Author Archives: Janelle Durham

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About Janelle Durham

I am a parent educator and social worker, and teach music and science to children age 1 - 8.

Mandarin Children’s Songs

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At my toddler class and preschool, I have children who speak lots of different languages at home: including Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Hindi and diverse Indian dialects. I speak a little Spanish, French and German – enough that I can count to ten, and name some colors and some farm animals. That means that I can sometimes talk with children in their home language. I’m now trying to take on some Mandarin, and feel like I’m way out of my league. But here’s where I’m starting.

First, this helpful video which explains the whole idea of tones and reading pinyin – the romanized version of writing Mandarin that includes pronunciation cues:

This was an a-ha moment for me. Last year, I had a student in class that I asked his mother how his name was pronounced. She said it, I echoed back what I thought I heard, she said no, and said it again – after several attempts I couldn’t get it right and couldn’t hear what I was doing wrong – I worked with my teacher who speaks Mandarin, and she couldn’t explain what I was doing wrong. (There’s research that shows that young babies can hear any tone human mouths can make, but by the time they are toddlers, they have learned to ignore tonal differences that don’t matter in their language – for example, the difference between L and R sounds in English matters, but it doesn’t matter in Japanese.) Because I was raised in an English speaking home, these different vowel tones are just not something my brain easily hears, so I will have to actively teach it to notice these differences. This video helped with that.

I know that music helps us to learn, so, to embark on Mandarin, I’m starting with children’s songs.

Where is My Friend

Lyrics:

yī èr sān sì wǔ liù qī
wǒ de pénɡ you zài nǎ lǐ
zài zhè lǐ zài zhè lǐ
wǒ de pénɡ you zài zhè lǐ

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 / Where is my friend? / Over here, over here / My friend is over here

The song starts with counting to 7, so it’s a great early one to learn. I also like the video from our local library.

This video includes really clear pronunciation on the song, then teaches each of the words. (You’ll also see how she uses the fingers one one hand to count to 10 in the Chinese way rather than the method I’m familiar with which requires both hands.)

There’s also a Bao Bao Learns Chinese video where she really clearly reviews all the pronunciation. The song appears in Ditty Bird volume 1 sound book.

Two Tigers

Liǎng zhī lǎo hǔ, Liǎng zhī lǎo hǔ,
Pǎo de kuài, Pǎo de kuài,
Yī zhǐ méi yǒu yǎnjīng, (or: Yī zhī méiyǒu ěrduo)
Yī zhī méi yǒu wěibā,
Zhēn qí guài, Zhēn qí guài.

Two little tigers, two little tigers / Running fast, running fast / One without eyes (or one has no ears) / One has no tail / it’s very strange, it’s very strange

This uses the same tune as Frere Jacques.

There are additional recordings at Bao Bao, and lots more. Here is a pronunciation guide from Bao Bao Learns Chinese.

The song appears in Ditty Bird Chinese songs volume 1 sound book, and Bao Bao Learns Chinese, volume 1.

Pulling Carrots (or Picking Radish)

bá luó bo, bá luó bo;
hāi yāo hāi yāo bá luó bo;
hāi yāo hāi yāo bá bū dòng;
lǎo tài pó, kuài kuài lái;
kuài lǎi bāng wǒ men bá luó bo

Pull the radish, pull the radish / hey-o, hey-o, pull the radish. / hey-o, hey-o, we can’t pull / Old lady come, quickly come / Come help us pull up the radish now

This video translates the title as picking carrots, but everything else I’ve seen says radish… In repeat verses, instead of calling the old lady, you could call for little girl, little kitten, little mouse, etc.

Or here is another version – I like this song, because I really like the sound of the hāi yāo hāi yāo bá luó bo refrain. The song appears in Ditty Bird Chinese songs volume 1 sound book.

Row Your Boat – Huá xiăo chuán

I decided to try a Mandarin version of a traditional English children’s song.

Huà huà huà xiǎo chuán
shùn zhe xiǎo hé liú
Kuài lè ba (4X)
Rén shēng shì gè mèng

This one appears in Bao Bao Learns Chinese, volume 1.

There’s another slow version here.

Here’s the pronunciation guide.

Wish me luck on stretching my brain to learn something new!

Sound Books

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Sound books are interactive picture books aimed at young children. They have buttons you press to hear a sound (like a dinosaur roar, first words in various languages, or farm animal sounds) or a song. There can be anywhere from 3 – 30 buttons per book. They combine a book reading experience with a “press a button to make something happen” toy, so are fun for kids.

Benefits and Uses

Some benefits of sound books: they are interactive learning, they build fine motor skills, the child can interact with them independently, and they are fun! Additional benefits of language-based and music books: they can help reinforce learning for the child (in things like “first word” books where the child sees the word and hears the word), the child speaking or singing along with the book builds language skills, and they encourage focus.

