Updates Chinese Composition Jay 20 9

Date:  Sep 20, 2015

We have make it a habit.

Every Saturday 2pm, while on the way to his Robotics Class, I will let Jay Jay do one passage of Chinese Composition.

It is good as we can discussed what to write, how Jay wanted to tell the story during the short 15-20 minutes ride.

And then, during the ride home, he will use the new method, IOS’s dictation to speak out and write down on the Notepad.

Through out the exercise, I discovered more on the direct translation from English to Chinese problem.

Here are some new tips that I think it is useful.

1.  I usually asked him to think about what he wanted to write and quickly do a count on words on the first 2-3 pictures.  So, he will use his fingers to start counting.  For example, he wanted to write 30 words on the first picture, and then, 20 words on the 2nd picture.  So, I teach him, once he has 50 words on the first two pictures, it is find already.  We do not need to count the 4th picture, as we know we can add more words in the last picture.  So, P3 requires to write about 80 words.  So, it has already surpass that.  This is to give him a certain confidents on how much to write.  I don’t want him to write so much because "write more wrong more "????.

2.  As this is a “tell story and write story” practise.  I am not so particular on the full stop, comma, and stuffs.  When he write it down, he knows what to do.  But on a dictation mode, usually, you do not want to pay too much attention.  You want to get the “conceptualise” of the story well.  Jay understood that well.

3.  His original sentence is “???????????????”.  I reminded him that we have to always constantly asked ourselves about the 6 W’s.  In this case, where?  So, perhaps he needs to tell people more details about where he was taking a stroll with his friend.  Is it outside the garden?  Is it inside the garden?  or is it below the garden?  or above the garden?  ???????? will be more appropriate.  The more I teach him this, the more Jay Jay grasp.  So, even during day to day conversation, I will have to watch out of this and try to remind him to be detail on describing the scene.

4.  There is nothing wrong with "??????????“.  But I have to remind him that, he has already talking about both the kids is taking the stroll.  So, by saying this again, make the sentence redundant.  So, I try to make him think, how about tell us What do they feel while they are taking the stroll and chit-chatting at the same time?  Are the boys smiling?  So, wouldn’t it be better to say "??????????, ????“.  Learning to write composition is not so easy, it needs patient.  But I believe that if you keep on doing this sort of exercise on weekly, eventually the kid will learn it some days.

5.  In his original sentence, "???????????????????????”  OK.  I have to correct him this.  He has mix up a little bit.  So, I asked him to see what other methods he can use to describe the event instead of saying “?????”.  Reason is you are describing a person do something, and the sudden usage of “I” seems awkward.  So, I suggested him to try to describe the “???” as “?????” instead of saying “?????”.

6.  I am glad that he started to use “?????????”?“??”?”????“.  All these are suggested last few weeks.  In order to put the story into timing perspective.  You cannot tell a story without a time.  When does it happen?  later?  Now? 

7.  As a conclusion, the kid has to be constantly reminded about good manner.  As for now, for good behaviour, he will put down “?????”.  Today, I want him to think about why they are “??”.  I told him in P4, you probably have to write more other than “??”.  How about saying??????????????????The story about how the two kids help the old lady to look for her purse.  This is an action of “helping people”.  Not so related to “??”.

This is what he come out of.  Not too bad.  I slowly can see the improvement.

As you can see in the first picture, there are some other words that he choose not to use.  

But I think he have to start exposing himself to describing the feeling, describing what the facial expression.

Like ????????????????

???????????????????? 

?????????????????

And of course, after this, I will usually let him read what the model answer is from the book.  Those are really good, but I do not expect him to learn those.

I only wanted him to learn the correct way to speak, to describe and to write down.

So far, I am very very excited and happy about his progress.

During the car ride home, he told me that he is very happy about what he has written.  And he thank me.

And he said, he wanted to get an “A” on his SA2 paper 1.  Instead of getting a “C” as in SA1.

I told him, don’t put too high the bar, one step at a time.  I am happy if he gets an “B”.

I feel that he has grown up a lot.

???????

