中華字經

cornelius

(I have wished to type Chinese but it's not available here in the office)

I must admit that even to adults, 中華字經 is really boring.  The words covered can be very difficult too.  But I would like to share with you that my kid likes it very much, most probably because it is part of the curriculum of his kindergarten.

His kinder teaches 中華字經 since PN class (for 2 years old in HK).  My son is now in K1, having just finished Volume 1 of 中華字經 two months ago, and is starting Chapter 2 of Volume 2.  I have made a rough estimate that each volume carries a total of 1,000 different Chinese characters (making a total of 4,000 for the whole set of 中華字經).  I am quite amazed to find that he can recognise and read the words in Vol. 1, which means he knows the Putonghua pronunication of some 1,000 words already.

I believe the Glenn Doman's method does work in my son's case.  If some of you also wish to have their kids learn to recognise words (both Eng and Chi), an important key is to start early in a fun way (whether it is fun or not is quite subjective and may differ from kid to kid.  After all, the kids must feel like playing but not being pressed).  

Language wise, let me share the education tools that we have used on our kid:

1.  "Your baby can read" (we let him watch it even before he could talk)
2.  GC Phonics VCD (limit it to within 15 or 20 mins daily)
3.  Plus a lot of Eng and Chi books

He likes to sit still alone to read books (both Eng and Chi) for one or two hours everyday.  However, he likes us (esp his mom) to read with him.  Recently, I encourage him to read aloud.  In terms of Oxford Reading Tree series, he can read aloud Stage 5 books by himself.  I think that's pretty good for a 3 years old boy.

Remember to make reading always a happy encounter for the kids, or else it's difficult to