Pre-School Reading help
Due to my laziness, QQ is still not as good in her study like most children at age 6. She gets ZERO during BM Ejaan and Chinese Ding Xie beginning of this year. No English spelling yet until now. But well, its all past. Hence, it’s time to do something now, one by one and we have got 6 full m0nths to go, before she goes to Std 1 in Primary school next year.
English
I notice that the books her school using (Sunshine Books) is not very effective for my slow learner. Therefore I started her on Peter and Jane a few months back, starting from the lowest level. QQ now completes Level 3 (although a friend of hers can already read up to Level 5!). Ok, not comparing (BUT I JUST CAN”T HELP IT!!!!), but at least I am glad to see her enjoying reading English now compare to previous.
Peter and Jane Series (Rm9.90 per book)
Where to buy: Popular (10% off for members, and sometimes 20% during sales)
Chinese
I speak very fluent Mandarin, but you will be surprise I cannot read a single word. Not even my own kids’ names. Chinese is the most helpless subject for me as I cannot understand to guide her on her homework. Again, the books used in her school isn’t effective enough for a slow learner like her.
Many good friends in Facebook (even her school teacher!) recommended the Odotana Pre-school Series (I understand that many pre-school are using this) and I must say the books are FANTASTIC in teaching Mandarin. Even I learned a lot Chinese words recognition from the Odonata Series.
Odonata Series consist of Reading Books (word recogniti0n), CD, Story Book, CD Game, Flash Card
Where to buy: It’s cheapest at their website
Chinese Strokes /Pinyin: http://www.nciku.com/ (I use this whenever I need to guide QQ on her school Chinese Writing)
How it works
Peter and Jane and Odonata shares the same method, repetition. From the lowest level, the page introduce a new word and it slowly goes into a short phrase, then sentences. Each time you flip the book, you will see lots of words repetition PLUS A NEW WORD (stated below). For Chinese, there is also guide on stroke writing. So its all REPEAT and REPEAT, simple right?
For the Odonata Series, I did not buy the complete set. Just the reading books and some stories, level by level. I do not want to buy the revision book, as I do not wish to test QQ this way (Glenn Doman is totally against testing the kid, remember?) Kids hate homework, hate test and since they will be tortured badly in our education system later anyway, why not spare them at home? I feel that it is good enough to cultivate reading and she will recognise the words slowly by reading.
Oh yes, I also bought the CD GAME and it is very interesting! Tell you, if the kids cannot recognise the words, she won’t be able to play it. That’s what I want, FUN LEARNING!!!!
Appreciate if you could share some links to online games your kids are enjoying (pre-school level) if you think it can helps QQ to improve. Also, I need recommendation on BM books to brush up her BM, please.
p/s: I was very surprise when Hui Sia told me that pre-school kids in China is not being tested in preschool. Eh, we are talking about CHINA ler! The most competitive community in the world and yet they spare their young kids, how surprising right? And yet in Malaysia, we are torturing our little ones, at such young age (if you have read the recent change, for eg. Entry school at Age 4, LINUS for primary kids, heavy bags with tonnes of home work, bla..bla..bla…and ALL KIND OF NUTS!!
Those books you got are great. Justin’s doing Peter and Jane too, until 4b now, and going for 5. I found another series call I Can Read at Kinokuniya here, and the books are more like dinosaurs, Transformer and others, which my kids quite like also. But for those, we read to them so far, and I’ll probably let Justin try on his own next time.
But their Thai is very good, in par with Thai kids now. And oh ya, Thai schools also not too many tests, but to get into good schools, some assessments really tough. 
For Chinese, my kids are very slow.
Good to know that QQ is improving… good mommy there.
Btw Where you get the Level 3? I wanted to get the lower level for my kids, but the lowest level available at the Popular bookstore that I went to last week only have level 5.
Peter & Jane are very good.Hanafi currently is reading 6A.Because of its repetition & structured systematically,
Hanafi is able to increase his vocabulary day by day.I got the whole set & I bought it bit by bit since year 2004. It is good if you get the C series as well because the writing exercise stressed each vocabulary & sentence structured. And, what I did after Hanafi finished bot A & B series, I listed out the vocab in vocabulary book, translate into Malays & asked him to read it frequently. And, I will read the whole book for him for explanation and it’s an active involvement as he knows words & its meaning already, he can guess the sentence of meaning. You must do this steps also because I recalled last time my students can read very well but never understand what the words / sentences.
Oh for BM book, I recommend using the e-Xra. Hanafi used to read very poorly in BM & as I was not satisfied how his short period in Kindy, I removed him from there & taught him myself. Now, he’s reading story books already..
