Now and then, I like to steal some time to visit Sarah’s blog brining up baby bilingual.

I always get useful information from Sarah’s blog, even for learning Chinese!

This time, I run into a post that really caught my attention. It is about a profile of Susan Herrick Siu and her multilingual family.

Susan H. Siu?! Is she the Susan H. Siu whom I work with for the bilingual book I drink mommy’s milk?

The answer is yes.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual | October 28, 2010 7:45 am | Comments (2)

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed. I talked to her in Chinese since her birth. I tried to create a Chinese-rich environment for her. Since I am the only person who speaks Chinese in her world, I tried to speak only Chinese to her.

When she was nine month, I began to read simple books to her in Chinese. Since month 13, I started to read story books to her in Chinese. We also listened to Chinese children songs, rhymes and stories via CDs, and watched Chinese animated movies via DVDs.

I did everything I could to help her acquire Chinese (see How I help my baby acquire a second language?). Why she speaks English more than Chinese?

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, teaching young children chinese | October 20, 2010 11:40 am | Comments (4)

Chinese mythology is a collection of cultural history, folktales, and religions that have been passed down in oral or written tradition, including creation myths and legends and myths concerning the founding of Chinese culture and the Chinese state. Like many mythologies, it has in the past been believed to be, at least in part, a factual recording of history.

One of the major vernacular Chinese epic fantasy novels written about myths and legends is Fengshen Yanyi, translated as The Investiture of the Gods or The Creation of the Gods.

There all altogether 100 stories in Fengshen Yanyi, in which numerous elements of Chinese mythology are intertwined, including gods and goddesses, immortals and spirits.

One story is about a little boy named Nezha. The story about him is called Nezha Riots the Seas, also called also known as Nezha Conquers the Dragon King. It is an exciting classical Chinese folk tale that has been known and loved by generations of Chinese children.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, Chinese classics, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, Chinese mythology, teaching young children chinese | October 12, 2010 11:12 am | Comments (4)

At month 27, DD was getting better with forks and spoons. She could actually use a fork or spoon to get food and put it into her mouth. Of course, her favorite eating tools were still her fingers, when she was eager to finish the food on her plate.

She loved to run. When we went to the supermarket, she loved to run between those wide-spaced shelves. M had to chase her to keep her in sight. Soon M got tired of chasing a two-year old in the store. He came up a game.

Instead of following her closely, M asked her to run back and give him a hug whenever she was about out of the sight. This way, M could still keep an eye on her without physically running after her and appearing to be led by a toddler.

She loved to yell, especially when she was happy. When M called her name in the supermarket, she would run back to M and exclaimed “daddy!”. Her voice was so loud that I knew she was coming without actually seeing her.

We told her to use the in-door voice. We also showed her the “be quiet” sign by putting the index finger near the lips and hushing at the same time. Whenever we went to the store, we showed her the “be quiet” sign. This strategy worked for a while.

Then, it lost its effect. When she rushed back to M with a happy hailing, M showed her the “be quiet” sign and told her to lower her voice. She smiled at M, put her index finger near her lips and blew at it, and then acclaimed “daddy!”.

She also loved to laugh. By nature, she was such a happy girl. Nothing prevented her from enjoying the fun. Even when she crumbled and fell, she cried. Before tears dried up, she was already up and went back to running and laughing.

She was never a typical parallel-playing toddler. She always wanted to make friends with other kids, interact with them and become part of the group. When she got rejected, she just moved on. She didn’t hold grudge. Whenever the kid came back to play with her, she would be more than happy to accept him/her as her pal.

Baby Growth | October 6, 2010 11:52 am | Comments (0)

Today, I am so glad to find an excellent resource for Chinese learning. And I am so excited to share with you.

It is called Confucius Institute Online, a comprehensive website (http://chinese.cn/en) for Chinese learning. It is built and sponsored by Hanban/Confucius Institute Headquarters, a Chinese government agency, with the purpose of promoting the understanding of Chinese language and culture, as well as enhancing the educational and cultural cooperation between China and the world.

Confucius Institutes Online (http://chinese.cn/en) offers Chinese language courses for various age groups and language levels, and provides information and consultative services concerning Chinese education, culture, economy and society.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, teaching young children chinese | September 29, 2010 12:04 pm | Comments (1)

Now you know how to say alligator, ant, anteater and armadillo in Chinese. How about bat, bear, beaver and beetle? Do you want to know how to say them in Chinese?

Let’s get started.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, How to say animals in Chinese, teaching young children chinese | September 22, 2010 2:18 pm | Comments (1)

Out of the Chinese story books DD’s uncle sent to her, there was one book talking about the creators of the world: Pangu and Nüwa. Although this book is bit deep for DD’s age, I still read to her once a while.

This book features a synthesis of three stories about Pangu and Nüwa from classical Chinese mythology, which is a collection of cultural history, folktales, and religions that have been passed down in oral or written tradition, including creation myths and legends and myths concerning the founding of Chinese culture and the Chinese state.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, Chinese classics, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, Chinese mythology, teaching young children chinese | September 17, 2010 2:25 pm | Comments (1)

When I was pregnant with DD for just one month, I already thought about helping her acquire a second language, rather than learning it. (see the difference of acquiring a language and learning a language in How children acquire second languages?)

Here is how I help her acquire a second language. Of course, in her case, the second language is Chinese, since she grows up in an English environment.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, teaching young children chinese | September 9, 2010 6:37 pm | Comments (1)

By 26 months, DD mastered some skills in advance. For example, she could open doors and close door competently by herself, brush (looks more like “brushing” than “chewing” now) teeth with help, put up an article of clothing, and balance on one foot with support.

In language development, her vocabulary was still lagging behind. This month, she could pronounce “home” and “eat” in English clearly and really got their meanings right. Sometimes, she could utter “ear”, “heat”, “eyes” and kind of “blue” (she spoke “b-u”). Occasionally, she could make a sentence, like “daddy no nap”, when she wanted to take over M’s space and only nap with me.

One night, I said “I love you” in Chinese (wo ai ni), and she replied “ai ni”. Another time, I pointed to a blue ball and said “lan se”, meaning blue. She imitated me and kind of got it right.

This month, by accident, she successfully went potty one time. Although it was a one-time wonder, I still cheered for her. Hopefully, it was a good start.

Like most toddlers at her age, DD has an abundance of energy. After dinner, she volunteered to run loops around the house. I also took her outside to walk and run each day. Moving helps her build strength and increases her coordination.

One change I noticed was her napping time became shorter. Instead of taking a two-hour or three-hour nap, she napped one and half hour each day. At the same time, her bedtime was moved further and further late. In the beginning it was 9 pm. Then it became 9:30pm, 10 pm later, and 11 pm one time. It was not easy to put her to sleep any longer.

Baby Growth | September 3, 2010 2:09 pm | Comments (0)

Who doesn’t like fairy tales? We all have favorite fairy tales we learned from our parents or grandparents when we were growing up.

Right now, thanks to DD’s Chinese uncle (see I have an idea to open a Chinese bookstore online!), I can read all these famous traditional English fairy tales to DD in Chinese. All the story books contain the Chinese characters and the Pinyin (phonetic transcriptions).

Although I don’t deliberately teach her pinyin at her age (see The reason why NOT to teach babies pinyin), these story books offer a great way for her to get familiar with Chinese characters and even recognize them later. The accompanying appealing and colorful cartoons illustrations also help engage her and compliment the text.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, Fairytales for children, Fairytales in Chinese, teaching young children chinese | August 28, 2010 8:19 pm | Comments (0)