Holidays Are Coming

It is 2011.  But it is almost the end of this year.   I feel really guilty that I didn't keep tracking of my notes on my Nia.   She is growing up to an intelligent girl.   I am very proud of her.  

Holidays are coming.   Her best friend's birthday is Christmas eve.   She has been very excited to attend the party and thinking what gift she should  prepare.   She obviously ran out of ideas and therefore she asked my help.   I did some trick to ask my friend, who is the girl's mother (-:

For her Christmas gift, she expects Santa to give her the book "Wonderstruck" by Brian Selznick.  She has talked about the book a long time.   I didn't pay a lot of attention since I thought we have plenty books in our home library and we visit city library quite often.    Well, she still expects Santa to grant her wish.    Maybe she will get it since she has not been very naughty.  

I have some hard time to prepare her gift.  And her Dad seems already solved the problem .     I asked Nia and she would like some book.   Which book?  "I am still searching book list...," she answered.

Did Santa give you any present when you were young?

My daughter asked me today, "Mom, did Santa give you any present when you were young?" I hesitated a bit, "No, I didn't", I answered. She then asked me why? I told her perhaps because I was naughty. Then she told me, "Perhaps because you were always tattling your sister when you were young."

I had told her my tattling stories when I was young, in order to show her some bad examples about tattling. My sister is 8 years older than me. She wasn't favor much the idea to play with me then when I was a kid. I was trying to get her attention and did my best to bug her and tattle her. I had a lonely childhood. I didn't get any gift from Santa. I had never written any letter to him at the first place. I think I hadn't known Santa before I went to high school. When I was young, in China we didn't celebrate Christmas. We had New Year days and Spring Festival days. The best holidays were Spring Festival days since we could eat goodies and wear pretty clothing.

Maybe this year I should write a letter to Santa.

Spelling Tutor Help

I found a wonderful web site Spelling City where I can set up spelling lists any time.  It is a very convenient tool for parents to help kids to refresh their spelling word lists at home.  I have published the first 11 word lists so far.  This week my kid is working on the seventh word list.  And I even have the future four lists, which were provided by her teacher in advance, deposited under my account.  It is cool.  And it is free.  The best thing is that they have games provided.  For each customized list, the system associates the words with pronunciations, sentences, etc.  Kids can then play the games to review the words and sentences.  And they can be tested as well.  It is exactly the tool I am looking for.  Cool! My kid loves playing the words.  Her teacher will test these words this week.   She is very confident.

Nia's Reading Report

This is my book report on Vampire's Trouble.  The main point Killmer's grandmother is here and they are supposed to stop Cary hurting the Hantys feelings. My favorite part is Killmer's grandmother is telling stories about their ancestors.  My least favorite part is when Cary chanted "Go Home Vampires." Because if everybody agreed with Cary, the Hantys had to move.

Nia's Journal

Dear Journal,

On Saturday, I played with my friend Rehu.   In the middle of the day, we got into a fight.  We worked it out later.   On Sunday, I went to shop to buy some food.  Mom and I bought a huge box of ice cream.  When I got home, I tasted it.  It was delicious! 

My favorite thing on the weekend was playing with Rehu.   It was very fun because we had a very good time!

Your Pal,
Nia

I tutor at home

One major point illustrated in the book Outliers is the magic 10,000 hours working on skills. If you are the first to reach the point by the path of 10,000 hours working on your skills, you certainly have your advantage.   The people who are successful are not only because they are lucky at the right place and time, but also because they are extremely hard-working persons.  

I tutor my daughter at home.  My favorite subject to tutor is mathematics.  It is not a good idea to give a young kid workload that may overwhelm her or him.  The key is being persist.  I started to tutor her since she was six.  It was hard at the beginning.  But little by little, she has been doing very well.  She actually enjoys doing this and gains huge self-confidence.