A great way to start your children in learning the Chinese Language is through Learn Chinese DVDs and videos and audio CDs. These DVDs with fun things are technically designed to optimally expose your child to the tones of Chinese to watch. The learning pace in DVDs are carefully programmed which are helful for your child remember the words and phrases. While travelling or during your child’s relaxation time,you can listen Chinese songs on CDs on the other hand. Chinese stories on CDs can be played to expose them further to more Chinese vocabulary and sentence construction for bigger children.
Chinese tutors are available to teach children and even the entire family to speak Chinese . Check online or newspaper ads for available tutors. Play dates with children who are learning or already know Chinese is a fantastic way to expose your kids.
Adult English speakers could use online Chinese programs. So far, ChildBook is not aware if there are any online programs available for English speaking children.
Chinese summer camps expose the child to full immersion of the Chinese language. Summer camps may be a weekend trip in the US, a full boarding school stay, or travelling to live for several weeks to China or Taiwan. ChildBook produces the largest list of Chinese summer camps available so stay tuned for updates.
There are a lot of products available in the market to help children learn Chinese. Books, videos, audio CDs/ cassettes and software can be used at home to learn Chinese. These materials not only teach the child to vocabulary or tones, but also open up the beauty of Chinese culture. These materials can also be used for parents and children to spend time together.
A big challenge to teaching Chinese with books is that one parent/ adult need to know how to read it. The bi-lingual books can help the families who are starting to learn from scratch together. Story books that can be read along with audio CDs are useful to learn the proper pronunciation. A great introductory book to reading and writing Chinese characters is Long is the Dragon. I Won’t Bite is a very interesting material for smaller children.
Videos teach through engaging visuals, songs, and repetitive vocabulary. Viewers will also be revealed to how unlike places and persons look like.