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How I Teach Mandarin: Pre-K and Kindergarten

Sheena Sy Gonzales

Mandarin is one of those things I am determined that my kids learn. But because I am not fluent myself, it requires a lot of learning on my part as well.

Today, I wanna share with you some of the ways I teach my kids Mandarin. I hope this encourages you to supplement their learning, even if, like me, you are not fluent in Mandarin yourself. Jia you!

PS. My website’s font doesn’t support Mandarin characters (I was frustrated for a week because of that) So all Chinese texts will be in pinyin for now, until I find a solution. I’m sorry!

Conversation Practice

Number one and most important is using the language in everyday conversations. I insert Mandarin words and phrases when I talk to my children.

I began by introducing simple phrases like “Would you like to drink milk?” (“Ni xiang he niunai ma?”) and slowly progressed to more complex sentences. Again, I need to constantly learn myself so I can speak it correctly!

I started doing this late with my eldest but I was determined to introduce Mandarin to my 2nd child as a baby. And I’m happy to say that speaking in Mandarin comes more naturally to him. In fact, hen he asks for milk, he says “niu nai!” and when he doesn’t like something he says “bu yao!”

Read-Aloud Books in Mandarin

I love books and have always believed in the power of reading aloud. So I’ve been collecting Mandarin books that I can read to my kids out loud.

My most worth it purchase so far was this set of short Mandarin storybooks from Bookery for Kids and Mums. It’s only P1050 for 80 pcs (!) of books already. They are very thin and contains only 10 pages but this is perfect for everyday use.

As much as possible, I look for books that are:

English translation not required. In fact, sometimes I think that having English translations distract my eldest because he would read through the English sentences while I’m reading in Mandarin.

Mandarin Songs

We play Mandarin nursery rhymes that are upbeat so that kids will have fun singing! I’ve also searched for and studied the lyrics of most of the songs so that I can sing them accurately (lol) to the kids.

You may follow our Mandarin playlist on Spotify here!

I’ve also tried researching Christian songs in Mandarin and we try to study them as well. But this is a bit harder so we are currently still doing (a.k.a. stuck for months now haha) “Jesus Loves Me”

Character Recognition Activities

I made my own printables (Available at Wise Kids Printables) of easy Mandarin words like numbers, colors and family members. Then I ask use these for matching activities. Some ideas from activities that we do:

Games

Playing games is a good way to entice the kids to learn. 😉

One of the games I love playing with the kids is what I call, “Ma Ma Shuo”  which is essentially “Simon Says.” This is great for learning action words. I say phrases like “Ma ma shuo…”

We also do variations of hopscotch in Mandarin (you can do numbers or colors for it) and different role playing/pretend play activities. The simplest one is where I reenact certain situations with them. We also play games where I ask the kids to act like a certain animal and I will say the animals in Mandarin.

Writing

When the child is ready to write, you can also let him practice writing Chinese characters. I’ve done this using the traditional and simple ol’ paper and pencil. But you can make it more fun by using sand or a digital writing board (my eldest son’s preference!)

I’ve also used workbooks like this. They are very helpful when learning the proper strokes. This particular one, I got it from Bookery for Kids and Mums.

Crafts

We don’t do Chinese-themed crafts all the time but kids are always drawn to arts and crafts. One of my favorites that we’ve done is this 3d paper project where we labelled the words. We did it after studying those words individually and it was encouraging for my child to see that he knew all the words that we will be using for the craft.

You can also celebrate Chinese holidays and work on related crafts. (Related post: 3 Super Easy DIY Chinese New Year Crafts)

Curriculum

I often get asked if I follow a structured curriculum for Mandarin. I have to say that I do have books that I borrowed from friends and these are books that they’re kids have used in school. But I use it more as just a guide.

My main goal in teaching Mandarin is to make them understand (orally) and speak the language. Reading and writing can be mastered later on. So, I really prioritize practicing conversations with them rather than doing actual handwritten seat work (which workbooks, like this, expect.)

Online Lessons

My eldest (currently 6 years old) started online lessons in Mandarin since the pandemic began (when he was 5.) I’ve asked the teacher to prioritize teaching vocabulary words for everyday conversations so that we are aligned in our goals.

We only do classes 2x a week for 30 minutes each so this is really more of just a supplement.

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Most of the tips I shared are actually also applicable when teaching children other foreign languages, so I hope these are helpful. These are just some ideas so please leave a comment below if you have other ideas to share!

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