To my friends who has kids.  I speak Chinese at home too.  But somehow the kids has evolve to make English their first language.  We cannot change that.  So, we shall need to put in more efforts to counter that effect.  We sometimes have to put in a lot a lot of efforts into teaching Jay and Kay how to speak Chinese at home, and how to speak correctly.  I shared all these because I found it very useful when teaching both Jay and Kay.  This year, I did not asked Jay do any assessment book.  I only teach him using flash cards, listen and reading out the text book, and using dictation to conceptualise and write down the composition.  And these are the basic root they need the most.  It is the confident they need to find.  So, using these easy methods, I feel that we have successfully make Jay Jay found his confident in this Chinese language.  And the more he learned, the more he wanted to learn.  Good luck!

Updates Chinese Composition Jay

Date:  Sep 13, 2015

Learning how to speak and write in Chinese is a long term process.

You will see the result slowly after many days.  You cannot expect to see good result in a few weeks.  

But slowly, the more you practice, the more you get familiarise and the more you learn how to write in this beautiful language.

Here is some more tips on how I train my son on how to improve his Chinese Composition.

1.  You have to buy some material to practice.  One of the book I found it very useful is this book I got from Popular Bookstore.  It is by Victoria Publications Pte Ltd.  It has 72 Chinese Essay / Chinese Composition models.  With Han Yu Pin Yin too.  Of course, their model answer is very chim, deep.  But it is always good for Jay to look at the model answer. 

Here are the titles of the 72 Chinese Essays.

Jay told me that he saw some of them in school.  Those photos are quite standard.  But of course the answers are from the Publishers.

I think it is a very good idea from time to time, we pick out one topic and brainstorm together to write the Chinese Composition.  The P3 kids only need to write at least 80 words.

2.  In my earlier posting (you may search the blog site with “Miniliew Chinese”, you see that I uses a IOS app called Dragon Dictation.  This is a software app you use to dictate what you say into a writing.  Means, you speak to the iPhone App, and Dragon Dictation will automatically write down for you of what you speak.  This App is useful, when you want to quickly note down what you say without a pen and pencil.

3.  I did the Chinese Composition together with Jay whenever we drove in the car to his enrichment class, i.e. Robotics, CMA, Golf or Badminton.  It is good as during the car journey, which is usually about 10min to 20min drive, you want the kid to use his brain to brainstorm in his mind.  Ask him to look at the pictures, tell him to describe what he sees.

The key objective is to discuss about it, and be able to describe what you see.  Describing what you see and write it down is probably the hardest part.  Our kids nowadays are slowly skewed towards English speaking mode whenever possible.  So, you have to correct his Chinese speaker all the time, when he did a “direct translation” from English.  The order of sentences are very important.  By doing this sort of exercise, you can make sure that he slowly learn how to speak Chinese in the correct order, correct way.  And as he speak correctly, he can learn how to write it down correctly too.

Today, it is the first time, we did not use Dragon Dictation.  As we are entering a higher stage.  :)

Me and Jay is discussing about these 4 pictures in the car while on our home from Robotics class.  

4.  First you must teach the kids how to count.  For example, there are 19 squares in each row.  So, that means, as long as you have written and “fill up” at least 5 rows, you are OK.  In P3, you are required to write at least 80 characters word counts.

5.  I asked Jay to “label” all the helping words.  The key is you do not need to use up all the helping words.  But it generally gives you clues on what story is the pictures is about.

6.  Then, I asked him to try to “fit” those labeled words into which pictures.  The boy is curious, so ??? definitely goes into picture no. 1.  It is a lovely morning, ?? goes to picture no. 1.  The old man is practising his Qi Gong (??), so it goes into no. 1.  And so on.

Also, if you thought of any other words, and if you DO NOT KNOW how to write it in Chinese, but you do know how to SAY IT.  Then write down the Han Yu Pin Yin beside it.  It is the fastest way to note down what you try to say.  For example, he knows how to speak out ????, but he does not know how to write the Lian (?) word.  So, I would encourage him to write it down in Han Yu Pin Yin first.

And he decided that 7-10 will place in the last picture.

And if you decided that you don’t want to use any of the helping words, simply cross them out.  I teach Jay that if he put down the label number beside the picture, it is easier.

