Useful Tools: Learning Mandarin 学习中文好工具！

I've been revising with E and C regularly especially on their Chinese homework, as this is one language that they have rather weak fundamental. My fault for not emphasize enough when they were younger.. :P

Anyway, fret not, I'm here to share a good news. Whether you are Chinese-literated or not, it doesn't matter. I have found some really useful apps and websites that will help in teaching little ones on mandarin reading and writing, and best of all, they are absolutely free! ;-)

• Yes-Chinese.com 习字笔画好帮手

It's all about precision when it comes to writing mandarin words. A stroke must be straight, a hook must not be too long. Urrghh, I find it frustrating even I've pretty good command of mandarin myself >.<

So I let them practice using pre-printed words with the strokes in sequence. This site is really amazingly friendly and easy to use. Just type the word (using pinyin) and it will auto generate the word for you in nice writing boxes (you can choose the box size, small / medium / large)

Try it out now by clicking here > yes-chinese.com

The only downside- it doesn't work on mobile phone as it requires installation of the Adobe flash plugin. Make sure you install m that for your web browser before you can use this function.

• 字宝宝 Zhi Bao Bao

An Apple App which you can download from store for free (with in-app purchase that can be annoying, but well, it's free so can't complain). 字宝宝 is our on-the-go app to practice for all the mandarin spelling, it's especially useful for E. He just need a quick 3-5 min revision for all the words and he's ready for his spelling test.

• Google (Photo) Translate 谷歌翻译（摄像功能）

Available on App Store or website, this amazing app allows you to just snap a picture of the word (work best with printed words instead of handwriting), and it helps you translate the word and the sound instantly. It's it wonderful?

Snap a pic, highlight the words with your finger.

Ta-da, the pinyin, sound & meaning are given. See the little camera icon? Click that to use this photo translate feature.

• Pleco 鱼. 电子字典

This app is ideal for elder kids who can use dictionary independently. It allows you to search the word （字） / nounce (词）in mandarin or pinyin, and give you the meaning plus sample usage or sentence. This is almost as good as an actual dictionary.

Come standard 2, they started learning to form sentences which will get them ready for essay writing in standard 3, hence i find this app comes in ready handy.

Search with nounce（词句), gongzuo 工作, and all possible words are listed.

Search with single word, gong, and all words with similar pinyin are listed out. Easy huh?

There are other useful functions such as searching the historical words, clipboard reader (just paste the copied words) etc, do take some time to explore when you are using it, if you wish (I stick to the basic functions :))

• HSK Vocabulary Flash Cards 翻字卡

If you have spare time and would like to introduce new words to the young schooler, you can download this apple App which comes in different levels of difficulty (HSK1 is the lowest, follow by HSK2 and so on so fort).

It allows you to flip through the eCards and play the voice.  

It has a test setting that allows testing of the little one to find the right words based on the words read out. C loves this test.

That's all folks. Hope you find the above helpful & do share with me and the other readers if you have other good tools to suggest too.. I have yet to find any good tools for teaching bahasa, so please do share with me if you know of any! ;-)

Xoxo,

PH

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

好书介绍：波西和皮普·小小聪明豆幼儿绘本系列

这次要介绍的，是我个人很喜欢的中文绘本系列之一。由知名德国儿童书籍作者 Axel Scheffle在 2012 编写的绘本故事，故事内容活泼有趣，加上生动的插画，小孩子很容易可以想象并融入波西和皮普这两对活宝的生活。(注：Axel Scheffler来头不小，他可是英文儿童文学著作Gruffallo的插画家喔！）

这系列共有6册故事，每一本的内容都是绕着两只小兔皮普、小老鼠波西的日常生活走，除了“大搜索”是把全部故事综合在一起作为搜索游戏。这册图书翻译做的很棒，浅易明白又容易朗读。每一本书我那五岁的小妞都很喜欢，每天晚上都会磨着我要读上两本才可罢休。

”妈妈，我要读波西和皮普了！”，闹钟似的。:)

书里好多字都会重复使用，如一起、和、到、回家、红气球、玩具、飞走、伤心、等等，从而也间接地增加了她的词汇认识。

这个小小聪明豆幼儿绘本系列包括了：

尿裤子

下雪天

大怪兽

红气球

最心爱的玩具

滑板车

大搜索

如果你的小孩华语能力不错，可以独立阅读华文故事了，那你可以省略这本书。但是如果小孩像我家小妞，不爱华文（因为小时候都是阅读英文书籍多），这套绘本真的激发起她对中文阅读的喜爱，并发掘阅读的乐趣。

