Two or More Languages in Early Childhood

I was once wondering whether I should teach Debo bilingual or just simply one language… and what I found from books and websites are convincing me that absolutely no problem !! Well, I am a Malaysian, a multiracial country with multi languages and cultural, and looking back our childhood, my mother tongue is Cantonese, but I know how to read and speak Mandarin, English and Malay when I was a child…

So, what are the most important languages in the world? Search in google, you can find lots of websites rating for it, and what I have concluded the top languages in majority as below (listed in random order):

• English
• Mandarin
• Spanish
• French
• Russian
• Arabic
• Japanese
• Portuguese
• German
• Hindi

We can teach our baby for up to four languages, or even more depending on the child, parents and environment. According to Glenn Doman, baby are linguistic genius as their brain are ready to absorbs as much knowledge as they get to receive. As Doman’s theory, golden age for kids to learn are from 0 to 3 years old, second period from 3 to 6 years old and after 6 years old the learning speed will gradually slowing down. This is why usually difficult for adult to learn a new foreign language than a kid. Doman’s Flash card is a very good way in teaching children words and knowledge. By flashing cards, child can memorize words in just few times of flashing.

I started using Doman’s Flash card when Debo age about 6 months, and she did able to point out the correct cards when I asked her…. been stopped for sometimes currently… yeah.. a bit lazy …Ooppps… is a bit busy in preparing others study materials. However, I do find that Debo can learn words quickly. Now she is about 22 months old and able to recognize all alphabets and read out alphabets from A to Q… while R to Z still in progress ~~  for Chinese words, recently I show her a sentence card with word “爸爸” (daddy), and surprise me that Debo called out “Ba Ba” (how she call her daddy) !!

For Debo, currently my hubby and I speak 3 languages with her: English, Mandarin and Cantonese. These three are the major language in our house, but there are still some languages can be find at our environment where Debo can learn by listening: sometimes parent-in-law speak in Hokkien, I play kids songs including: France, Germany, Japanese and of course Chinese(Mandarin) and English kids songs randomly. For others languages, I am not going to emphasize in teaching but just to create an environment for Debo to “familiar” by listening, so she will be able to master it rapidly. Maybe will teach foreign languages after Debo able to handle well basic level of English and Chinese language.

Howsoever, words of God are the most important “language” to learn for kids since they are born, thus we must not forget to include Bible study in their learning schedule… ^_^

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.(Proverbs 9:10)
敬畏耶和華是智慧的開端, 認識至聖者便是聰明 (箴言9:10)



Resources:
http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/earlychild.html
http://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/biling.cfm#twolangs
http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/weber/rep-weber.htm
http://www2.ignatius.edu/FACULTY/TURNER/languages.htm
http://www.altalang.com/beyond-words/2008/10/27/the-10-most-useful-languages-to-learn/
http://blog.dinolingo.com/2011/05/15/doman-glenn-children-are-linguistic-geniuses/
http://parenting.stackexchange.com/questions/67/what-are-some-strategies-for-raising-a-bilingual-child

DIY – Market Place

I found this printout from HomeschoolShare. I just printed out the last few pages to make a market place for Debo to “get” ingredients for her restaurant pretend play. We had few shops in our market place: Bakery shop, Market shop, Florist shop, Sweet Ice cream shop, Bookstore, and shop selling hats.



Materials needed:

1. Brown colour mahjong paper
2. Empty boxes, can also use bags or cardboard that can make it stand alone
3. Printout of the shops

Step by step:

1. Print out the colourful shops and cut accordingly.

2.   Paste the mahjong paper over the empty box. I was using Debo snack box, so had to put cover it to make it look more like a “building”

3.     Glue the printout on the box, fold the “roof” nicely to make it look more 3D.

DIY – Ovals Wheel

As for the week of Letter E , egg is the object of the week and since we  had learnt about shapes few weeks ago, so I decided to put in the shape of the egg – OVAL shape in our lesson this week.

Materials we need:

1. Cardboard
2. Oval shape printout (I get it here..page 21). For the oval objects, I had print some objects that usually can be found around Debo from Google.

Step by step:

1. Print and cut the cardboard and cover wheel in round shape.
2. Cut out the extra area on the cover wheel where indicated on the printout.
3. Paste the objects on the cardboard in sequence. 
4. Write the name of the objects at the top of the objects.
5. Attach cover wheel together with cardboard using a brass fastener (I using paper as holder… don’t have brass fastener)

My Favourite Bookstores in KL & Miri

Baby Debo is almost age of two now, and most of the books she have are pictures books and activities exercise books. I like to go bookstores looking for some new books for Debo and stationeries or little things that can be used for her sensory bin. Few bookstores are my favourite, listed as below:

KUALA LUMPUR/ SELANGOR

1. Popular Bookstore in IKANO Power Centre

Bookstore Structure: A big bookstore with variety of books, books are divided into section and label clearly.

