Christmas collection of stickers: gingerbread men, presents, candies, bells. And stick it on the gift to prove that these are the gifts in the box.

Print the Chinese characters of these daily items and stickers on the blank stickers and cut them out. Ask the children to match the Chinese characters with the pictures of the items.