7.  In the Chinese composition class, students are allowed to use the e-dictionary.

The teacher in school should have already taught them how to use it.  And you got to make sure your kids know how to use it.  So, remember, Jay wrote down the Han Yu Pin Yin, “??“ (Zheng4 Zai4)? ”??“ (Tu2 Zhong1)? ”?” (Lian4).  When he write the Chinese Composition on the paper, he will make use of the e-Dictionary to find the correct words.

8.  After spending 10-20 min in the car going thru describing and telling story.  He is now ready to put it in writings.  So, when we arrive home, I tell him, you have 20-30 minutes to write at least 80 words.  So, he started to get to work.  

Notice that this time, I never use the Dragon dictation for this exercise as I want to see what is the result of what we have done for the past few weeks (only manage to do it in weekend).

Not too bad.  Not too bad at all.

So, from here, he understood clearly how much is 80 words.  So, during the brain storming sessions, we talk about almost every thing.  And whatever we spoke, may be can reach 200-300 words.  But when he write, I asked him to look at the picture again, and use your finger to do a quick count on what you want to say.  And if you think it is too short, you add in more descriptions.  If you think it is too long, try to cut down things that is repeated.  Things that is not so important, etc.  

At the moment, Jay’s Chinese tutor also let him read P5 passage.  According to the Chinese tutor, he says actually P4, P5 text book is the same.  Chinese is about learning the characters.  The more you learn the Chinese characters the more power you are.  As I spoke about it before, the way how the Chinese Tutor teach Jay is he recorded down his reading of text book on iPhone and ask Jay to read ONLY ONCE per day.  His theory is, if the student is able to read it out loud a text book passage, he should know and understand every words he read.  And you cannot force him to read two times a day as it might loose the child interest in Chinese.  You read it ONCE, is not too much.  And of course, I bought 2 extra text book for him so that one is used to write down the meaning of NEW WORDS.  And the other one, I have to blanco erase out all the Han Yu Pin Yin.  That means, when Jay read it, it has to read from a text which has no Han Yu Pin Yin.  I find this way of teaching is way way better than giving him drill or assessment books or test paper.  It is a slow way and it is a repetitive way, but it guarantee that the kid build the ROOT of Chinese in him. 

Remember, he wrote down the Lian4 (?), unfortunately he does not remember which one, so he picked “?” whites wrong.  But on a whole, when I read thru this passage, I am happy.  Because he did “improve” compare to half a year ago.  And he make use of ???? which he learned from class.  And he also uses ?????? which he learn from the P5 text book.  

So, this is a proof that Listening to the recording does work.  And make kids remember some nice words ????.

To me, I don’t care how the Chinese teacher will score him, but I think Jay has done quite well in this.  Especially this is the first time I ask him to write down instead of using Dragon dictation.

9.  Now, of course, there is always a model answer.  HaHaHa… of course, you DO NOT want to expect your kid to write like this in P3.  But by showing him the model answer, he will get to know that writing Chinese can be deep too.  Haha...

What I am going to do, is I am going to RECORD down both his Composition and the Model Answer.  And let him read it for 2 weeks.  So that he can remember, when he see this sort of picture, what words to use and how does ???? & ???? being used.

Speak more at home.

Use correct Chinese way to speak.

And be patient on it.

Soon, and hopefully, you will get him interested in using all sort of Chinese description language to describe things.

Will share more when he do the next compositions.

Lego Robotics Bricks Grabber

Date:  Sep 26, 2015

The key objective of today’s project is to build a robotic car that can grab as many bricks out of the black square.

A simple task, but needs the kid to come up with their imaginations.

This is what Mr. Jay comes up with.  His robots come with a square arm that can embrace almost entire brick stocks in the square box.

And he will keep improving the arm grabbing mechanism.

I am glad that he has come until this stage where he can design his own bots, and make the bots solve problem.

Good thinking Jay!  

Here is his robot in action.  The arm is not strong enough to hold.  but it is good enough.

Here is another run.

No wonder there are a lot of Lego books in the Toilet.

He told me that he got an idea from the Lego books.

This kid is geared for engineering path.

And I think it is a very useful course for him, so to add the “thinking skill” and “design skill” into his skill sets.

Jay Jay Still Trying To Win The P6s

Date:  Sep 20, 2015

Jay Jay has fully recovered from his knee injury.  Three weeks not on the golf course.

