Week 1 in Chiangmai: Homeschooling a K2 kid in Chinese

Week 1 in Chiangmai:  Homeschooling a K2 kid in Chinese and learning oracle-bone writing 甲骨文 along the way!

A friend has asked me to write about homeschooling Chinese, so here we go…  R had less than 1 month left of K2 school when we left for Chiangmai.  By then, he had just learned to write his name, which I was quite impressed by, because his surname is very hard to write!  I’ve also had fun looking up the origins of Chinese words (the OG pictograms!).. 

“Oracle-bone writing 甲骨文 (1600 to 1100 BC): The oracle-bone inscriptions are the earliest body of writing we yet possess for East Asia. They were written in a script (Shang-dynasty script) that was ancestral to all subsequent forms of Chinese writing.”

Day 1:

Surprisingly, the only paper I could find in the house was the calendar.  Since January has passed, I thought it might be ok to use that page (hopefully, Granddad will look benevolently on this, together with all the destruction the kids have wrought on the house!)..  I tried to teach him the Chinese word for “hundred”, but he refused (and wrote 100 instead), then wrote some Chinese numbers, also learnt in K2.  He recognized the word for “month” which also means “moon”, though he didn’t know the 2^nd word for moon….  Chat GPT says 亮 was a pictogram resembling a bird 🦅 with open wings, signifying brightness or light 💡.. quite abstract! (see my pictogram drawn in orange)

Day 2:

I paid for a subscription at https://www.chineasy.com/.  I like it particularly because it also uses traditional Chinese, as the creator is Taiwanese.  R covered level 1 & 2 until I found a word he didn’t know (in fact I didn’t know it either!):  夕 (twilight).  Then we used the back of the calendar.  R drew 🐳 so we learnt 鯨魚 & also at his request 鯊魚 (shark), both of which I didn’t know.  Also, look at the pictogram for fish (魚)…  looks a bit like a goldfish!

Day 3:

R did level 3-6 of Chineasy & wanted to learn 𣗳 (tree) because I taught him 木 (wood) & he learnt 果汁 because he drew the juice he drank yesterday (came in a glass bottle!)..  X decided to add decorations 🤣..  Look at the pictogram for 木 and 果..  Totally represents the meaning!

Day 4:

Wanted to teach R 個 cause it appeared on Chineasy (did level 7-8)…. He drew a juice with wheels I think 🤔 & I discovered he already knew 車 (car) so - 個人 (1 person) ~> bad grammar 😂..  then he asked Baba to write captions & gave Baba ✔️ for getting in right 😅 (I don’t know where he gets his confidence from…  Oh no wait, I do… Baba!)

Look at the pictogram for 車, so cute!

Day 5

R learnt 落 because he complained that Baba forgot to write it on his pic yesterday (at 1st we said he was wrong, but he argued that he already knew how to read 水車😂..)

According to Chat gpt, "落" consists of two parts: "艹" which represents grass or plants, and "洛" which represents a river or flowing water. Together, they visually suggest something flowing or falling, hence the meaning "fall" or "drop."

Look at the pictogram for 水, which symbolizes the flow of water!

Day 8

Surprised that R requested writing Chinese , as I had decided to stop & concentrate on English only, as it was more urgent…. 1st he requested learning to write 氣墊船 (hovercraft).. I have no idea how to write 墊 & persuaded him to learn something else after 氣 (breath).. interestingly the 甲骨文 pictogram means steam when cooking !

Since Chineasy was introducing 家 (home) & 母 (mother) (he did levels 9-11), he learnt that…. 家甲骨文 (pictogram) means under the roof .. never noticed the 豕 in豬 (pig) & 母 is like 女(woman) with vertical breasts(R drew it on the word )

Day 9:

R did Chineasy level 12-13.. tried to get him to write 我的 (mine), which came up but I guess it’s too difficult & boring …  He did write 的, so I used the chance to teach him 白 (white). Quite surprised he remembered 家！

….and that’s all the Chinese we’ve covered so far!

A note regarding previous learning at a local kindergarten:

He only started writing words in K2.  Before then, he had numerous school story books that he requested we read to him.  These were just for fun and did not contribute to him learning to read, as they were too difficult for that purpose.