Creating a Multilingual Learning Environment at Home

Dominique Parenting and Kids, Recommendations, Thoughts June Billingual Carnival

Teaching material

Creating a conducive learning environment at home is essential for optimal learning. At home we are teaching our children in a variety of languages and it only seems proper to have a selection of material in the different languages to assist learning.

It is essential to give your child the opportunity to be associated with the various types of learning material be it books, DVDS, CDs, flashcards, interactive apps and programs from young. Through constant exposure and immersing a child in the different languages they get more accustomed to hearing, speaking and using it in their daily life. They will be able to relate to both the spoken and written version of the language and build up confidence using the language.

In our aim to raise multilingual children I have gathered materials in English, Mandarin and Japanese. I have purchased flash cards in English, Mandarin and Japanese. I also have different graded readers and story books in English, Mandarin and some books in both English and Mandarin for my 3 kids so that they are exposed to our two main languages from birth. I’m still sourcing around for elementary level Japanese storybooks which are not too expensive. I have printed my own learning materials for them in Japanese which are adapted from my notes or websites which I have found online.

I do not need to source for additional material for teaching the children Cantonese as the dialect uses the same written Chinese characters. The only difference is the pronunciation of certain words like for example the number ” ONE” is “一”(yī) in Mandarin and (yat) in Cantonese. It’s amazing that the kids are able to distinguish between the two and not get it mixed up.

We focus on English, Mandarin and Cantonese daily while Japanese is practiced once a week as it’s the fourth language we are introducing to the kids so the time set aside for this language is lesser then the other three.

One of our favourite games which we play with our 21 month old is counting steps. We count from 1 to 10 with her in English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese as we go up or down the flight of steps leading to our apartment unit. She has fun climbing stairs and learns her numbers in four languages at the same time.

How do you create a learning environment for your child at home?

July 1, 2012

Insane Goals for July- June Review

Dominique Thoughts Monthly Insane Goals

June has been a whirlwind month for me. The kids had been on holiday and we took them to Korea for vacations.

Major Fail area

I am back to 62/63kg instead of continuing to lose weight. All the feasting this holiday season is really sabotaging me.
There are still many areas in the house which are yet to be de-cluttered and the holidays are already over!!.
I still have books left over from June which I haven’t finished reading. I also received a few more books to add to the “to read” list. I really need to speed up my reading routine.
I still need to exercise more regularly but haven’t been getting around to doing so.

What I accomplished in June

I have increased my fan base to more then 5600 fans on facebook and 3688 twitter fans.( It was 4500 fans on facebook and 3350 twitter fans last month)
Started on two campaigns with two brands- Loreal and Lifebuoy
Completed reading 5 books for review, done 13 giveaways and 4 product/service reviews.
De-clutter the kids clothes and packed away/gave away clothes which they have outgrown.
Had a few playdates for the kids and lots of fun outings with them.
Set up a mentoring group for new bloggers.

Here is are my goals for 2012

Weight Lost Goals

I’m determined to get my weight down to 55kg by the time Tiger girl turns 2 in Sept. ( It’s currently stuck at 62/63kg)

My routine would be

Stair climbing (x2) 5 times a week
Zumba WII/IWII Active or other interactive sports games.
Increase intake of fruits and water.
Cook more healthy foods
Try to get more sleep at night if possible ( hopefully Tiger Girl can sleep through the night soon)

Household maintainance

~~Organize the kids toy chest and donate the toys that they don’t need.~~
~~Clear out expired stuff from the pantry and the fridge.~~
Pack up the baking cupboard and put all the essentials neatly inside.
Wash all the air-con filters/ clean all the fans in the house.
~~Re-ogarnize the bookshelf.~~
Sort out the pantry and all other cupboards.
Rearrange the books/items in the kids room

Educating the kids (Ongoing)

Prepare Doggy boy for P1 next year by doing daily exercises in English, Maths and Chinese doing weekdays.
Read daily to Tiger girl and start doing more flashcards with her.
Brushing up on Monkey boy’s composition and oral skill for both English and Chinese.
Getting Monkey boy to polish up his piano pieces for the upcoming piano exam this year. He is taking hi Grade 2 Piano exam this year.
Getting Doggie boy to do practice the piano more often.
Getting the kids to read more in English/Chinese before bedtime.
Read the bible at least once every fortnight.
Pray more often with them.

For the blog (Dominique’s Desk)

Increase revenue to be able to save enough to buy a DSLR.- Am reaching the target very soon!!
Have bloggers to guest posts on my blog.
Guest post on other sites/blogs at least once a month.
Increase readership and grow my community

For Myself

Practice taking more shots with my camera.
Brush up on my Japanese and French.
~~Do regular facials at home.~~ (I ve started a new beauty regime now which I faithfully follow)
Try out new dishes/bakes once a month.
Be able to fit into my wedding dress again and take a picture wearing it with the 3 kids.
~~Go for short courses to improve my cooking/baking skills~~

For the family