And today is the Junior Golf Medal day again.

And again, he is up against two P6 students (caucasians kids).  You look at the heights you know they are going to hit further than you and have more mental than you.  But it is always a good challenge for Jay as he is really trying to win them all the time.  The big and tall guy (even taller and bigger than the boy on the right) did not come.

Let’s take a good look on how he did.  I can’t stay too near to them.  So, some of the video are shot from far away.

He is the first to tee off.  And he still have that aiming problem.  He turn his neck too much thinking that he is hitting straight in front.  Instead you can see that he is aiming to the left.  And it is a perfect straight shot.

But he did not over swing his club and he hit a very straight and easy shot.

Well done on the first drive.  Later he chip the second shot to the green and take 3 putts to put the ball into the hole.

A monster drive!  This 202m par 4.  He hit it to 20m-30m in front of the red stick.

(Turn up the speaker and listen to the ping sound of the drive).

That is about 120-130meter drive.  For a 8 years old boy, this is very good already.  Soon, he will out drive his mommy.  HaHaHa...

Very good tee off with his Cobra driver.

This is the 2nd shot of hole #2.  And he hit it to the middle of the two bunkers.

A very good hit too.

He used a putter to bring the ball up pass the pin.

Later he hit a very good putt and the ball just pass the pin left with about 3 meter to the pin.  Unfortunately, he miss the par.

Later they played 3 more holes.  I can see he hit another great tee off on the Par 3 hole #3.  He is 10 meter away the green.

But his score was not good enough to beat Dominique.  As Dominique has pretty good short game.

So, Jay came in 2nd.

I am glad to see his great performance on Sunday’s medal game.  He is getting there.  Don’t expects him to win those P5 & P6.  But he is getting there.

Well done Jay Jay!

P3 Chinese Compo Few More Tips

Date:  Oct 8, 2015

A big Happy Birthday to Jay Jay!  Today is the actual day for his birthday.

As usual, we did a Chinese Composition practice during the drive between Millenia Walk and Home.

My aim was to build it Jay Jay’s thought process when writing a Chinese Composition.

Tip #1.  Sometimes, the ???? (helping words) can be useful, but most of the time, it can bring some damage.  So, I told Jay, if you see some words that you are not familiar, you can choose not to use them.  You don’t have to use all the words given.  Those words are given to help you write, but most of the time, the examiner already have a story in mind which is not shown in the pictures and they thought you can write the story they want to see.  Unfortunately, P3 is the first year they really learn how to write.  So, one must know how to crawl first before walking.  Don’t stress your kid too much.  Give them guidelines, such as P3 only need to write 30 words, As long as you describe 2-3 picture correctly with some excellent words, it is fine.  Don’t imagine and describe too much.  ????.  And try to get rid of the “Direct translation from English” habit.

Tip #2.  Write as simple as possible for a start.  P3 only requires 80 words.  So, if you write 120-150 it is enough.

Tip #3.  Of course, Jay Jay uses dictation to write his composition.  You have to trained your kid to first clean up the thoughts before he or she can write out.  So, this easy method has help him come up with the skeleton of the story fast.  In fact, I timed him, give him only 10 minutes to look at the picture, look at the helping words, put the helping words beside the picture, imagine what you going to write, cross out those helping words that you not going to use, and count in mind do you have 15-20 words for every picture.  That’s it.  Once that is done, he will repeat the sentence for the picture in his mind, and uses the other 10-15 minutes to write or dictate the composition.

He wrote this down within the 30 minutes back and forth ride.  And I am truly so proud of him.  It is getting there.  So, there are one more week for the Composition paper 1.  These few days we going to go thru all the words that he had been given ?? (Spelling) so that he knows how to write those words fast.  And of course, train him 1-2 times not using dictation, instead write it down.  So, if he can construct the story in his mind within 20-25 minutes, he should be able to write it down within the next 20-25 minutes.

Tip #4.  Build the confident up.  Not to destroy it.  I don’t care at the moment, what is his teacher’s expectation.  To me, for P3, they need to produce error-fee writing for minimum 80 words which best describe the story.  So, I don’t actually allow him to read the modal answer.

