Her Chinese Homework

I registered my girl for a Chinese school last year but actually I am still undecided. I wanted to see how she is coping with her Chinese in kindy and her inclination towards the subject before we make the decision whether to sent her to a Chinese school or otherwise.

So far as I can see, she struggles with the Chinese subject the most. The rest are no problem to her or perhaps the rest have very little homework compared to the Chinese. The Chinese subject has not that much homework compared to what she will get in Chinese school but even then she struggles with it a little. She struggles but I do not see a hatred or barrier towards the subject so far. The teachers tell me that once there is a barrier towards the subject, a child will find it very difficult to learn and be left behind and the further behind the are, the higher the barrier or hatred towards the subject will become.

Everyday when she gets back, she starts her homework immediately after lunch and continues till tea time, takes a nap, wakes up and continues with homework till dinner time and sometimes after dinner. She finishes her English/Malay/Math/Science/Moral homework in 15 minutes and takes up to 4-5 hours to do her Chinese homework sometimes.

She writes the Chinese characters by copying what is given to her but when I ask her what the character is or means she does not know. Despite writing the chinese characters over and over again or repetitively, she does not know the meaning of it and if asked to write the character without looking, she can't. In kindy she mixes with the English speaking kids instead of the Mandarin speaking ones which is natural since she can't speak the language.

Hmm.... how to send her to Chinese school? She will certainly be at a disadvantage to kids who speak Mandarin at home. We have also not had the time to let her practise her online Chinese learning at BetterChinese.com. It would not be very nice for her to always be left behind in school.

Hmm... oh well, I have a few more months before we have to make a decision.