Archive for June, 2011

My children are learning Chinese, English and Malay at the same time in school. This is how I teach them languages at home. It does not matter what language, the principal is the same. It is easier for them to grasp the concept when there is synergy even though they are learning 3 different languages at the same time.

Right, here are the steps I tell them they have to go through when they learn a language.

1. First you learn alphabets (Huruf). For Chinese you learn Strokes and Radicals
2. Then you learn to form a word (perkataan) by putting together those alphabets.
3. Then you learn a phrase (Frasa) by joining two or more words together
4. You will need to learn spelling (ejaan or ”ting seah”) and improve on your vocabulary of words.
5. Next you need to learn grammar (Tatabahasa). Some basic ones include nouns (Kata Nama Am), proper nouns (Kata Nama Khas), pronouns (Kata Ganti Nama Diri), verbs (Kata Kerja), punctuation (Tanda Baca), conjuctions (Kata Hubung) etc.
6. After that, you are ready to make a sentence (ayat) by joining the phrases and words and using your basic grammar knowledge.
7. When learning to make sentences you will need to a lof of practise.
8. You will need to match phrases to form a complete sentence. (Padankan rankai kata)
9. You will need to practise by select the correct sentence for a given picture. (Suaikan ayat dengan gambar)
10. You will need to rearrange words to form sentences. (Susun semula Perkataan)
11. You will need to number pictures according to sentences. (Susun Ayat mengikut urutan)
12. You will need to fill in the blanks in a given passage. (Isi Tempat Kosong)
13. You will need to expand sentences by completing sentences or by replacing given words. (Lengkapkan ayat)
14. You will need to rearrange sentences to form a passage. (Susun ayat mengikut urutan)
15. Finally, you will need to make sentences based on a given picture (Bina Ayat berdasarkan gambar)
16. Ultimately, you will need to make a sentence from a given phrase or phrases.(Bina Ayat)
17. When you can make good sentences, you can join a few sentences together to make a paragraph.
18. Writing a few paragraphs will give you an essay (karangan).
19. Put together several “essays” and you will have a chapter.
20. Write a few chapters and you will have written a book.
21. You are now an author.

My kids will laugh when they reach the last part. They like to imagine themselves as authors. So you see, although the kids have to learn 3 different languages, it isn’t really hard if you explain it to them in this manner. It is the same really with some slight differences. For example, in Malay, you may need to learn sukukata and imbuhan whereas in English you may need to learn phonics.

In Chinese, you may need to learn the history of how each Chinese character is formed. This is really very interesting for the kids because many characters come from drawings and there is a story behind it. However, though Chinese may be slightly different, you can still apply the same principals of learning language above. Kids also have to learn in a step by step manner as I have described above. I have purposely included the Malay words beside the English ones to emphasize the similarity.

I “discovered” this similarity from teaching the kids myself. I didn’t learn very much grammar in school but since the kids started schooling, I find myself being “back to school” through self learning and teaching.

So to all the parents who have to teach their kids at home, perhaps you will find this article useful too. If you like to check out some Chinese Learning Resources, you can go to my Squidoo Lens on Learning Chinese Mandarin Online for Kids which I have just published.

Next, I will feature some books I have found which aids in this type of step by step learning method from sentence construction right up to essay writing.

Did you like this article? If you did, I would appreciate a facebook like. Thank you.

I know someone who is building her dream house. It has 3 floors, a balcony overlooking a golf course and a swimming pool. However this person, who is currently living in another house which most people would consider a dream house says she prefers her current house. Unfortunately she can’t stay there anymore because her husband has sold it! She isn’t really looking forward to moving because of the prospect of maintaining the house. Just thinking about it gives her a headache.

I think she should have central air conditioning. I hear that the level of noise for central air conditioning is less. The air is also pulled through sophisticated filters. The filtered air is then routed to the rest of the house through return-air ducts. I can’t imagine having to maintain so many air conditioning units. A central one would be better for her.

She showed me a plan of her house the other day. It has a walk in wardrobe, his and hers sinks, a room with balcony for her husband and her as well as for her daughter. It is indeed a house anyone would dream about. However, it is true. Maintaining it would be a headache indeed. That was what I felt when I moved from my 1100 square feet apartment to a landed property. Sometimes I wish I was back in my apartment. I could clean it in10 minutes flat.

I’m writing lenses on Squidoo and would love you to join me

Help! I’m being gripped in the tentacles of a squid!

If you notice my absence from my blog or yours or facebook etc it is because I have a new hobby. Yes, I am not writing lenses on Squidoo and having a whale (squid) of a good time. Squidoo-doobee-doo!

Lenses in squidoo are like a cross between a mini website and a blog post. I love writing and I love being rewarded for my writing. Ok, you do get paid on Squidoo but I think it will be a loooong time before I get paid or get anywhere near being paid. I am just having fun that is all. I love how I can level up and get points and monster trophies for doing what I love the most, writing.

Of course, I would love it if I were paid for it as well but like anything else in life. You will need to work really hard if you want something. Getting paid is hard work. However, if you do what you love and as a bonus, you get paid for it, now wouldn’t that be just great? So I’ll just start by doing what I love the most for now.

