Do you find it hard to start a conversation with your children? I find myself constantly asking my children to do things “Put on your clothes”, “Get ready for school”, “Don’t forget your homework book!” so much so that I forget to have a conversation with them. And when it comes to Mandarin Chinese, it’s either reading Chinese leveled readers or practicing Chinese characters and strokes. It’s time to make a change with these family conversation starter cards!!
I got the idea of Mandarin Chinese conversation cards from an English version I bought from Kmart. I used these Conversation Starter Cards with my clients who has special needs who was always saying the same thing, asking the same questions… Sort of like Da Bao, my 7 year old son. I call him my 问题少年 (literal translation: Problematic Kid. It actually means delinquent children) 😅 Anyhow, while I was looking through the English version, I had the most brilliant idea to create Mandarin Chinese ones for my children!!
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Features of the Mandarin Chinese Family Conversation Starter Cards
I created the questions based on common elementary topics that young children will be familiar with, and tried to include a wide range of conversation starters that teaches comprehension, emotional and social skills.
- Assist and encourage children to communicate in Chinese
- Covers a wide range range of elementary topics
- Perfect for young children learning basic expressive Chinese
- Teach and develop comprehension, emotional and social skills
- 28 conversation starter cards
- 4 cards to a page
- Cute visuals to prompt conversation
- Four sections of question: Tell Me 告诉我, Think 想一想, If… 如果, Talk about 说一说
How to use these Mandarin Chinese Family Conversation Starter Cards
These cards were perfect for my inquisitive 7 year old son who is CONSTANTLY asking me questions! Because he could read Mandarin Chinese, it was a breeze to chat with him using these cards. With my 2 younger daughters, it was more one-sided, where I would ask them the questions and wait for them to respond.
Don’t be restricted by the questions! You can expand on their response, and have a deeper discussion why; or think of similar questions. For example:
告诉我你最喜欢去的地方 (Tell me your favourite place) – You can expand to ask them why it’s their favourite place, what they like about it, what’s their least favourite place, what they dislike about it etc
想一想一个伤心的记忆 (Think about a sad memory) – You should listen carefully and empatise with their feelings, and ask them why, and maybe problem solve if the same situation arises in the future.
Where to download these Mandarin Chinese Family Conversation Starter Cards
You can download these cute Chinese Family Conversation Starter cards on the Mandarin Homeschool Teachers Pay Teachers Store and print them off for use instantly.
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Now, go start having those lovely conversations in Mandarin Chinese with your children!