如何购买？

我不曾在本市书局或书展看到这册书，是通过网上书局购买的。有兴趣的话，联络买家Claire，可以直接点击她的网站，买上RM200以上免邮费哦！

www.picbook88.com

不在大马的朋友，可以在amazon找到这册图书，也可以看看其他人的评语。

amazon.com

如有问题的话，就把留言打在底下方好了，我会尽快回复的…

Xoxo,

PH

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

{Birthday Special} The Exciting Eight!

We held a celebration for E's 8th birthday as he was really looking forward for one. We had not organized any birthday party for him since he was 6yo, just small celebration with the family. So this time, I thought, why not give him a wonderful  memory, since he had made some really good friends at school and they could all had some jolly good time together.

So I drafted a simple party plan, worked out the invitee list with E, designed the party theme & food list; there after setup the kids table, decorated the place. So here they are, the beautiful moments captured..

First, we had the invitation card ready.. He hand delivered to his friends at school, with so much pride.

Then we did some simple decoration around the house... Noticed the blue & gold birthday garland on the curtain rails? E had been urging us to hang them up since a week before the party and he was so excited when Big Guy finally put them up..

We prepared quite a variety of party food. Some were homemade like the tuna & salmon sandwiches, peach jelly, chocolate dipped strawberries, fried longevity noodles, red eggs, cut fruits and ..... The L size Number "8" Race Track Chocolate Cake, my very proud creation which made him smiling from cheek to cheek. Btw, notice the resemblance between this cake and the invitation card? That's where I got my inspiration. ;-)

Took me the entire Saturday morning to prepare this cake, from baking to layering to piping and decorating. It's really rich & moist that in fact, I would think this' the best chocolate cake I have ever baked and tasted really good! :D 

In case you would like to give it a try, you  may refer to the making and recipe in my food blog here, Food4LittleOnes' Super Moist & Easy chocolate cake

Apart from the home cooked, I've also ordered some delicious food in fear that there won't be enough to serve all the guests (but in the end we had too much and everyone get to bring some food home!). We had satay, fruit tarts, mango Rosetta and the famous Tangling nasi lemak with chicken rendang & rempah (herbs) served in banana leaf. All my kind of favorite food! Lol..

I simply love this 3 tier turquoise serving tray, colorful and easy to store - just stack them up will do. These lovely tarts were delivered fresh that very morning by the lovely homebaker, do drop me a message if you would like her contact.

Another Dessert Stand. E helped to prepare these sandwiches.. He had been volunteering a lot for this party as he knew mommy had no other helper, so  how could I resist this little boy's wish for a small birthday party? :)

The marshmallow stand which was quick to setup yet so popular with the kiddos. You can find this styrofoam cake dummy in most baking supplies store, comes in varies sizes and shapes (round or square or rectangular)

Birthday song singing time, surrounded by all the buddies and his little sister.. 

He was beaming in pride when he cut the cake, seems like he enjoyed being the center of attention at the party. He knew it's his day and in fact he played a good host by taking good care of his friends.

Coincidently, there's a children art contest at our community center on the same day, so we brought all the kiddos there to had some fun. Surpsingly, E got 3rd prize in the 8-10yo category with RM50 cash prize and some sponsored goodies. Not bad at all!

In the meanwhile. little C won consolation prize for her beautiful coloring too.. Well done my little C :) 

When party was over, the duo helped to clean up and E could not wait to open up all his presents... He's wearing his new Superman cap and assembling his brand new Lego city toy. He just could not concealed his excitement..

When making the no. 8 race track cake, there were quite so extra cake crumbs and chocolate ganache left, so I made some cake pops and we had a pleasant celebration with our little boy the night before the party, which was the actual birthday.

It really warmed my heart to see his joyous smile. He hugged and thanked me when the party was over, I knew that very day had left a significant stamp in his life journal (or if I were to borrow "Inside Out"'s term, a core memory was created), and it honestly made my day, too. 

 

May you be blessed always, my little captain E. Stay healthy, stay happy, stay wise, that's mommy's simple wish for you.

Xoxo,

PH

Copyrights © Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones, 2012 - present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any materials within this website without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Pui Hua and Fun With Little Ones with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.