You can check my reviews on e-Xra here..
http://thehoneybunch.blogspot.com/2010/03/homeschool-602-mengajar-anak-membaca.html
u are doing so much for QQ!! good mama =) i’m now exploring those books you have mentioned…i’m a banana…i must learn chinese words too +_+ so that i can help my gal next time. sigh…sudah tua tua baru mau belajar leh…
Wow!!! These books are great!~
thanks for sharing. i’ll look up the odotana books for Ashley. she’s in a chinese kindy now and also pretty tough (in my standard lah). I’m also learning with her at the same time. I have been getting her Peter & Jane since last year. She’s at 4b now and I have been asking her to repeat reading 4a so that she’ll get used to the words. Peter & Jane are very good books
We also used the same books and my mum added a few more others… But JL’s reading ok only not as good as his classmates…
His P&J also not yet his 5 yet….
Yeah repetition help the kid remember.
The odonata series that you’ve got is good. U may want to get the flashcards as well. The CD games are definetely fun for kids to learn!
Can’t comment on P&J series, since my kid’s kindy is not using that. But I’ve seen them in bookstores..like u said, it’s about repetition and I believe the method helps.
For BM, u may want to check out the Siri Cepat Membaca, Bacalah Anaku.
I was comparing my girl’s QDees FlipTech books with Peter & Jane books and can’t help but notice that the QDees Learning System for english is very very similar to the Peter & Jane Books.
Well done..
so dedicated ler.. you.
I just buy whatever that’s available on sales..
Odonata I kept hearing very good wor.. maybe I should buy also.
Thks for sharing. I will keep this in mind for future use.
I’ve been using the P & J & Odonata series for Chloe since last year. Glad to say that she’s at Book 7a for P & J and book 5 for Odonata’s 200 words series.
Both the series are great, but I’ve been using it together with flash cards to help her remember the words and not only memorizing what the page’s about.
Leap Frog’s dvd helps a lot too as it teaches phonics, but I’m not sure if you could get it locally. I got mine from e-bay.
Hi Chin Nee, thank you so much for the links and tips! Yes, I do agreed with you that Odonata series is good and my son also enjoyed the CD game! Yeah! You need to recognize the words to play!
I have bought some Sunshine books too and their phonic books are good too but may be it is not suitable for Malaysian preschooler? Maybe you can try again later.
Keep up the good job!
Thanks for sharing and yes I’m a lazy mom too. Recently I bought this Chinese Vocab builder VCD as my girl Chinese is lousy, and why VCD? Coz mommy is lazy and limited time too. http://www.kids.net.my/detail.php?productid=362
YOu’re a very dedicated mum, Chin Nee! HQ didn;t even read one peter&jane before, sei mou. i’m also very worried about his mandarin… better go look up for these books. thanks for sharing :-D.
Wow, good work, Chinnee!!! Yup, Peter and Jane never fails to give the kids reading confidence
I got scared looking at the Odonata books - I can only read pinyin and at the most a few characters i.e. is that “hua”, “you” and “xiao”?
Agree with Hui Sia that the education system in China is really different from Malaysia. Kindy kids only learn how to write at 5 years old. I think it’s great because my boy loves to attend kindy everyday while it’s the opposite over here…
Furthermore, many of the Chinese books have pinyin while I have a headache hunting Chinese books with pinyin here!
There is no exam for pre-schoolers in Singapore too. Although I had bought many Chinese books (and even made DIY books) for my son, I still prefer Odonata series. I also bought Chinese Vocab Builder (VDC + book) volume 1. I find it helpful for my son to understand how a Chinese character is formed. Instead of reading books, I suggest that you start with brushing up her listening skill for Mandarin. Listening to Mandarin songs, listening to Mandarin stories and watching Chinese children programmes. Hope this helps. You have done a great job. Keep it up!
I noticed that many moms that commented here all advocate the use of Peter and Jane. Peter and Jane may be good for kids with strong visual memory skills, but potentially may get dull and laborious as the book advances. So moms may want to consider other options if this does not work for your child.
I heard from an experience of a mom: her kid was really enthusiastic about Peter and Jane initially, but the novelty has since worn off as the stories have gotten longer and more tedious to read. She stopped at book 4.
Here’s a post that may be of interest since u have mentioned the concept of Whole words memorisation; http://myplayschool.net/2010/07/learning-to-read-sight-words-vs-phonics/
yea I buy whatever on sales as well..hehe..Peter & Jane series is really quite good. The chinese books u got there were my son’s text books in kindy..i think i still hv them somewhere…
I like the Odonata books too - nice big words, repetition and nice illustration helps.
Popular also sells a wide range of vcds for songs and stories. Those are quite good too. It’s nice to be able to recognise the chinese characters at the bottom of the screen during the song/story time.
I like the Peter and Jane books too. My daughter is on 4A now. It gets boring for the parent because of the repetition, but its amazing how the same repetition helps my daughter remember the words.
I was trying to get P&J series during warehouse sales and once managed to get 1-12C but no A & B, so I never started. My nephew is in Qdees and I’m using his Fliptech books for Yiu Yiu now. Problem is, I’m so inconsistent so we are progressing soooo slowly
Have heard so much about Odonata but sigh! really dunno where to find the time. You are such a dedicated mum.
i need the books can u give a cheaprt price i dont mind the second hand books