Books: Have variety of books, can find many pictures books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and others activities exercises books, both in Chinese and English. Also have many sorts of extracurricular books there too for older kids.

Customers Service: Nice and helpful staff. A cheerful customer service lady help me to find books I had looking for, with polite and warm smile.

Offers/ Price: Always have offers and with members cards can get more discount. Sometimes during promotion, books are priced at very attractive price !! ^_^ ….

Surrounding: Located in Ikano, there are many others shops that are nice to shop, like IKEA and Pet shop, so no problems to stay there for whole day, including Daddy … ^_^ ..he prefer to shop at IKEA ~~ There are many nice restaurants, including our favourite Nando, so we can shop and eat, shop and eat and shop and eat for whole day ~~

Popular Bookstore
Ikano Power Centre Lot S2 2nd Floor 2,
Jalan PJU 7/2 Mutiara Damansara 47800 Petaling Jaya Selangor
Tel:  03-7725 9188 / 03-7725 5823 / 03-7725 5708
Fax: 03-7727 8321
Business Hours:
Mon-Sun:10:00am to 10:00pm

I bought these from Popular @ Ikano, PJ:

    2.    Kinokuniya Book Stores

Bookstore Structure: A quite and comfortable place, where we can enjoy reading quietly… if without baby …ha.. !! Books are classify clearly according to languages.

Books: I can find many wonderful and popular English pictures books there. There are some Chinese pictures books too in the other side at Chinese books section

Customers Service: Of course, located at KLCC which is a high level shopping place, staff are polite and dress professional.

Offers/ Price: Sometimes has offers, but not as much and big like Popular Bookstore. Price is higher than other bookstore.

Surrounding: It is located inside the KLCC, a well known landmark in KL. Is very convenience to reach there, either by driving, taxi or LRT. Many shops including ELC toy shop and Toys’ R Us, restaurant and a cinema in KLCC, so parents can spend time there after rooming at the bookshop.

Conclusion: Well, you can find many well known popular books at Kinokuniya, if you don’t mind to spend more for a book, then here is a convenience place to get your books. However if you are not in hurry to have the book, I would recommend to buy at other bookstore or online through Book Depository... price is the major consideration issue for me $_$

Kinokuniya Book Stores
Lot 406- 408 & 429-430 Level 4, Suria KLCC
Kuala Lumpur City Centre, 50088 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 2164 8133
Fax: 03 2162 8599
Opening Hours:
Monday to Sunday 10am to 10pm

I got these books from this bookstore:

  3.     Book Xcess

Been there once, a bit far from my house and it is located at a busy zone, which always having traffic jam. However, it do attract my interest to go visiting the bookshop, because of it price… haha

The bookstore located in a shopping mall, at the top level three, is large with many sorts of books. They put price stickers on the books showing “Recommended Regular Price” and their offer/ selling price. Seems discounting a lot, example My First World Atlas by Collins, Book Xcess selling RM 14.90 while other bookstore like MPH or Kinokuniya selling at RM 19.90

Whether it is really worth, I am not sure but you can browse its website to see the book lists with its selling price before decide to visit the bookshop.

Book Xcess
L3 – 60, Amcorp Mall,
No 18 Jalan PSN Barat, 46050 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7956 0455
http://www.bookxcess.com/contact.html
Opening Hours:
Monday to Sunday 10:30am to 9:30pm

I got these from this bookstore:

  4.     Borders Tropicana City Mall

Just went there once, but had bought many books from this bookshop. There was offer for kids’ pictures books and some are recommended by many parents online. So… well… of course i had bought many pictures books for Debo, both in English and Chinese

Mostly are English books, but there are still many choices for Chinese pictures books and price not high …mean … CHEAP… found many RM10 books… haha.. ya… cheap but good quality books

Will go there again when visiting KL again… hope there is still having promotion !!

Borders @ Tropicana City Mall
Lot L1-39,46,47 1st Floor
Tropicana City Mall
No 3 Jalan SS 20/27, 47100 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7727 9203

Books I bought from Borders bookshop:

5.       MPH Bookstore @ One Utama

Bookstore Structure: The bookstore is large and has two levels,. There is small section in Children books unit that can allow children to sit and read books. Inside the bookstore, environment is soft and quiet, good for reading

Books: Mostly are English Books with all sorts of books. For kids, choices are a lot: pictures books, award wining children books, revision and exercise books, mini books for baby, etc. Not much choices for Chinese children books.

