Simple Mandarin word cards

Last Saturday during Alicia’s last lesson at Julia Gabriel, I had the opportunity to speak to her Mandarin teacher about teaching pedagogy.
I learnt that the learning aids I’ve been making for Alicia to teach English would also be useful in the teaching of Mandarin and they work on the same principle, just that Mandarin doesn’t have alphabets like the English language and hence the approach would have to be thematic instead.
She also gave me the idea that I should just make simple word cards and stick them on familiar objects in the house to help with word recognition. She reinforced the fact that these don’t have to be elaborate: just use a marker and some cardstock or vanguard sheet and that’s sufficient since the object itself is present.Β 
I thought that was quite a good idea and since I had some really old vanguard sheets lying in the storeroom, I thought I’d put them to good use. Who cares if they’re really old or stained with age? πŸ˜›Β 
Here are the cards:

A very economical way to do simple teaching at home, don’t you think? πŸ™‚ No need to laminate and go through all that hassle. Hee. Besides, all the printing I’ve been doing is taking a toll on the ink cartridges and of course, ahem, our pockets. πŸ˜›

Back to the basics.

Now I just have to get down to sticking them around the house before I can bring Alicia on her daily ‘gallery walk’ to familiarise her with the words.

You can of course do the same for the teaching of the English language. πŸ™‚

Have fun with this really budget-friendly idea!

Posted in Homeschooling, Teaching Mandarin | Leave a comment

Stenciling fun on the doodle board

Alicia has been doodling on this board for many months now but it’s only a couple of months back that I found this stencil that came along with the board while I was rummaging through the drawer. πŸ˜›Β 
It totally slipped my mind to take photos of her writing the alphabets and I finally did so a few days back!
Here she is, my little busy bee!

I bought this doodling board for only $20+ at John Little at Marina Square when she was very young. It comes with this stencil as well as some colouring pages. Before she started working on the stenciling, she was doodling on it with the pen and the different-shaped stamps.

If you notice, at the top of the board, there are four panels and a little worm (Slimey), and you can actually turn that in a circular motion and the images in the four panels will change accordingly. That’s fascinating for younger tots and a great way to practise fine motor skills for the older tots. πŸ™‚

All in all, it’s a great learning tool for pre-school kids and a great way to introduce to the tot how to write the alphabets and numbers. Even better if your child is a fan of Sesame Street characters like Alicia πŸ™‚

Anyway, Alicia knows her alphabets already so I’d just sit back and watch her practise writing and listen to her name her alphabets and numbers… I simply love to see her concentrating real hard on an activity πŸ™‚

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