Review : 四五快读 Chinese Literacy Programme

I have already introduced this programme in Chinese for a Preschooler.

I have been using the 1st book for almost 1 year now and I am pleased to tell you that it has worked very well for us. It took me so long before I write a proper review because I want to really make sure that the programme works.  I am also keen to share the materials that I have created to use in conjunction with this programme, and I wanted to only share them when I have them all done so that you won’t get them in bits and pieces.

To recap, this programme is a literacy programme from China whose focus is to teach the child to start recognising words at a very young age.  The programme is designed in such a way that the child can start reading simple sentences after learning about 40-50 characters.  The name of the programme sums it all up – 四五 (four, five) 快 (fast) 读(read).  Hence, the child does not necessarily start from very simple characters and progress to very complicated ones.  The progression is based on how the characters can be put together to form vocabularies, phrases and sentences.
Why this works is because children are very visual people.  They are very fast at recognising pictures and patterns.  Since Chinese characters are essentially very pictorial, even a very young child can learn to recognise and remember very complicated looking characters.

Because the programme is designed such that the very first few words the child learns in Lesson 1 can already form meaningful vocabulary, it puts characters into context and makes them meaningful to the child.  This, I feel, is very important because if the child does not get the meaning and context of what he is learning, he quickly loses interest and will forget them very quickly.  I once read a book on how our brain works and this resonates with the brain research results that show that our brains connect information to help retention.

This programme is not just one book but a series of 7 volumes.  I tested my P1 boy and based on what he learned from preschool in the conventional manner, he could recognise most of the words in the first 2 volumes. He is sufficiently prepared for P1 level of work (not Higher Chinese).  Each volume covers 88 characters, so by Volume 2, the child would have learned over 160 characters and many more vocabulary.  He definitely will be able to read simple sentences.  (Note : In case you are unaware, even though each and every Chinese character has its own meaning, they are seldom used singly, but usually in pairs or 3-4 to form meaningful vocabulary.  Hence, 176 characters put together in various combinations will form a lot of phrases and what we call in English, ‘words’.)

At the time of writing this article, we have completed Volume 1 of the series. Volumes 2 to 6 are similar, introducing 88 characters in each volume and in each lesson, new vocabulary and sentences are introduced.  Every volume, except for Volume 7, comes with attached character cards for you to cut out and use.  I especially love this because unlike other programmes or cards set, this one gives you more than one of each character so that you can actually form vocabulary and sentences that have more than one of a particular character, e.g. mama (mother), using the cards.  Actually, I prefer to refer to them as ’tiles’ due to their size.  I use them to play games with my child and get him to form words and sentences with them.  This is very good because you don’t have to wait until the child can write before doing this exercise.  A young child may be able to learn the characters but in terms of motor skill, still not ready to write yet. The actual application of the characters learned can be done immediately with these tiles.  Once again, for any learning, to be able to apply what you learn is a great reinforcement.

Volume 7 is a different thing altogether, and I feel that it is not absolutely necessary to buy it, especially if Chinese is not your forte.  It involves classification of all the characters learned in Volume 1 to 6 based on sound and radicals and learning of various idioms. It is probably useful for learning Chinese spelling (tingxie).

This programme is sold in Maha Yuyi at Level 3, Bras Basah Complex.  They sell the volumes separately.  However, if you have a friend or relative working or living in China, try getting them to purchase directly from China for you.  The prices are much cheaper and if you don’t mind buying Volume 7 as well, buying in a set is even cheaper.  You can also try to order directly from http://www.dangdang.com but their shipping is quite hefty.  Incidentally, Dangdang and Maha Yuyi are excellent places to buy good quality Chinese children picture books.

How I use this programme

I don’t think I did justice to this programme because I am not very consistent with the teaching.  Nevertheless, if you take into consideration that in a period of about 10 months of very inconsistent work, we managed to cover so many characters to the extent that my son can read simple sentences from real storybooks already, this must mean something.