Why, for this blog, it took me almost a year or more before I received my first Adsense cheque. Now, I get it every 2 months. It isn’t such a big thing compared to the big earners but it still puts a smile on my face.

If you love to write, why not check out Squidoo too. I’m still a newbie so I haven’t got much to write about the technicalities of it because I am still learning and feeling my way around. Who knows, a few months down the road, I may be able to write a mini guide of sorts.

At the moment, I’ve got 5 lenses. I’m at Level 11, have 1,941 points and 4 trophies.

1. http://www.squidoo.com/a-quote-a-day-keeps-the-blues-away
2. http://www.squidoo.com/being-a-mother-changes-everything
3. http://www.squidoo.com/one-stop-parenting-cyber-cabinet
4. http://www.squidoo.com/mums-gather-here
5. http://www.squidoo.com/ben-10-vs-ben-10-alien-force

The first four were actually created to showcase my blogs and get good back links to it but after this I shall be creating other lenses not related to my blogs. I actually checked out Squidoo because I had read that one of the ways to market your Amazon aStore is to get on Squidoo.  Then I read on the Getting Started With Squidoo (The official overview, FAQ and TOS) under Item No. 5 (2) “Who Should Build a Lens”…….

“2. …have a blog, a lens is a great way to highlight your best posts, to feature a commented version of your blogroll, and to point to the products and services that you write about, read about, enjoy, or want to see succeed. A lens will allow you and your blog to have a bigger share of the commentary and influence on your topic of choice.”

That was it. I signed up and started writing.

Right, got to go and create more and more and more lenses now.

Psstt: One word of caution. I read that at one time Squidoo was in trouble with Google, so please don’t spam Squidoo. (I don’t know whether that issue has been resolved). You wouldn’t want to upset Google and have your Google rank adjusted downwards again now do you?

There is this little boy that used to sit beside my boy in class. He is quite new, having joined the class sometime in the middle of the school term. My boy tells me that he is very naughty. He would constantly disturb him. Recently at the Parent Teacher’s Conference, the little girl who also sits beside the new boy retorted to me. “He does not sit with us anymore. He keeps on disturbing me. I just can’t stand it anymore!”

My boy had mentioned to me that the new boy had used a scissors and placed another boy’s fingers in between the scissors. We thought that it was important enough to mention to the teacher since this was a dangerous thing to do. The teacher said that she realises that the boy was very naughty and hard to control that is why she has now placed him to sit somewhere else on his own so that he would not disturb anyone else. She said that the headmaster has also called the boy’s parents in for a discussion.

According to the teacher, the boy has family problems. That is why he is so out of control. Sometimes, he would go and cry and hide in the bathroom and she would have to go round the school searching for him. I felt so sorry and bad for the boy when I heard this. I don’t know what family problems he is facing at home but I wish that all parents should realise that one important task they must do for their children is to provide emotional support for them no matter what problems they themselves are facing.

I have been getting rather stagnant in my blogging. I find that I no longer try new things, work on my template etc but thanks to some newer bloggers on the blog, my interest has beeen revived. So, yesterday I had a look at my Stats. It has been so long since I had a look at it that I have forgotten my password! Some time ago, my stats used to fascinate me. I would run to my pc every few moments to check it out. It was exciting to see where my visitors were coming from, which url, which keyword, which country.

Yesterday, I took a peek and I saw that my blogs had become different “animals”. My Mothering Times Blog and Parenting Times Blog had visitors mainly from US (around 70% and 60%)  and they were coming mostly from search engines with Malaysian visitors making up only 4% – 5%. This blog has 50% Malaysian and 50% visitors from other parts of the world. Interesting….

Then I had a look at my Quotes Station blog. Well, that blog wasn’t earning much from Adsense or anything else for that matter. I don’t  have time to update it very much so I can’t do sponsored posts or have text link ads as well. That means I have space for something else. Eventually, I decided on Amazon aStore. I had this store before on my Mothering Times blog but it wasn’t very successful. All my blogs were fighting for ad space, so I removed all Amazon ads from all of my blogs. However, I still have an account. An account with a paltry $5 I had earned in 2007. It is stuck because you can only cash out if you earn $100 (like Adsense) or you can claim Amazon certificates starting from $10 and above. That is not too bad. At least I can shop online using monies earned from commission.

Finally, I decided that for my Quotestation blog, which still has a lof of space for ads, the best avenue to earn passive income in my pyjamas is Amazon. So, I began setting up my Quotes Station Store this morning. It is finally up. It is really fun setting up store. The hard part is getting my store up in the search engines for my Quotes and Sayings specially selected products.

By the way, I need some input. Can you give me your feedback on….

• my store name
• my store categories
• my store products (any suggestions for anything else relevant would be most appreciated)
• my store colour and appearance (not much I can do here accept change background colours etc because it is automated)
• anything else you can think of

Here is my blog post on Quotes Station “announcing” the birth of my Quotes and Sayings Online Store.

That is it then. The first step. Wish me luck!