Motherly Notes Methods – Nurture Love Educate
In English and Chinese
-
This Is How I Get My Kids To Work Hard
I’ve been on so many paths with this one. I started with what everyone wants in a perfect world: What a beautifully perfect world! Ha! Basically no rewards should be given. All achievements should come from the heart right? This generally works and but takes a lot of effort – from BIRTH. My husband and…
-
Time Management: 學習時間表怎麽安排最有效率？ How to Create Study Schedules with Maximum Impact
Many moms have shared their daily schedules or activities on our Facebook Group: Motherly Notes and it’s a common question that parents have because children like to: Procrastinate Procrastinate Procrastinate Moms like to maximize their kids study schedule as well as their own times. How in the world do other kids study 5-6 things in…
-
故事聊一聊 – 林世仁老師的秘密 + 故事時間！
Books in the Video are not limited to: All our sessions are broadcasted in our Facebook Group FIRST and presented LIVE in group. Don’t forget to JOIN! https://www.facebook.com/groups/motherlynotes
-
故事聊一聊： 王文華老師來說故事！
We were able to invite the famous author 王文華 to come tell stories to our kids here in the United States! Whoo hoo! He’s written hundreds and thousands of stories, haha. Enjoy the video! We were so lucky to have had him come here and grace us with his recommendations. I couldn’t be thankful enough!…
-
節日聊一聊： 母親節的由來 The Story Behind Mother’s Day
Learn the story behind Mother’s Day. Ann Jarvis, Anna Jarvis.
-
Book Review: 樂讀456+ (無注音）：晴空小侍郎套書， 檸檬水戰爭系列，說謊的阿大，12月的暑假，半個老大，看不見的敵人，我是好人，我是怪胎，蛋糕學校，超級乖寶寶
Age: 9+ independent if can read without Zhuyin I wanted to bring out that the 456 Collection has many variations of levels. They have the beginner levels, intermediate and now I will introduce the advanced with no Zhuyin (phonetic help). There’s a large collection of these but I’m bringing out a few to show…
-
Book Review: 12歲之前一定要學的生活大小事 Things you should know about life before you’re 12!
Age: 9+ with parent or independent Purchase Link: 12歲之前一定要學的生活大小事 I love books that teach my kids on how to be a good person… because… what’s the point of life if you don’t know how to get along with others? You’ll have no friends and be very unsuccessful in life. This set of books is very…
-
遊戲介紹 (Games Rec)：我想聽你說 Popcorn Talks
我想聽你說 Popcorn Talks 桌遊來了!
-
Magazine Review: 新小牛頓 Newtonkids!
Age: 5-7 with parent, 7+ independent This is a neat set of science magazines fit for first to third grade level in Chinese. 99% of the magazine has zhuyin but there are a couple lines in their comics section that don’t but it won’t deter your budding reader from reading this because it’s FULL of…
-
Need to Correct Your Chinese Pronunciation and Tones?
I wanted to continue discussing commonly asked topics about the Chinese journey. I’ve noticed many many many kids in my class able to speak in Chinese and some very fluently but yet do not have the proper tones down or have picked up that “ABC” accent. This may be okay for most but there are…
-
Book Review: 樂讀456 系列 : 神奇柑仔店 1-8
Age: 8+ Purchase Link: 神奇柑仔店 1-4 神奇柑仔店 5-8 This is a very whimsical set for grades three and above in reading level in Chinese. It’s about a mysterious candy/snack shop opened by a supposedly old grandma who doesn’t have wrinkles. Her candies have magical powers and sometimes can give you magical powers. This candy shop…
-
Book Review: 小兵故事百匯 72本, 3套 (Little Soldier Stories Parfait 72 Books, 3 Sets)
Age: 6+ with parent, 7+ by self Purchase Links: 故事百匯 第一輯 故事百匯 第二輯 故事百匯 第三輯 I only say you should read with a parent if your six year old isn’t mature enough to understand some content but I find a very mature six year old would love to hear these stories. I have an almost…
-
Book Review: 怪傑佐羅力系列 (55 本) Zorori Series (55 Books)
Purchase Link: 怪傑佐羅力 1-40 怪傑佐羅力 41-45 怪傑佐羅力 46-50 怪傑佐羅力 51-55 Age: 5+ with parent, 7+ independent This set of books was first published in the 1980’s and now has grown to a whopping 55 books. The style in there is a mixture of bridge, comics, and picture book format. Words are easy to read, not…
-
Book Review: 三采 西方經典童話 20 本 Suncolor Western Classics
Age 8+ Purchase Link: 西方經典童話套書（1～20冊） I’ve been tracking down sets of classics for a while now. One that has detailed stories and close to the original zhuyin colorful illustrations excitingly written for the 3rd to 5th grade child comprehension questions in the back has 20,000 to 30,000 characters a book (Little Prince and Midsummer Night’s…
-
Book Review: 少年励志小说馆 挫折万岁 全套6册 (Simplified 簡體版)
Age 6-9 This is a great set of books for lower to middle elementary level reading for simplified Chinese. It’s a series of story about children’s lives and what it means to lie to see people growing old, making friends, getting good/bad grades, etc. In other words, it’s about overcoming challenges. It was translated from…
-
Member Post: Non-Native Mom’s Second Year Chinese Journey (5.5 Yr Old Reads Beyond Native Level) by Melissa C.
