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…
-
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
-
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: 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…
-
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…
-
Member Post: How We Learned Mandarin With Perfect Accent
We have an amazing member in our Facebook Group. They speak Cantonese at home but Jennifer C (an amazing mom) was determined for her children to learn the proper tones for Mandarin. She suggested: Put the phonetic guides next to each word you are learning and make sure your kiddos are pronouncing it right every…
-
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…
-
Doing Arts with Watercolor Pencils & Book Review: 十二生肖的故事 Story of the 12 Zodiac Animals
I’m working on a project with my little one for her school and it took forever to do only because we wanted it to look pretty. We modeled all the animals after 賴馬’s book: 十二生肖的故事: This book tells the story of how the 12 Zodiac animals came about and how the Jade Emperor planned a…
-
Fast Way to Acquire Language? Karaoke for Kids
One of the fastest ways for kids to start learning how to read another language is through singing their favorite songs! I remember when I first started teaching my kids Chinese and English, we always played their favorite songs and the moment they saw the “microphone,” they had this crazy motivation to know the words.…
-
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…
-
“Glow in the Dark”, “Bouncy”, “Balls” … Enough Said
Alex Toys Craft Glow in the Dark Bouncy Ball Bonanza We buy science kits to kill time during weekends. We tell ourselves we’re at least educating the kids while they play during the weekend and let’s face it: projects take time and make your mornings or afternoons go by faster without your kids bouncing off…
-
Bellz Game – Time Killer, Strategy Developer, and Motor Skills for Kids
I love games that are educational and I love games that seem dumb and fun with hidden educational qualities inside. This is one of them. The strategy of this game is whoever gets 10 bells through the magic magnet wand first wins. If you get other colors stuck on your wand, you have to release…
-
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.…
-
Art + Role Playing = Hidden Learning & Reading
I love art and I love supplies that do more than one thing. One of my favorite coloring supply is the watercolor pencil. Watercolor is usually light in color which is great but what about when you want some punch? Kids love bright vibrant colors so I use Derwent’s Inktense Pencils (72 colors). I don’t use…
-
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…
-
How My Children Started Reading Chinese and English Before 3 Years Old
Education isn’t hard and it’s not boring. Most moms think you gotta sit them down and torture their kids in order for them to read. I taught my kids how to read way before 3 years old in English and did Chinese at the same time. Part of my type A personality is to experiment…
-
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.
-
Teaching Your Children to Read Fast with Sticker Labels
This isn’t a new trick. This is actually a very traditional type of teaching. When I first taught my older daughter to read, I used these labels around the house with English words when they were younger. I’m now doing it with Chinese. We would always sound them out and point to the object the…
-
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…
-
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…
Motherly Notes Methods - Nurture Love Educate 