But here comes his headache, or rather say our headache - his Chinese! He could finish his once-a-week Chinese homework without any problem. His handwriting is never a concern but rather, recognizing and reading Chinese words on his own.
You got to understand that you just can't have the best of both worlds. How can I expect him to read Chinese well when clearly, we've been putting all our focus on his English reading skill. I only have a video of him learning to read Chinese words when he was 2 years 2 months old and since then, I didn't really teach him much but rather leaving him to his Chinese teachers in the child care center. Just to side track a bit, while browsing through all the videos we've taken for Renzo, I suddenly realized that we've exposed him to English/Chinese/Maths extremely often during the age of 2 to 3, maybe that's a critical age for kids to learn as they absorb super fast? I am not sure but I know we have to work harder for his little brother Rynus from now.
Anyway, a recent talk with many other mummy friends made me aware, that Renzo's progress with his Chinese study is rather slow. His spelling list from child care center comes with words like "一二三，上中下" where some other kids at the same age are expected to write more complicated words like "厨师". Alright my intention was never to compare them but still, I know I got a lot more work to do with his Chinese, if I insist not to send him to Berries (a famous Chinese enrichment school).
A mummy friend shared her 3 steps in teaching her boys Chinese words, which worked like magic for Renzo too. She's using a set of Chinese learning books 四五快读，but I am sure these steps can be used on any other materials too:
Step 1: Parent reads and explains individual words (from one chapter)
Step 2: Parent reads out words randomly and asks the child to point them out one by one
Step 3: Parent points at the words while the child reads aloud
Based on our own experience with Renzo's English reading, I know for sure these steps are going to work even before I tried them. Those "read aloud, read along, read alone" type of books usually attract kids' attention easily, as they find reading together with adults in a "role play" kind of way rather fun. And these steps above, are of very similar concept to me.
After trying out the above steps, I got really inspired and invented my test worksheet to reinforce on Renzo's learning. Since he's still young and is not expected to write all these rather complicated words, the goal is to get him recognize the words. So I printed out 2 sets of word lists with the new words he learned to read the day before, and added in a similar word to "confuse/distract" him. When I read one word, all he needs to do is to choose the correct one between the two. He was struggling with 1 or 2 sets of these words but overall, he did very well.On top of learning Chinese words, I added Chinese story reading into Renzo's daily bedtime routine. So after reading this story "渔夫和金鱼" to him for 2 nights, I was astonished to see him grabbing this book last night, and started reading on his own based on 汉语拼音, which is usually taught in K2 at most childcare centers and kindergartens.
