LR Chinese, homeschool curriculum choices for 5yo?

[lhdvm00]

Hi everyone!
OK, we're trying out LR-C with our 4 and 5yo's - they like it and I'm buying it!  But I'm a little (OK, a lot) overwhelmed because .....they are wanting to learn the characters and handwriting in Chinese, and I certainly can't help them!  Any suggestions for a curriculum that can help them with that?!?!?  Something mom-friendly?

We have always played with Chinese - we have several dvds, including Jade and Language Tree, and Little Pim is on the way. I also plan to order WINK dvds.  We'll probably go with simplified, which saddens me a little, because Language Tree is Mandarin. 

Are there other dvds or resources that would be good to get?  I looked at the suggested videos on YouTube and they have been removed - bummer!  They looked perfect!
Thanks for any thoughts,
Lynn

[wenjonggal]

Hi,
I haven't used it yet, but you might want to check out http://www.skritter.com .... they have interactive online software to use with a mouse or stylus, that leads you through writing the characters on the screen, in the correct order etc, and they have word lists from most of the leading textbooks of Chinese (though not the little kid ones)...

anyways, the interactive quality would probably interest them, and you yourself wouldn't have to know how to write the characters or need to correct them, since the program does that... you could read to them the word out loud, and the English...

It was recommended on Chinesepod.com

[lhdvm00]

Thank you so much!!  That sounds awesome!   Will be looking into  Chinesepod, too.....  Thanks!!!!

[wenjonggal]

I just tried the skritter demo, and it is really quite good. You can get it to show you the character if you don't know it, and then write the strokes. If you make too many wrong tries, it will prompt you with the next stroke. If you write the correct stroke but backwards, it will tell you. You can click for the pronunciation. I think it is good for adults and kids, though obviously a child must be old enough to use a pen or mouse to write (whether ABC or chinese symbols), and if a child is too young to read the instructions, a parent would need to read for them.

But the demo does look really good. It's about $10 a month.

[lhdvm00]

Wow! That really looks good!!!  I have tried an online program with cartoons and such a couple of years ago and it was just a little too busy for my children...the oldest actually prefers simple straightforward learning tools, so this may be the perfect fit!  Their company story is entertaining, too!  I REALLY like that you can put in your own vocabulary list - should make it easy to tailor to LRC.   $9.95 a month isn't bad.  Thanks again for this info! 

[wenjonggal]

No problem. It was good timing as I had just gotten the email from Chinesepod about skritter.

Right now I'm a bit busy, but I am getting a tablet computer soon, and I think I'll sign up myself for it then. $9.95 a month does seem reasonable to have the writing input. And I find I recognize characters to read them much better if I've been writing them... something about the physical repetition.

Let us know how it goes. My son will be 5 in a month, maybe he'll like to play with this too, esp with characters he already recognizes from The Pet Dragon book, like xiao, shan, ren...

I'm glad to hear also that your kids like the LR-C at their age. I was considering it and wondering if my son was too old.

[lhdvm00]

I hope this will be great!!!  The resources out now are wonderful.  If you get a chance, please tell me about the Pet Dragon book and any others you might recommend! Mine learn really well from books, so some to go along with this program would help! What is a tablet computer?  I'm going to a search on the drawing tool/pad thing - that sounds like something we'd love.

[lhdvm00]

Have you used Rosetta Stone?  We have the German version and like it, but wow, it's $$$$!  Still, once we graduate from LRC, we'll need a plan!  I'm being optimistic!

[wenjonggal]

If you look around the internet, I haven't heard any good things about the Rosetta Stone in Chinese... since it is such a different language, apparently it doesn't lend itself as well to the "intuitive immersion" process of learning that Rosetta Stone uses for other languages... No experience with it myself.

[KL]

I'm glad to hear also that your kids like the LR-C at their age. I was considering it and wondering if my son was too old.

FYI, I'm using the Chinese curriculum with Felicity now and she's almost 5.  She often asks for it herself too.

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