Chinese Fun Class: Basic Lesson 1

Basic lessons are suitable for toddlers of 2-3 years old.

I had my first Chinese fun class with my girl and I decided to make it a informal lesson, where we had the lesson on our bed just before sleep :)

The words she learned in this lesson were:
大(big)， 小(small)， 人(human)， 头(head)， 哭(cry)， 笑(smile)

The sound:
大(da4)， 小(xiao3)， 人(ren2)， 头(tou2)， 哭(ku1)， 笑(xiao4)

She arranged the word cards on the bed and I explained the words to her one by one.


I tried to visualise the words by making the corresponding actions when I explained them, e.g. when I explained 大(big), I would stretch my hands on both side and open my legs wide, so that I looked like the character 大.

You may also explain the words by giving more examples, e.g. 大苹果(big apple)的大, 大人(adult)的大，你是小孩，妈妈是大人(you are a kid, mummy is an adult).

See her acting with the characters:
Can you guess what character is this? It is 大, does it look like 大?


What about this one? This is.......人!


Look at her eyes, same like the pair of eyes in the word 笑 right?


She was trying to do 小, but she looked like a little puppy with the tongue out :P


I then mixed the word cards and told her to get a particular card for me. This is to ensure she knows the words:


I took out another set of graphic cards which were corresponding to the words. I explained each graphic to her, and she matched the graphics to the words.

By Matching the graphics to the words, it enhance their memory of the words.

I pointed to the words and she read the words:


She likes the lesson and she seemed excited when we did the action. She could remember the difficult words like 笑 easily but more confused about 大 and 人. I guess it is probably the word 笑 really looks like someone smiling while 大 and 人 are very similar except for a stroke missing in 人.

Toddlers can easily memorise something but can also easily forget something, thus do practice the words with your kid.

Source: 二三快读

Development age: 2 years 11 mths
(every kid learns on his or her own pace, this is just a milestone of my girl as a guideline)