During this month’s PAT visit (see PAT home visit and screening in Baby’s growth, month 29), DD met all the expectations for her age development. She could brush her teeth with help, build a tower of 6 or more, draw a vertical line in imitation, balance on each foot for one second, identify a friend by naming, wash and dry hands, identify at least one color, and put on her pants and sometimes socks.

She could carry on a simple conversation using two or three (sometimes more) words and got herself 75 percent understood. For example, she introduced us to the PAT teacher at the door by saying “this (is) my daddy” and “this (is) my mommy”.

Baby's Growth | March 9, 2011 2:26 pm | Comments (0)

In my opinion, all children, whose native tongue is not Chinese, should learn Chinese as second language. Learning Chinese will give the younger generation a sharp-edge advantage in every aspect of their future life, strategically, culturally, and practically (see Why children should learn Chinese?)

Now, more and more college students are encouraged to study in China, thanks to U.S. President Barack Obama’s “100,000 Strong Initiative” which aims to increase the number of U.S. college students studying in China to 100,000 by 2014.

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 | February 26, 2011 7:17 pm | Comments (2)

Now you know how to say animals starting with the letter b (see How to say bat, bear, beaver and beetle in Chinese?), which vegetables and fruits start with c? Here they come, bee, bird, bull and butterfly in Chinese.

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 | February 19, 2011 7:11 pm | Comments (0)

DD always put on her best behavior in public, even since she was few months old. She wouldn’t cry or get fussy in the restaurant, but would let out her feelings as soon as we came back to the car.

At month 31, she became a master of playing nice to strangers outside of the house. She waived and smiled sweetly to people, and always initiated to say “hi”. Of course, she got rewards, either a cookie, or a balloon, or sunny smile back. “Your child is such a delight,” people often told us.

But at home, DD was a terrible “terrible two”. She was bossy, demanding me do things that she was perfectly capable of doing herself. She screamed and tossed thing around when they didn’t go her way. She refused to listen and follow orders.

“Is every ‘terrible two’ this difficult or did I spoil her?” I questioned myself. The answer came to me at one night when DD was playing with other kids.

Baby's Growth | February 13, 2011 9:39 am | Comments (0)

Today is the first day of the first month Chinese Lunar New Year. Also called the spring festival, it is one of the most the most important Chinese traditional holidays.

Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a monster called “Nian” (“year”) that would come out on the eve of every New Year to devour livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To avoid the monster’s attack, people would flee to the depth of the mountains and call this day “Nian Guan” (meaning “the Pass of Nian”).

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, teaching young children chinese | February 3, 2011 2:56 pm | Comments (0)

The relationship between language and culture is inextricably intertwined. Language is the verbal expression used to maintain, convey and influence culture and cultural ties. Culture is the idea, custom and beliefs of a community communicated by at least one distinct language from one community member of to another. In another word, language is deeply rooted in culture and culture is reflected and passed on by language from one generation to the next (Emmitt & Pollock 1997).

Therefore, learning a new language inevitably involves the learning of a new culture. Otherwise, language learning becomes senseless, inaccurate and incomplete, since all learners get are a bundle of empty or meaningless symbols.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, teaching young children chinese | January 29, 2011 7:57 am | Comments (2)

I began to read Chinese ancient poems to DD when I was five months pregnant with DD (see Fetal education in 5th month). After her birth, I often read to her simple but popular Chinese ancient poems, a most highly regarded literary genre in Chinese classical literature.

Unlike “western culture, which was influenced by Shakespeare, Milton, and the Romantic poets, had a pronounced tendency to think of poems as ornate, elaborate creations made by a few men of genius” (Dr. Wheeler, 2011), Chinese culture had a tendency to think of poem-writing as a favorite pastime for all educated men or women to express the emotions of themselves.

Therefore, Chinese poets and artists concentrate heavily on history of humanity, the beauties of nature and landscape, love, friendship, courtship and marriage, and even everyday trials.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, teaching young children chinese | January 21, 2011 11:48 am | Comments (0)

After talking with that local mom of a two-year-old, I decided to add more Chinese/bilingual books with CD/VCD/DVD into the bookstore (see Chinese/Bilingual books with CD/VCD/DVD will be added), so that children and parents can listen to the story narrated in clear Chinese via CDs, or watch the videos, which is often accompanied with animated cartoons, via TV or computer.

One day, when I searched online for Chinese/bilingual books with CD/VCD/DVD, I run into a video showing a Chinese little boy using a specially designed electronic pointer pen to touch pages in a colorful children’s picture book.

When the electronic pointer pen touches the pages, either images or texts, the coresponding Chinese words, phrases, paragraphs, or dialogues are read loudly by the pen in clearn mandarin. Sometimes, a song with lovely music comes out of the pen when the pen touches an image.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, E-reading pen & audiobooks, teaching young children chinese | January 11, 2011 11:53 am | Comments (5)

Before the Christmas of 2010, I collected all the photos I took for DD and arranged them into a 12 month calendar, as I did in 2009 (see Baby calendar).

When I looked at these photos, I was amazed to see how tall and hearty she has grown into. Her hair is much longer. Her hands and feet are much bigger. And she is much heavier.

I have been watching her growing up every hour in the last 30 months. But I was still surprised to see the changes happening to her. Two and half years have gone by since her birth? That sounds almost incredible since I didn’t feel the fleeting of the time. But with DD’s growth, I actually witnessed the flowing and passing of the time.

At the threshold of the New Year, I am looking forward to seeing a healthy and happy DD continuing to grow and thrive.

Baby Growth | January 3, 2011 9:53 am | Comments (0)

Since the grand opening of Best 4 Future bilingual bookstore, I have been thinking and looking for children’s books of other languages, such as French, Germany, Spanish, Japanese and etc.

The big question is: where can I find those books? Do I need to travel to those countries, for an instance, France, to purchase French children’s books and bring them back to the US?

With limited capital I have right now, it is straightly impossible.

“So I have to wait until I save enough money from the sales of Chinese children’s books”, I thought and sighed, putting the dream to the back of my mind.

Until one day, about one week ago, I received a comment for Best 4 Future blog.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, Spanish/English bilingual children’s books, teaching young children chinese | December 31, 2010 7:08 pm | Comments (0)