We use the thematic teaching approach here at Mandarin Homeschool as it is an organised approach for me. With three children, the challenge is how do I adapt my Mandarin Chinese homeschooling to their levels within a singular session? Organising their learning by theme allowed me the ease of preparation and catering to their needs all in one lesson.
For instance, when my children were learning about colours, we did the following teaching activities:
- Read books about colours
- Watch videos about colours
- Learn to sing a song about colours in Chinese
- Learn with colours flashcard
- Have a colour poster on display
- Use vocabulary worksheets about colours
- Write Chinese characters for the different colours
- Play games that teaches colours
- Make crafts that uses lots of colours
- Do science experiments to explore colours
My oldest who was better at reading and writing would be prating writing Chines characters on colour, while my youngest would be matching identical flashcards about colours.
When I needed a breather to prepare/check on their work/help, I popped a video about colours on YouTube for them so they can also work on generalisation of what they have just learnt.
Using this approach has really helped me to frame my homeschooling, prepare and organise the lesson plans for my children.