This is a follow up post. As you may recall, I started teaching my daughter characters in July 2017, when she was four. Almost 1.5 years later, she and I are reading bridge books together. We are reading 1st grade level books, and our comprehension level is roughly that of a slightly behind Kindergartner. I…
-
Book Review: 迪士尼系列 , 三采文化 Disney Collections by Suncolor
Ages: 2 to Adult Please visit our Facebook group for more information! https://www.facebook.com/groups/motherlynotes/ I’m going to review a large selection of Disney picture books from Suncolor, 三采文化. Disney Princess Collection Disney Movies Collection Disney Stories Collection Disney Social Emotional Collection Disney Language Collection They are, in my opinion, the best at translated picture books and…
-
Onyx Boox Reader Review – Tool for Teaching Reading, Writing, Etc.
Last year I had my children read from Kindle for their English books and then uploaded my own Chinese books but the problem with Kindle is the screen is so small, it’s not really Chinese compatible and Amazon doesn’t have any Chinese books that my children can read so trying to load Chinese on Kindle…
-
CiPu 喜舖 Kids Ergonomic Backpack (3 in 1) – It’s like Tumi for Kids!
Here’s my introduction video: I recently started using this backpack for my older child (6 years old) and she just absolutely loves it! The straps and back are researched and designed to be ergonomic for kids so it redistributes the weight for the child and they don’t feel any pressure points even after long hours…
-
How I Taught My Toddlers Math (Ages 2-5)
Math is something that my husband and I are pretty focused on. My goals were to achieve the following: Before Age 3: Count to 100, know shapes and colors including harder shapes like rhombus, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, isosceles triangle, obtuse triangle, scalene triangle, light pink, dark pink, magenta, turquoise, etc. Age 3: Do simple…
-
Using Heart Attack As a Game to Learn New Chinese Characters 用“心臟病” 的遊戲來認國字
There are many card games that are used in our Facebook group and I decided to use one on a daily basis with my two kiddos. To my surprise, it hasn’t gotten old yet. Many people use the game heart attack differently. For us, I call out the word they’re supposed to slap down on…
-
Using “Build Up” Method for Flashcards (20 Characters in 20 Minutes) – 如何用識字卡來認國字
Everyone does flashcards differently. I do a “Build Up” method that’s shown on the video and the steps are listed below. I led the example with my four year old in the video: Do a once over. Go over each flashcard ONCE with a pronunciation and meaning (I didn’t do this in the video for…
-
Zoob to the Rescue on a Winter Storm Day
We are snowed in today and the kids are home. This means I have from 6:30am in the morning until about 8:30pm. That’s a long time with the kids at home! I always take out open ended toys when they are home like this so it kills about 1-2 hours by themselves in the morning.…
-
Doodle the Day Away & Improve Motor Skills While You’re At It!
We love this pen. We love this pen. It’s not some new product but we love it. I forgot about this until I looked at our old photos. You melt plastic from a pen and they stick together to form anything you’d like. Of course my girls opted to do “rings” with their initials on…
-
Learn Your First 2400 Chinese Characters
In efforts to help everyone in my Facebook Group track their progress of their children’s Chinese study, I’ve compiled the most frequently used 2400 characters. If you can’t read independently after this list, I’ll be very surprised! Some people may use these as: Word games board. Poster to put on the walls and pin down…
-
Get Your Child to Teach You Something Using a Whiteboard!
I’m always thinking of more ways to make learning more dynamic because it helps with memorization and internalization of the material. Luckily, I found my kids to love “teaching” me stuff because it makes them feel empowered with their knowledge. It nicely feeds into their confidence and they have fun being teacher. I bought a…
-
Brain Game for Kids (and Adults): Think Fun Hoppers
Age: 5+ (or for those who don’t eat toys anymore) You can buy it on amazon: Think Fun Hoppers Game We have had this game for over two years now and it’s one that repeatedly gets taken out because it doesn’t get old. We take these out on planes, to hotels, etc. because the size…
-
Learning Chinese Characters With Stickers
One of the moms on our Facebook group showed a video of her daughter putting stickers on a Chinese character chart. How “wonderful” is that? Stickers + Kids = WIN. I used to give them stickers for everything. Did you do you your chores today? Give a list of chores chart and have them stick…
-
There’s No Other Way Around Knowing How to Write Chinese!