For home use, they can work well to entertain a child while you’re busy, or in the car. Or, for me, each of my kids had a period of time where they had given up naps, but I wanted them to still have “quiet time” in their rooms. If they played with something like this that made noise, I could hear that they were still awake, or if the toy was quiet, assume they had gone to sleep.

At my classes, I don’t use sound toys much in the main classroom, as they can be distracting or overstimulating when added to all the other sounds in there. I have used them in my parent-toddler class, where I have a “quiet room” where parents can take a child if they’re overwhelmed. I have books and puzzles in there, but the sound books are nice there, because they are sound a child can choose and control, which may give them more tolerance for returning to the main classroom with all the noise they can’t control.

What to Look For

Like all press-a-button toys, they have the potential to be annoying for parents if the sounds are too loud, or if the sounds are unpleasant to listen to. So, I would only buy ones where I could listen to what it sounded like before buying. (Either in person, by listening to clips on line (like videos on Amazon listings) or by going to YouTube and searching for “[book title] read aloud” to see if someone has made a video of it. Read reviews to learn about volume if you can’t hear it in person.

Most of these books are board books – a few are paper pages, which is much less durable. The books have a power on/off button – if it’s off, none of the buttons will work. They have batteries, which tend to last a long time. Make sure they can be replaced or re-charged (some have USB chargers).

On most the buttons are fairly easy for little fingers to find and to activate, but some are harder to find or to press on just right to activate the sound. Again, if possible test them in person, or read reviews. Once you find a brand that your child can easily work, you can buy more.

I review five different brands of sound books here: Music Books.

For more recommendations on sound books, check out Sparkling Bookshelf’s Ten Best or Mommy Baby Play recommends 21 options.

Social Story for Orientation

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“Social stories” describe a situation, explain what behaviors the learner will do in that setting, and help learners adjust to a new routine. Social stories* are a tool that is often used for neurodiverse folks, such as autistic people or people with developmental delays. However, I believe they can be helpful for all learners as they clearly explain what to expect and what’s expected of them.

I teach parent-child classes, and co-op preschools, and I have created social stories for all my classes. These little books review all the routines for the class, and cover the rules, all illustrated with pictures from my classrooms. I then make a video of the story as well. I send these to parents about a week before class starts, and encourage them to either read the story to their child, or watch the video together.

Here is a sample video, using random photos from the internet – you would, of course, use photos from your actual classroom, showing actual materials they would see. (See PDF version at the bottom of the post.)

I have found this to be an extremely helpful tool for getting a class off to a great start!

Kids come in the door already knowing a lot about the classroom rules and routines. They already know our transition songs. They are excited to see things that they saw in the book or video, and they recognize my voice from the video, which means they already feel more comfortable with me than they would if they were meeting me for the first time. The parents who read the book or watched the video with their child also have a much better knowledge of classroom routines than they ever had in the past when I just sent them parent orientation handouts. (I do still provide additional info that’s aimed at the parent, but it is reinforced and contextualized by the social story.)

How to create a social story

I do it in PowerPoint. I write out a simple story, then find pictures to illustrate it. If you have pictures of children in classroom doing activities, that is fabulous as it’s more engaging. But if not, you can just walk around an empty classroom that’s set up for school, and take all the pictures you need. In PowerPoint, you can then record narrations, and save it as a video that you can upload to YouTube or upload to OneDrive or Google Drive to share with your students. If you prefer, you could write the story in anything (Word, Canva, etc.) and print out a copy, and then make a video of yourself reading it aloud to post.

It only takes an hour or two to make, and you can make it “evergreen” so you can use it every year, and it will just help everything go more smoothly for you!

Social Story SampleDownload

* Learn a more formal process of writing a social story here.

132nd Square Park – Kirkland

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We tried out a new-to-us park recently – 132nd Square Park is located at NE 132nd St and 132nd Ave NE in Kirkland, about a mile east of Evergreen Hospital.

They have a multi-purpose synthetic turf playfield for soccer and more, a smaller grass field for softball or baseball, an all-abilities playground with zipline, year-round restrooms, and three picnic shelters. They also have a walking labyrinth and a reflexology path with raised stones to massage your feet while you do a walking meditation.

The big yellow hill is a fun and unique thing – bring a big flattened cardboard box to sit on and you can slide down that hill. On the playground there is also a communication board with symbols that a nonverbal person could use to communicate – it’s a nice opportunity to acquaint you and your child with this adaptive tool.

Find more local parks and other activities in the Seattle area. For non-locals, you may also appreciate these ideas for fun toddler activities you can find anywhere.