Before I go on to tell you how I use this programme, I must emphasize here the importance of constant reading to the child.  If you don’t speak the language at home, reading books is the least you can do to provide the exposure.  Through listening and looking at the printed words, the grammatical structure of the language is imprinted into the brain of the child unconsciously, just like how we learn our mother tongue from the moment we were born.  This is what I recommend my own friends to do : if they are unable to speak the language themselves, and hence unable to read to their children, then spend some money to engage a tutor to read to the kids.  If their children already have tutors at home, then out of, say, a one-hour lesson, take 15 minutes to read a good book.  For young children, especially, reading storybooks is definitely more fun than doing boring worksheets.

If you are thinking of getting this programme, I assume that you at least have a basic competency in the language, or have in mind someone else who can use this programme for you on your child (e.g. a tutor).  This will be my assumption for the rest of the article.

Ok, back to how I use this programme.  The following are just some of the things I do and you don’t have to do the same to use the programme.

1. When I first started using this programme, my son was only 3.5 yrs old.  Thinking that teaching one whole lesson in one go would be too much for his “English” little brain, I only taught him 4 characters at one go.  Usually, 4 characters in one week, but of course, as I have already said earlier, I wasn’t even consistent in the teaching.  Lesson 1 of each Volume consists of 16 characters, and for the rest of the book, each lesson consists of 8 characters.  Therefore, with the exception of Lesson 1, each lesson takes about 2 weeks to complete based on a very inconsistent, snail-pace kind of teaching.

As we progressed, I realised that his speed of learning became faster and faster and I could teach him all 8 characters at one go.  My recommendation for anyone who wants to try this programme is : go at a pace suitable for your child.  If your child can only manage 2 characters at one go, don’t try to teach him more.  It will only frustrate the both of you.  This is not a race. On the other hand, if your child can learn very quickly, then by all means teach more!

2. I try to use a multi-sensory approach to learning.  The main feature is the tactile cards I made.  If you know Montessori’s sandpaper letters, then you can understand what I mean by tactile characters.  Basically, I made flash cards of every character using other materials to form the characters instead of just relying on print.  This is so that my son can use his finger to trace the letters, feel what the characters feel like, and at the same time, learn the correct writing strokes!  I have created templates for making these tactile cards and you can get them here.  If you don’t know how to make them, refer to the instructions.

3. I also created Playdoh Mat for each characters.  This is another aspect of multisensory learning.  The child creates the character using Playdoh.  The Playdoh Mats are really versatile and not confined to Playdoh.  I sometimes let him use little pom poms instead of Playdoh.  Finally, they also double up as writing templates.  My son trace the characters using dry-erase markers and it can be erased and re-use over and over again.  Great for writing practices!

4. I use the Montessori method to teach the characters.  The same step as what you would do for sandpaper letters. First, you present each character and say what it is to your child.  Let your child feel the tactile characters.  Ok, against the grain of Montessori philosophy, I do guide my son in the tracing of the strokes because for Chinese writing, correct stroke sequence is very important so I figure we might as well start right from the very beginning.  After teaching him how to pronounce the character, I will also explain to him what it means.  To help him remember, I sometimes draw pictures that looks like the characters, or use visual image, e.g. telling him that the character “yu” (rain) looks like a window and you see drops of rain outside.

Secondly, you place all the cards on the table (or tray if you are die-hard Montessori purist) and ask the child “where is XXX” and get the child to point to the correct card.  Third step, you place the cards on the table/tray, point to each one and ask “what is this?”  Your child should be able to tell you what each character is.  These 3 steps may not be done all in one go.  It all depends on the progress you can make with your child.

5. Whenever I read storybooks to my son, which is everyday, I will ask him to find the characters that he has learned.  If I know he can read a particular phrase or sentence, I will ask him to try reading.

6. The tactile cards are stuck on a cabinet door for frequent, easy revision.  This is important because, you know for young children, out of sight is out of mind.