Yeah.. this book come with modal answer.

Building the base is very important.  So, why show the kid a perfect composition, while you already think he did a good job in writing his own version.

Because, you do not know what your kid will think when he reads the modal answer.  So, I usually cover it up and I have never ask him to take a look at the modal answer.  

This is to send a message to him that Daddy expectation is for him to write well for 80 words, not more than that.

And the book is always on his desk.  He can read the modal answer himself.  

So, the tip is never ask the kid to read the modal answer.  The kid is learning how to write, and they have to learn it with his own pace.  Forcing him to learn from modal answer is not a good move.

Tip #5.  Listen more.  Read more.  To help Jay Jay to read more.  I recorded down my reading on all the story in his text book.  Jay Jay has been listen to these readings every day bit by bit.  Once he listen many times, I will ask him to read to me aloud.  You only need to ask him to read it once a day.  Not twice or thrice.  only once a day.  On a few chapter, and then, ask him to read aloud.  By doing so, the kid become more confident in reading, and understanding of Chinese will be better.  The online material from the school has the reading too.  But it is read by a Chinese (from China).  So, sometimes they do read too fast.  So, I decided to record my own voice, as it is very familiar to him, so that he can learn Chinese in a familiar way.  You can search my blog on this, try search “Learning Chinese” in MiniLiew.  Of course the ?? (Flash Card) is very important too.

If you don’t mind listen to my not so sexy voice, here are all the recordings for P3.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_2LIa_dWu8sNUpRY0Yzak1sbVE

Good luck in teaching your kid Chinese.  This is probably the last blog entry from me on this Chinese Composition for P3.  Have fun!

Leaning Composition Using Dictation

Date:  Sep 19, 2015

Dictation

Stupid me!  I went and buy a dictation app from Apple Store (i.e. Dragon Dictation) where Apple IOS itself has the most powerful dictation feature of all.  HaHaHa….

My previous posts on Learning Composition using Dictations...

“Updates: Chinese Composition & Jay”:  http://miniliew.blogspot.ch/2015/09/updates-chinese-composition-jay.html

“Learning Chinese - Composition ??”?  http://miniliew.blogspot.ch/2015/08/learning-chinese-composition.html

“Learn Chinese Compositions”:  http://miniliew.blogspot.ch/2015/05/learn-chinese-compositions.html

 

Why Do We Need Dictation For Our Kids

Learning how to write words is one thing they have to learn in school.  But learning “what to write” is more important.  Sometimes, if the kids is doing both at the same time, learning what to write and at the same time, learning how to write, that will waste a lot a lot of the time, and the impact is great.  Somehow, they will develop a blockage and fear in learning Chinese.

So, to make learning Chinese fun!  Especially when doing Chinese composition, we need a better way to teach our kids.  So, we do what we do the best, divide and conquer.  First, teach them, how to form correct sentence in their mind.  And once they figure out what to write, they simply “speak it out” and the Dictation software function will transform your speech into writings.  They can correct it all the time, by simply saying it out.  Like this, they don’t have to slow down by figuring out how to write.  That is another task.

By doing this exercise, it also correct their Chinese speaking, and so to make them more accurate when pronounce the words.  Later you will see that the dictation do sometimes record wrongly what I said because I was not speaking so clearly.  

 

How to Turn Dictation On

I think both IOS8 or IOS9 has this.  For Android or other OS users, you have to find yourself a way that is equivalent to using Apple iPad or iPhone.  Sorry.

Go to Settings -> General

Go to "Keyboard"

Under DICTATION, “Enable Dictation”, that’s it.

Now, you might want to turn on Predictive too.  Just in case you say something not clear and the dictation software can predict what you are really trying to say.  

Sometimes, some parents may think it is not good as the kids might not learn their mistake if the computer is doing all the correction for them.  Up to you.

So, launch Notepad or Word or Pages, etc.  And start using dictation by pressing the MIC button.

And you can change the language the same way.  By pressing the Globe button.

 

Videos

This is how you setup.  

And see me in action.  Speaking to the iPad and the dictation carefully jot down what I said.  I am impress with the accuracy.

Oh ya… You can toggle into English keyboard with English dictation too.

