Drawing and language via scratch books

Shortly after Taikun reached 2, we have found a significant progress that he became interested in visual expressions such as drawing. While some theorists may dubbed this as "visual+ tactile+ verbal communication", it's time to set up a platform allowing possibilities to take place.

This needs becomes obvious after we found Taikun would draw on things he was not supposed to, say walls, carpet etc. As graffiti can be costly afterwards, T bought Taikun scratch books, on which we parents can draw something to share and play with him. The first book was bought in the end of August and was filled up quickly. Recently a second book was bought.

Taikun became fascinated about a lot items he sees in life, and has asked us to draw them on the scratch book.  In his requests these items were coupled with a particular color as well, which I think a good practice to learn adjective+ nouns. All of a sudden, T and I became amateur artists, scratching our heads for how to come up with a visual for an item asked.

We have also identified this is a great opportunity for him to learn names of items in different languages.

For Taiwanese, this experience is surprisingly challenging sometimes. Learning how to write Taiwanese is an all-new experience, for example. So far, I've found it fits perfectly with English since both are based on Roman letters.  Most of the words are from this site (http://210.240.194.97/taigu.asp), hopefully a site providing standard spelling.

Some vocabulary are actually tricky--which are not to be translated directly from Mandarin. They are authentic expressions before Chinese occupation in 1945 I think:

khioh-chîⁿ -chām (toll station), not  siu-hùi  or siu-chîⁿ
boah not chhit ("apply" such as medical cream, io̍h)


Here are items being asked and developed on scratch books:
 
tiān-hong (electric fan)
chúi-kóng, or hò͘-sù (water hose)
tiān-sòaⁿ (wire)
tiān-hóe-thiāu (electricity poles)
lâu-thui (stairs)
mn̂g (door)
thang-á (window)
kiô (bridge)
tian-kiû(light bulb)--especially on a bridge
ka-iû-chām (gas station)

2012 Nov: Escalator, light bulb, hose, fan, gas station, and A-kun

Items above were freely combined with the following color, in his request to us to draw for him on the scratch books:


n̂g-sek (yellow)
kam-á-sek (orange)
âng-sek (red)
nâ-sek (blue)
chheⁿ-sek (green)
ka-pi-sek (brown)
kiô-a-sek (purple)

It has been several weeks my conversation with Taikun has fallen only withing the words above. Recognizing this I have decided to introduce new vocabulary, such as items available from dining table:

Veggies:
lô͘-sún (asparagus)
hô-lîn-tāu (pea)
bín-tāu (green bean)
poe-lêng-á   (spinach)
má-lêng-chî (potato)
han-chî (sweet potato/ yam)
pa̍t-á (guava---he became so interested we bought a can of guava juice from WalMart. Actually I was excited since this is the first time I had this special tropical fruit after many years in the U.S.)
Lingo (apple)