I target to finish Volume 2 by end of next year.  We can, in fact, starting Volume 2 now, so finishing the whole volume by the end of next year is a very liberal target.  If I am more consistent and hardworking, finishing Volume 2 by the end of THIS year and doing Volume 3, even 4, next year is highly possible.  Next year, technically, he will be K1.  If I can teach him minimally 176 characters (2 volumes) by the end of K1, I think that is not bad really. : )

I hope you will find the templates useful.  Do let me know how this programme works for you if you decide to give it a go.

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How To Make Tactile Chinese Character Cards

I shared in my Review for the 四五快读 series that I made tactile Chinese Character Cards to use in conjunction with the book.  This is a step-by-step instruction of how you can make tactile cards using sandpaper or felt.  I use felt because it is cheaper and easily available from Daiso (Japanese $2 store selling practically everything under the sun and more).  You can actually use the same method for making tactile cards for anything, including alphabets and numbers.

What You Will Need

1. A pair of small, sharp, pointed-tip scissors for cutting intricate details.  I use embroidery scissors.
2. A pair of normal scissors for cutting other things.
3. White craft glue
4. Felt, preferably the kind that is not too thin and easily torn, or gets wooly easily.
5. Normal printing paper
6. Stock card paper
7. Laminating equipment – or you can send out to photocopy shops to laminate

Step 1

Print out one set of the words on normal printing paper.  Print a second set on stock card paper – I use 160gsm paper.

Step 2

Laminate the 2nd set that is printed on the stock card.  Cut out the individual square cards.  Snip off the corners to prevent injury to little hands.  Set aside.
Step 3

Take the 1st printout that is on normal printing paper.  Cut out a character.  You will end up with pieces of the different strokes, or a whole piece of a few strokes joined together, depending on the character.  Take care not to mix up the strokes with strokes from other characters.  The easiest way is to do one character at a time.

Step 4

With the cut-out facing the right way up, apply white craft glue on the “Right” side of the paper.

Step 5

Paste the cut-out on your felt, “Right” side attached to the felt.  Now you should see the “Reverse” side of the character facing you.  The craft glue will become transparent when dried.

Step 6

When the cut-out is securely attached to the felt, i.e. when the glue is dried, using the paper cut-out as a guide, cut the felt piece out with your small, pointed-tip scissors.  You don’t have to remove the paper backing.

Step 7

Now, take out the corresponding laminated card of the character.  Apply white craft glue on the strokes.

Step 8

Finally, stick the felt pieces you have cut out in Step 6 onto the laminated card.  Leave to dry completely.

Felt vs Sandpaper

I prefer to use felt instead of sandpaper because felt is kinder on the scissors than sandpaper.  I used sandpaper to make tactile cards once and at the end of the exercise, I had to throw away my scissors.  Felt is definitely gentler on the hand also as it is easier to cut.  Felt is also cheap and easily available from Daiso.  On top of that, felt allows me to colour-code my cards.  I use different colours for the different lessons.  That’s why felt remains my favourite material.  Besides sandpaper and felt, you can also explore using foam sheets, if cost is not a concern.

Other Ways of Making Tactile Cards

If you find that it is just too much work to do tactile card this way, there are other alternatives you can consider :

1. Using craft sand/glitter
– Apply glue on the laminated card and pour craft sand/glitter over it.

2. Use  Faber Castle Fabric Paint

3. I have seen people using textured wallpaper.

4.  Use those polyfoam clay sold in the craft section to form the characters, then stick the foam onto the laminated card.

5. If you don’t mind NOT having tactile cards, you can print out the template on stock cards, let your child colour the characters, then laminate.

Other Uses for the Template

The template that I have made for the tactile cards can also be used for practising writing.  Print them out on stock card and laminate.  Cut out the individual cards and let your child write over the hollow characters with a dry-erase marker (i.e. whiteboard marker).  You can erase and write again and again.

The templates for the Chinese Characters can be downloaded here.

