How to help your child start learning Mandarin Chinese

Tips for starting out:

1. Begin with simple DVDs such as Dora the Explorer in Mandarin Chinese.
   
2. Focus on DVDs and songs instead of books (unless you speak Chinese well enough to read the books aloud)
   
3. Use flashcards and beginning books to teach basic characters such as numbers from 1 to 100.
4. Avoid saying words in Mandarin to your child if your Mandarin pronunciation is not good. You can watch programs with your child and learn together!
5. Avoid textbooks that are not clear and easy to understand. A lot of books published in China and Taiwan for teaching Chinese to children are horrible!
   
1. Look for texts that build lessons sequentially. For example, children should learn the numbers from 1 to 10, and then learn how they combine to make numbers up to 100. Children love this progression because it makes learning characters logical and intuitive.
   
2. Texts should review old vocabulary as they introduce new vocabulary. Watch out for this one. A lot of texts introduce a ton of new words in each chapter, but do not focus on words that build sequentially. For example, if your child learns the word for book (shu), he or she should then learn basic adjectives such as red （hong) or big（da) to combine with the word he or she just learned. Why teach another random word that does not fit with anything else?
3. Dick and Jane. Chinese is basically like learning how to read with whole words (the methodology where you memorize words instead of using phonics to sound them out). Children need simple storybooks that repeat words over and over again.