Homeschool Chinese: I Go to School
I am in grade two / Wǒ zài èr niánjí 我在二年级[/caption] Jiejie is moving rather quickly through the lessons of Volume 1. I am amazed at how effortlessly he picks up vocabulary. Our goal is for him to be comfortable speaking and recognizing characters ... writing will come later. I believe his ability to pick up vocabulary stems from exposure - having listened to his sister over the years, he has picked up words he didn't even realize he knew. I love how Teacher Shawn / Lǎoshī 老师 engages the kids in a variety of activities - capturing their interest and keeping their enthusiasm. After reading through the conversation that introduces each lesson, he will frequently encourage them to role-play or act-out the conversations. They take turns and play different roles each time. This is a fun way to also allow for creativity and impromptu responses. In the picture above, they are 
role-playing the conversation illustrated in Volume 1, Lesson 5 - I Go to Dahua Elementary School in the My First Chinese Reader series . Since we homeschool, we had Teacher Shawn / Lǎoshī 老师 ensure that the conversation is applicable to us. He thereby personalized it to our situation and taught Jiejie how to say "homeschool" [Jiāxuéxiào / 家学校] in addition to the usual terminology for elementary school. In addition to role-playing one-on-one, they frequently came out and engaged Meili and I in short conversations. Jiejie would alternate between his sister and me, stating our name and grade level. He likes to be silly and would say that I am in 1st grade. Considering my own level of Mandarin proficiency, I suppose he is right! Homework Assignments and/or Enrichment Activities:
- Complete the corresponding workbook pages
- Write out a similar dialogue using different student names and grade levels
- Create an audio-recording of the student reading the challenge ~ Click here to listen to Jiejie reading Lesson 5 Challenge-mp3
- Create a cartoon strip illustrating the dialogue
Climb aboard next week, as we learn about the Transcontinental Railroad.
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