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Chinese Character Cards Templates

The follow templates are meant to be used in conjunction with the 四五快读 word recognition system. You can, of course, use these cards to teach your child without having to buy the books. However, the books provide other teaching resources that will enhance the learning. I strongly recommend that you buy the books – I don’t earn any commission from anyone for pushing these books.

Please read the Terms of Use before downloading.

Tactile Cards Template

To learn how to make tactile cards, please read the instructions.

Volume 1

Lesson 1

Lesson 2 & 3

Lesson 4 & 5

Lesson 6 & 7

Lesson 8, 9 & 10

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Chinese For A Preschooler

My basic principle of teaching #3 Chinese is very simple. Read, read, read, read….read lots and lots of good children literature to him. The rest are secondary.

I am always busy with cooking and cleaning and the other two boys. To find time to cover everything from abc, to 123 AND Chinese is a bit of a challenge right now. So I decided that to do something is better than to do nothing. If I wait for the perfect situation, I may never get to start. So I started reading to him while feeding him lunch. So far, this has worked very well. Besides reading, reading, reading, I am also trying to speak more Mandarin to him. This is not easy because this boy started off speaking ZERO Mandarin. Sentence by sentence, I started to teach him. E.g. how to ask for something, how to reply, etc.

The last year, I found this book at a Book Fair, which I think is very good :

Simply put, it is like The Reading Lesson, Chinese version. The basic idea for The Reading Lesson is that you teach alphabets (not in alphabetical order) such that the child can start reading words from Day 1. E.g. the first lesson covers C,O,S,A,T and from the very first lesson, the child can start reading simple words like cat, sat and cot. It gives the child a sense of accomplishment and it puts learning in context. I will elaborate more in my review of The Reading Lesson. This chinese book is based on the same concept. I liked the concept and bought Book 1 (7 volumes in total) to try on #3. Basically, the child learns a few characters per lesson. As soon as he learns enough characters, he learns vocabs and phrases that these characters can make. Eventually, by the end of Book 1, he should be able to read simply sentences. About 88 characters.

The book comes with flashcards of the characters, but I made these tactile flashcards myself instead. They are bigger and works like sandpaper letters. The characters are cut out from felt. It is a bit of work, but I think it works better than the normal flat flashcards. #3 can feel each stroke and I use it to teach him the name of the strokes, and the stroke sequence of each character as well. He picked up quite fast. When I read storybooks to him, I will ask him to look for the words that he has already learned.

The thing about teaching preschooler character recognition is this : do not think that it is difficult for them. It is not. They can remember pictures, then they will remember characters.

Chinese characters are pictorial, so one day, I used calligraphy ink to teach him. I did so because it seemed more fun than just pointing at flashcards. I drew the picture of the word and then “transform” the picture into the character, just to get him to understand the characters and remember how they look like. Of course, he wanted to meddle with the brush and ink. So I wrote the characters out in pencil and got him to ‘trace’ over with the brush. He could do it very well, which led to the discovery that calligraphy brush is very suitable for kids his age, whose motorskills are not developed yet to handle character strokes using pencil or pen. Brush is very easy to handle. So even though my aim is not to teach him how to write yet, it is a natural progression that once he picked up the brush, he ‘wrote’ by ‘drawing’ the characters.

Here are a few points that I learned through these few months’ experience of teaching him character recognition :

1. Multi-sensory approach is the best.

If we know that multi-sensory approach in teaching Maths or English or other subject is important to a preschool level kid, then naturally, the same principle applies to the teaching of Chinese.

Right now, what we are doing in this aspect is limited to tactile flashcards and occasional dabbling in calligraphy. I have tried playdoh mats but he does not seem interested in it. I will have to think of other means.

2. Repeated Exposure

Besides revising the flashcards (which I stuck on a cabinet door for easy access) frequently, whenever I read him a book, I will ask him to look for the characters that he has already learned. So among the many characters on a page, he will look for the 2 or 3 that he has already learned. The aim is to show him how the individual characters are put together to form sentences, which are in turn put together to form passages or stories.

