Of course she's ready for Chinese lessons. Children, if given the proper environment will soak up a foreign language and it would seem that English is a foreign language for her, NOT Chinese. What I suggest you do is begin as soon as you reasonably can and dont waste time on stuff that you will rarely say, such as "Red Square." Go straight to Phrases if you can. How long has she been out of a Chinese environment? and Which chinese language did she used to speak? Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese or another? See if you cant get a chinese baby sitter or someone to come in and look after her or play with her awhile. Can you speak her Cinese langauge? You could look into things like Little Pim, LiveMocha.com, teachmetapes.com has some Mandarin materials, and I know there is a Fairy Tale book series that also has Mandarin (Found it: Slangman learn Mandarin Chinese through Fairy Tales). Find a playgroup or establish one in your area, contact a nearby University that has Chinese classes and see if you can get them to translate (and possibly record) a list of everyday phrases and sayings for you to use around the house.
Gizzy, we adopted her at 20 months old, her native language is Mandarin. There is a local Chinese school that gives lessons but it is very rigid and structured. It hasnt been an option up til now because they only take kids 5 and older. I know one girl from our local adoption group that attends, and her mom told me 7 or 8 is a better age to start off. They expect a LOT from the kids and they work for 2 hours straight without a break. My daughter LOVES to do seatwork and worksheets (she begs for them), but she does them at her own pace. I know my daughter would get frustrated pretty quick with a rigid classroom setting. I did find someone on Craigslist that is a native Mandarin speaker but she never got back to me after the second email lol.. We are moving the end of August out of state and I will try again. I do not speak Mandarin other then a few phrases I learned for our trip to China. She knows how to say about as much as I do, which isnt much. Little Pim, LiveMocha.com, teachmetapes.com...I am going to look up those sites right now!
ScottieGazelle, we started out last September sort of unschooling. We did what ever we thought was fun... reading, crafts, nature walks etc. By December she pretty much demanded to do "real school" like her sister. (Two oldest are 18 and 22 but I have a 14 yr old homeschooling). We went to Walmart and she found those workbooks with connect-the-dots and color-by-numbers.. she loves them! She would literally finish a workbook a day and ask for more. When I started planning things for her to do, she would do all the work I had planned for a week, in one day....and then ask for more! I signed her up for Time4Learning and she loves Starfall. I had a few issues with the Time4Learning so we stopped using it after our trial period was up. I have since signed up with ClickNkids and we both like it. That led me to start researching different types of curriculum. She knew all her colors, letters, alphabet and letter sounds. The first thing I bought for her was Exlore the Code, she did the first book in no time at all. This is still one of her favorite things to do. She is now working on telling time, she can read words but doesnt quite have it down enough to read full sentences and she is almost done with the Math U See Primer. If it were up to her, she would do school work 7 days a week. So I am following her lead. If she shows an interest in something we do it. We officially start Kindergarten next month, but 75% of her curriculum is 1st grade. On the other hand is my 3.5 yr old Goddaughter. I care for her 6 days a week and she is the total opposite. She cannot sit for more than 5 minutes to do anything. She gets bored with Starfall! I can see her learning well with the unschooled method.
My son is 5 1/2. I am only teaching him Spanish now because he requested to learn. He went to a private Pre-K two days a week where he was learning Spanish. So when I told him he would be homeschooling, he specifically asked to continue Spanish. So I told him sure it would not be a problem. I was in the second grade when I started learning Spanish.
All great suggestions! We've used:: Handwriting without tears Starfall Hooked on Phonics Click n Kids Horizons Math The story of the world loved them all! Anyone tried calvert? Trying it this year, just wondered what you thought!? Tia
Will be using MFW for the Kindergartener. My second child has such unique learning styles that I've been pretty much unschooling him from day one. Must be working though, as he can read, add, subtract, and simple multiplication. He just cannot physically do any written work which makes most curriculum a waste for him. Oldest will also be continuing with MFW.
