The second child? I did try but with work + cooking + picking up after them + homework + exam revisions, I have to admit that I probably read to her about 1/3 of the frequency I read to her older brother.
Furthermore, when her older brother started learning Mandarin, I realized that hanyu pinyin hampered his recognition of hanzi (Chinese characters), which was what happened to me when I learned Mandarin at 9 years old ;-)
Thus, I've not been too anxious about my daughter's proficiency in English last year when she was 5 i.e. phonics reading and spelling. Will you believe that she scored 0 for all her spelling tests last year?
Why did I not panic?
Firstly, I wanted her to learn as many Chinese characters as possible - if she learned the English alphabet, she'd be able to read the pinyin and then, she'd just read the pinyin.
Secondly, since her brother reads a lot of English books and I can ONLY read English books - what are the odds of her not picking up English, right? Lastly, I always believe in nature running its course and also, the wise old Dr. Maria Montessori had always believed in a child's self-motivated learning.
Remember: "You can drag a horse to water but you can't make it drink it."
On top of that, her father, brother or I will read to her when we can. Anyway, I was kind of "forced" to teach her English this year because her kindergarten teacher spoke to me, expressing utmost concern about her "failing" English.
Actually, my little dolly's sad face and sighing about scoring 0 for spelling that prompted me to spend time on English. Thus began our private English tutoring on Tuesday/Thursday nights, which she loves!
A few nights ago, she requested for me to read her a book but I was dead tired that she offered me a great deal - I would read half the book and she would read the other half LOL I agreed but I "pretended" to read slowly that she'd have to read and she ended up reading most of the book ;-)
This is one of her favourite books - It's too noisy!
by Joanna Cole. She was soooo proud of herself but I think I was prouder then her!!!I didn't realize that she had picked up so many English words - guess her Dad has been reading this book to her regularly. Just now, she'd ran out of the room to tell me excitedly that she could read "Ten Timid Ghosts"
too. I gave her a big hug and many, many kisses LOL This happy milestone reminds that I've yet to get my hands on a copy of her brother's FIRST book: "Preschool to the Rescue"
I wonder if he even remembers this book???