My five year old writes Chinese. We’ve started her on 康軒國語課本（一） Kang Xuan First Grade Material this year and their writing worksheets are okay for a five year old but for my three year old who sooooooo eagerly wants to be like her sister but doesn’t have the fine motor skills yet, I created my…
-
Why Using Textbooks To Teach Chinese May Not Be the Most Efficient Way To Teach Reading
Chinese textbooks bore me to death and they will surely bore my kids to death. Do we do it? Yes, for the worksheets. Do we read it? Not really. We jump straight to worksheets to practice some writing. Plus, their first grade texts are only maybe 20 words each lesson and slowly increases through the…
-
Citiblocs Provides Multi-Age Learning
Most of you who know me figured I never like toys that are one ended or targeted towards only one age group. If I get bored with my kids, I’ll never appear lively. I think the number one reason we’re so tired playing with kids is due to the fact some toys are PLAIN BORING.…
-
One Hour Project with Your Kids with Broken Crayons
I found this nice idea to use your old crayons and make them new again. I found this from this site that explains how to do this. The only thing different I did was find cuter molds off Amazon! You can search “cute silicone molds for chocolates.” You’ll get anything from animals to hello kitty to…
-
Teaching Your Child Geometric Shapes and Math Through These Manipulatives by Learning Resources
By now you probably know I’m not a sit down type of mom who likes to do everything from the books. Whenever I have a “building toy” that’s open ended, I dive for it. When I saw this set, I instantly bought 2 sets of it. By now you should already know I am a…
-
How to Trick Your Children into Practice Writing Letters (Chinese and English)
Children waste paper. Children waste paper. Children waste a lot of paper. There’s also miscellaneous paper they love throwing everywhere. There’s the frequent folded up paper they said it’s a “letter” to someone found under the bed, under the table, in a cabinet. When I open them up, it has only one word or it’s…
-
Create Your Own Puzzle (How to Kill 2 Hours on a Rainy Day With Your Kids)
My children were into a puzzle phase (I’ll do a review of the puzzles we have later) and it turned to a point where it’s not enough to just do the puzzles at home. I always like to spark their creativity (and kill some time they have and gain some quiet time for me –…
-
Using Legos as an Educational Tool with Preschool Children
Everyone loves legos. It keeps the kids occupied and they get to explore their creative side. I had no issues with Legos but found it annoying that they came in these boxes with pre selected parts and how to put together the parts. It limits the creativity of the kids and they feel like there’s…
-
You Don’t Always Have Time to Prepare an Art or Craft Session for your Kids, Here’s the Solution!
Using boxed science craft kits to save time preparing a project for your kids to do.
-
Why the Word “No” is Detrimental to the Development of Your Baby
I’ve heard many types of “no’s.” Stern: “No! Stop doing that! You stop it right now you hear?” Softly: “No no dear, that’s not for you sweetie…” Playfully: “No no no no no no no no no” (with a singing tone) Directionally: “No, it’s not read that way. No, that’s not the right answer.” What’s…
-
How to Make Your Child Fall in Love With Reading and Writing
I had a chance to spend the entire week with my cute nephew who is 7 years old. His school is highly academic and they usually read 1-2 grades higher than their current grade level. Therefore, the test scores of this school is always at 99% of the nation’s average. Scary? Yes I know! On…
-
Logic and Reasoning with Your Children
It’s never too late to reason with logic with your children. I had the “pleasure” of teaching my nephew how to do a book report today. I would say his personality is the opposite of easy to deal with. Frequently when I talk to him, he’d be staring at the wall thinking about literally “nothing”…
-
Infants should NEVER watch TV. Educational videos slows down your child’s brain.
As I’m reading through all these books, one recurring theme is the effect of media on the child’s brain. The more I read, the more agitated I get at these companies making educational videos for babies and saying it’s good for children. From what I see, it’s good for the “parents” to get free time…
-
Teen’s Rebellious Nature and What You Can Do
Teens lie no matter whether you’re strict or not. Darling did a study on teens showing that parents believe that being more lax and rules would institute teens to tell them more about their lives but the opposite happens. Not instituting rules makes the teens feel that you don’t care about them and they go…
Motherly Notes Methods - Nurture Love Educate 