Hanyu Pinyin lessons

Hi mummies out there, ever thought how tough hanyu pinyin lessons might be? I remembered vaguely when it was introduced into the MOE syllabus (then as a primary 4 or 5 kid), it was like a god-send to me. Why? Cos firstly, my chinese foundation (if any) was really really weak coming from a non-Chinese speaking family background. Plus I used to scribble in English equivalent the pronunciation of the chinese word e.g. the word for prawn or 'xia' (in Hanyu Pinyin) --- i spelt it as 'seah' **ha ha**... so that I can read it into a tape recorder and use it for my own spelling practise. Needless to say, I really hated the Chinese language (scoring not more than a B4 ever) and boy was I relieved when I no longer had to learn to read or write in Chinese in the varsity.

Now I look at my own kiddo and wonder if she'll be as glad about hanyu pinyin as I was? She seems to be very amazed by the four intonations and I think her teacher taught her body signs to go with it as she was demonstrating to me last night *** I'm dumbfounded by the 'cuteness' of these signs***

Next Friday is the start of her hanyu pinyin spelling and chinese characters spelling. During her Kindergarten years, her then Chinese teacher Ms Ang gave them really tough characters to write (tough as in the complexity of the strokes) and Nic seemed to just handle them in her stride [of course, Daddy was there to drill and 'grill' the strokes to perfection, Mummy's still rather hopeless where written chinese is concerned]. As I heard from most mummies, their kids hate Chinese spelling. So I must be mentally prepared for this ordeal.... wish me luck!