So far, I have been having a lot of positive results from teaching Jay Jay how to write compositions.  He is getting better in terms of forming the correct sentence with correct syntax, instead of direct translations from English and direct jot down from speaking.

Hope you have fun with your kids too.

Learning should be fun!

Playdates Bottled Garden

Date:  Sep 25, 2015

Tonight playdates is to make bottled garden for the two young ladies.

(Jay’s one has been submitted to the school for young botanist application)

A bottled garden is planting the flowers into a big bottle.  And seal the bottle and place the bottled garden at a place that has a bit of sunlight (not direct sun).  The bottled garden will create its own eco-system inside the bottle.  You shouldn’t have to open it for many many years and the plants will grow in there.

It is also called a terrarium, vivarium … Here are some of the info that can be found on the web… (for kids readings).

A bottled garden since 1960:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2267504/The-sealed-bottle-garden-thriving-40-years-fresh-air-water.html

Bottled garden education:  http://wikieducator.org/Life_in_a_Bottle

How to grow a garden in a bottle:  http://www.wikihow.com/Grow-a-Garden-in-a-Bottle

Let’s get started.

First auntie Boon Ching must explained how the whole thing works!

Bottle must have rocks and soil inside...

Colette carefully places the plants into the bottle.

It is not that hard.  Let the adult put in the rocks, sands and soil, and let the kid plants their own plants.

Why the kids want to do it? 

Well, they get very excited when they hear that this bottled garden will “grow together” with them, and will survive for 10-20-30 years… or even longer… 

Inspired by the recent visit to the Lego show case at the National Library, Colette build a “watch tower” using Lego, and place it inside.

Hahaha… Not bad looking… A tower inside the bottled garden.

A job well done!

Let’s take photo with her best buddy.

Now it’s Ashlyn’s turn.

What did Ashlyn just put inside the bottle?

A small little Lego lodge/house.  Sweet!

That is a 100% happy & satisfaction smile!

Ashlyn & Jay, her playdates buddy.

Wait!  What did Kay Kay put inside?

My mini Lego Aeroplane.

My blue Lego bicycle.

His Minecraft Lego Moo-Moo cow.

Jay build a yellow tall Lego Cranes.

Kay’s Minecraft Lego pig (red colour one)...

Well, as long as the kids enjoys it.  Let them put whatever they want.

(Oh my limited edition blue Lego bicycle).

Oh ya… Don’t forget to water a lot of water into the bottled garden.  Otherwise you can make the Eco-Systems.

Finally, its time to seal it.

Still very happy to have a bottle garden of her own.

They girls are happy.

Now, here comes the facts.

Suddenly, my son asked his mommy, “Why do you use Cork to seal the bottled garden?"

Then, he suddenly talk non-English… “A cork can flow on water… but after sometimes, cork will … "

(a lot of science theory)….

Then, mommy suddenly realise her mistake….

Wahahahahaha… The cork might dried up, or the cork might suck up the water inside the bottle and transfer it outside… Just like the wine bottle cork stopper...

etc etc… 

I also don’t exactly know what was the discussion….

So, it has 51% to survive….

If it does not, don’t worry, we can always make another one with proper bottles… those comes with real glass top… So you can completely 100% seal the eco-systems inside...

Oh ya… Today’s playdate, the kids have this wonderful (actually a bit too sweet) agar-agar...

Mommy trying to make her own agar-agar birthday cake.  So, she still got 2 weeks to make it right.

The colour looks nice!

The kids seems to love it.

Ya… mommy going to make this for you...

??????

We try to have a weekly playdates for the kids.

And some how the chemistry was quite OK for the Smith’s family to join us.

The kids need a routine playdates so that they know and they can remember how much they enjoy playing together.

A playdates is about playing Legos, playing hide and seek (hiding a small object not themselves), playing with the cats, having food such as Mac & Cheese or Chicken rice, Eating desserts such as Ice Cream, Agar-agar, special event such as making clays, drawings, or making bottled garden, watching “Battle Bots” together (to inspire young girls to build fighting robots), hiding my cats under my blankets, and many more.

The kids will remember these childhood, not a kampung one, but the one that they have so much fun of.

The kids are looking forward every week to meet up for playdates.

I am glad these kids are happy!