With Mother’s day just around the corner, it is timely to share a post on how to teach your children to sing a Chinese Song entitled My Family (甜蜜的家). Mothers are usually the pillar of a family and honoring mummies with a song about My Family is probably the best gift from your darlings!
How to Play?
Like any of our other lessons, learning to sing will have to involve some games too! The guide to mastery is highlighted in the following 3 steps:
- Listen
- Dance
- Play
1. Listen
Piqued your children’s curiosity by playing the song or watching the video with them. Explain the meaning of the song to them and casually ask them if they like it. Most children will respond positively to this song as it is about their family. Even if they dislike Chinese, they will probably remember the tune after some loops.
2. Dance
Let your children soak in the tune and encourage them to dance to the music! You may be amazed by how expressive and creative children can be! They may even surprise you when they share about the symbolism of their dance later on.
At this stage, do not be disheartened if your children are still not able to sing. Go through the lyrics frequently and get them to sing along with you. Never ever reprimand your children for not practising hard enough. This will only kill their interest. Motivate them by reminding how much you love them!
3. Play
The time to introduce the game is when the children are already familiar with the tune and lyrics of the song. By this stage, they will be able to hyme bits and pieces of the song.
Prepare playing flashcards with the lyrics and let your children sort them. Depending on their proficiency, introduce the flashcards by sentences or verse. Ensure that you do not overwhelm them with too many new words and increase the difficulty gradually. As a rule of thumb, for each session, cap it at 5 new words and constantly revise the sentences learnt previously.
With weekly sessions, it took 4 months for a 7-year-old child who was learning Chinese as a 2nd/3rd language to master the song.
If you practise this with your children daily, they will probably learn it in a snap!
What you need?
- Music (For other songs, see Suggested Music List below)
- Song Lyrics
- Camera (To film the dance and watch with your children)
- Flash Cards
Why Bother? 
Why should you go through the hassle to teach your children this song? They will probably pick it up in School or somewhere eventually! Do you really want to leave this to someone else’s hands? This song is an excellent opportunity to reinforce your children’s love for the family. Besides, it also brings along a slew of other benefits such as helping your children to recognise words that are beyond their level and practise speaking Chinese. Most importantly, you want your children to grow up with this song deep in their heart, don’t you?
Resources
Here’s the Song Lyrics to help you get started!
Suggested Music List
Reference
- How to Teach Your Baby to Read, Glenn Doman
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