3. Characters have to be meaningful

In other words, it has to mean something to the kid. Otherwise, it is just rote learning and easily forgotten. Hence, teaching of characters inevitably means that I have to teach him what the words mean. Sometimes the result can be amusing. Like he didn’t know fire is 火. When I first taught him this character, I drew a camp fire thingy that resembles the character (3 flames on top, two logs criss-crossing forming the bottom half of the character). Then I told him this character means fire. On another occasion, when I asked him “火“ (pointing to the character), he went ‘uh…fire” cos he couldn’t remember how to say it in Chinese! But at least he remembered what the character means!

In relation to this point, the system I am using with #3 is good because it builds up. The characters are not randomly selected. He can start forming words (2 characters form a word), phrases (more characters form phrases), and eventually, sentences. In other words, he can start reading as soon as he learns the characters. By the end of Book 1, he should be able to read simple sentences. This is important because it means he gets to see how the characters are put together to form words and phrases and sentences right from the start.

4. It is NOT good to start with teaching strokes

This is quite a common approach and I see this being done in the preschools and I used to think this is THE way to do things too. The very first thing they teach when they want to teach chinese characters is to start from teaching the names of the individual strokes and how to trace those strokes. Now, I strongly feel that it is the wrong way to start things.

First of all, individually, the strokes have no meaning. Effectively, what the kids learn are, well, strokes, which mean nothing to them and not surprisingly, they forget. So you spend like half a year going through the individual strokes to the complete bewilderment of the kids only to have them forget most of it after that. What a waste of time!

Besides, learning strokes inevitably means writing and tracing, which means the child has to be ready to write. Chinese characters are quite different from alphabets and personally, I think it takes more motorskill to master Chinese writing. Hence, you end up starting very late to teach Chinese if Step 1 is teaching strokes. Younger kids will not be able to handle the writing part.

On the other hand, even very young kids can recognise characters, especially when Chinese characters are so pictorial. Therefore, one can start teaching character recognition to a 2-3 year old kid. By the time the child is ready to write, he would have learned a lot of characters already. And by then, the strokes would have a little more meaning to him because he would have done lots of finger tracing on tactile cards and reciting of strokes. So he would see how the strokes form words.

In other words, learning strokes when you already know the character is much easier than to learn strokes first before learning the words. You save time and effort.

5. Graded Readers are BORING

Even though they are great as a systematic way to teach Chinese characters, they are so boring. How to hold the interest of a child with graded readers??? Better to get very simple books with very little characters. Do not be afraid of reading picture books even though they may look like a lot of words and sound difficult. The kid can understand the storyline and enjoy the tale. Hence, it is very important to get good children literature for reading. How to choose good Chinese books? It is the same as choosing English ones.

Now, there is a place for graded readers and I do use graded readers for #3 as well for both English and Chinese. They are good for teaching Reading (the skill). But for reading (the act of enjoying literature), choose good books and not rely on graded readers.

6. Don’t use pencil/crayon. Use brush.

Perhaps that was why writing was done with brush in ancient China. Cos it is easier! For a young child who may not possess the motorskill to learn how to write Chinese characters using pencil and crayon, the brush is a very good thing. The point is : we are not trying to teach calligraphy or even writing the characters. Calligraphy does not have to follow some classical form. It’s just for fun. Even though I really cannot write calligraphy to save my life, it didn’t stop us from having some fun with it at home. We even did couplets for Chinese New Year!

7. Save Hanyu Pinyin for later

If you can already read the character, why bother with Hanyu Pinyin? Well, for times when you don’t know the character and you need to check dictionary , I guess. Whatever. Hanyu Pinyin is not that important. It is important for school for sure. But in life, the usage of Chinese does not depend on Hanyu Pinyin and you can safely leave this until the child is about 6 year old.

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