Be Creative To Make Your Kid(s) Writing Chinese

In my generation, we used to write a Chinese character for 10 times or more when we were at school.  That was how we learned.  The purpose...1) for memorization and 2) for penmanship.

When it comes to my 4-year-old, I realized that he gets bored with this kind of activity within the first 5 minutes.  The more I force him to do so, the more he hates it.

So, I started to do this when I revise writing each Chinese character with him.

I hold his little finger and pretend using it to write each Chinese word.  Eventually, he starts to do it by himself without me holding his finger to do so.  The best of all, he even memorizes the order of each stroke.

Since I have been writing Chinese calligraphy with brushes for a long, long time, I even take this advantage to show him where he needs some strength at which stroke.  If you can do so, give it a try and have fun.

Cartoons in Mandarin

Parents, you may know by now that kids learn better when they play.  I used to get frustrated that I couldn't purchase a lot of storybooks or teaching materials online in the States to teach my son Chinese.

But you will not believe that there is actually a lot within your fingertips.  It is just the matter of using the right keywords to search online.

If you type "cartoons in Mandarin" on any search engine, you would be surprised the array of cartoons speaking 100% in Mandarin showing up on YouTube.  It is FREE.  And I mean they are good cartoons and kids-friendly.

They range from a few minutes to 45 minutes.  The varieties of topics they cover is more than you can imagine, such as traditional Chinese stories, fables and stories related to our daily lives.

But there is one really jumping right out and caught my attention immediately which is called "Qiao Hu" (means Clever Tiger). 

What I love the most about this little tiger series is that it covers pretty much everything I mentioned above.  The best of all, it shows kids how some Chinese characters formed through the illustration.  This is one of the basics that how we all learn writing Chinese.

This is one of the "Qiao Hu" series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEhm8Ltfrpk

Hope you will enjoy as much as my little one and I do.

How to write Chinese?

First of all, everything posted on Writing Chinese for Kids blog is for everybody who is interested in learning Chinese and Mandarin(the official Chinese language).  Let me say it again....It is not only limited for kids, but everybody.

Although you can trace the line on the activity sheets and eventually know how to write Chinese, there are some rules you need to follow.

If the child(ren) starts it right, you build up the foundation for them to thrive.  I would imagine every parent in this planet would love to see their kid(s) prospers.

Activity Sheet:
1) On top of each sheet, there is the "pinyin".  It looks like English which is the way to pronounce that Chinese character in Mandarin.
2) The word next to the "pinyin" is the meaning of that word.
3) Below the "pinyin" and the English word is the Chinese character.
4) You can trace the Chinese character on one row and then let the child to try it to write by him/herself.
5) Please feel free to print out more copies for practicing if it is needed.
6) You need to have Adobe Reader to open the files.  Here is the link to download the FREE software:
http://get.adobe.com/reader/

Chinese Character Stroke Order:
Always remember these rules when you write Chinese.
1) From left to right
2) From top to bottom.

P.S. At the time of writing, there is no .wav file (a.k.a. sound recording) ready yet.  But eventually, I will upload them.  Stay tuned.
P.S.S.  http://www.chinababy365.com/ This is a very good website. They have 300+ Apps to download.  Some of them are very interactive which helps to stimulate the interests of your child(ren) to learn Chinese.

Enjoy the fun and growth of your child(ren) writing Chinese!