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Teaching children: engage them, don't bore them!

Very important consideration :
the younger the children, the shorter the attention span. Organise the tuition in many small "blocks" and bring some VARIETY !

We therefore recommend that up to six years old classes are kept to a maximum of one 45 minutes.

Below are just a few suggestions of activities and teaching blocks to do with children during a Mandarin tuition.

Give a Chinese Name

Great way to kick start the lessons. Involve the children in the choice of their name by asking them what they like or how they would describe themselves. You could give also them a flash card or sheet of paper with their Chinese name on it, for them to colour and decorate. They will be very proud and will learn their first characters. Names that will appeal to children may refer to animals, flowers, stars and other natural things.

Use images

Children learn if they can relate to concrete things, so try and have as much visual support in you lesson as possible. Use books and flash cards, but also object taken from everyday life. For instance, you could bring a bag of fruit and some chopsticks with you to the lesson about food.

Tell a Chinese story

A story or an interesting fact abour Chinese culture does the trick to capture the attention toward the end of the lesson. There are so many fascinating stories that will appeal to children. Examples are the story of the Zodiac animals; how the great wall can be seen from the moon; the fishing in Guilin.

Stories ideas on http://china.mrdonn.org/stories.html

Get them moving

Children can stay still for too long, so include in your class an activity that will make them at least stand up.

For example: Learn the body parts by getting them to wave them; get them to make chinese shadows ; organise a game with coloured ballons to catch to get them to learn colour names; ask them to find and object in the room that matches one characteristics (red, small, soft etc...)

Learn a song

Just as babies start learning their mother tongues with nursery rhymes, children and even adults will remember expressions better if they come with rhythm and melody.

Even better are songs with gestures. Find some ideas on http://www.circletimekids.com/WorldLibrary/countries/China/songs/index.php

Introduce a “friend”

Find a pupett, doll or stuffed toy that will only speak and understand Chinese. It is very important for the child to be able to associate a certain language with a certain person or “friend”. This way the tutor can use English as well as Chinese to help the child understand situations or concepts.

Give them something to keep

A great reminder of what they have learned and something to boast about. It could be a sticker or some colouring sheets, a drawing or a fortune cookie.