Customers Service: Not much contact with the staff there, but they do look professional and helpful

Offers/ Price: Sometimes do having offers, but for books without discount, the price seems a bit higher than some bookstores. You can check its online bookstore, as there is offers for some items and free shipping with some condition (West Malaysia with orders more than RM50)

Surrounding: located in one of the large shopping mall in KL – One Utama Shopping Centre, having lots of parking place and can spend whole day in the shopping centre.

Remarks: There are some special stationeries can be found in MPH Bookstore.

MPH MEGASTORE, 1 UTAMA
F319 & S319, 1st & 2nd Floor, 1 Utama Shopping Centre, No 1, Lebuh Bandar Utama, Bandar Utama, 47800 Petaling Jaya
Tel: (603) 7726 9003
Fax: (603) 7725 9003
Business hour: 10.00 am - 10.00 pm

I bought these books from MPH Bookstore

   

MIRI
1 .      Belle’s Bookshop

Bookstore Structure: Located above toy shop (Toys World), which I believe is same owner with the bookshop. We usually spend some times at the toys shop before go up stair. There is a small Lego toys section beside the cashier counter where kids can play around while parents doing some shopping. Is kind of good, because is just nearby the cashier counter so at least the cashiers will have a look on the kids… but of course parents need to take an eye on their children by themselves while they finding books, staff don’t have the responsibility to look after your kids.

Books: Have different sorts of books, especially Christianity books and some accessories at a special corner. There are mostly English books in the bookshop. I can find some popular pictures books there, and some special stationeries, like Crayola Finger Paint and alphabets stamps… which I think are a bit difficult to find it elsewhere in Miri (Please let me know if there is any other shop that sell Crayola products in Miri)

Customers Service: Nice and helpful.

Offers/ Price: Well, as what I remember there is not much promotion or offers in this bookshop… really not much, even its toys shop at the lower floor also not having much offers except 10% discount for those with member card…. that’s all… hmm….

Surrounding: It is in a shop lot located at a commercial centre. Some restaurants nearby and Servey Supermarket nearby. Usually wont spend much time around the area.

Belle’s Bookshop ,
Toys World, Lot 605-610, 1st Floor,
Pelita Commercial Center, 98000 Miri, Sarawak
Telephone : 6 085-416133
Fax : 6 085-416623

I bought these here:

2.       Popular Bookstore in Bintang Mall

Bookstore Structure: Hmm… a normal bookstore, sometimes with many boxes or goods at the side of the way, making it difficult to pass through. Books are divided according to language.

Books: Mostly are primary and secondary school workbooks, also some for toddlers but choices are not much. Only few English pictures books can be found here. Different branch do have difference ya…. ( I prefer the Popular Bookstore in IKANO).

Customers Service:  Not much contact with them… seems having many staff.

Offers/ Price: There are always offers and promotion, but there has been long long time (I guess few months) the offers section not having much changes… still highlighting the same few series of books… I am waiting for new offers actually…waiting for few months… YES, few months….  !!!

Surrounding: It located inside the Bintang shopping mall, which to me is the most wonderful shopping mall in Miri… haha… Inside the mall has Parkson, Toys R US, a level with many computers shops (at least my hubby wont “urge” me to go home early)…and some nice restaurants like Pizza Hut, KFC, Marry Brown, Kenny Roger, and my favourite Sushi King !!!

Conclusion: I do like Popular Bookstore, just maybe Miri branch is not as big as KL, so choices are not much as in KL, but is still convenience and nice to shop…sometimes do have surprise ..when there is promotion ~~

Books I bought from here:

 

Interesting Paper toys Websites

Recently browse around looking for some materials for teaching geography, and found some interesting website that provide free printable of paper toys.
(sample of paper toy -  Eiffel Tower from papertoys.com)
Resource: http://papertoys.com/

There are many different paper toys printable, easy and fun for craft work materials for children, useful in illustrating the objects we teach. It is not just free, but also simple making: just Print, Cut, Fold and Glue… It also provide facts about some of the printable objects at the bottom of the page.

I will keep these paper toys printable for later use, in geography lesson… hope she will like it ^_^

Another interesting website, The Ginghams Paper Doll Book

These recall my lovely childhood memory…I love playing paper doll and I guess lots of girls do like paper doll too… changing beautiful dress and hats for the lovely little paper girl doll…haha….

You can make some paper toys for your children, but required a lots of time and patience in preparing, especially cutting out…I WILL TRY my best… hopefully i do have the patience ~_~