ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

Elisa 文法講解:  unnoticed, long-distance and auxiliary verb "do"

1:  I got my hat in the wall and slipped out unnoticed. 為什麼不是 unnoticedly? 他不是修飾 slip out ㄇ??

It pays off to live in a good school district, though housing price was high, and the taxes are substantial.  However, we get to live in a nice neighborhood and our kids get to receive high quality education.  When looking at the pros and cons, the benefits outweigh the costs.  It makes no sense for us to trade off our living quality with high tuition cost of a private school.

There is a huge difference in the quality of education your kids will receive depending on which school district they attend.  We live in a very good school district.  Numerous parents with kids transferring to our school have stated the difference in quality they see and the huge progress their kids made.  I was somewhat surprised to learn from my colleagues and friends that a great many of the public schools do not have the homework system.  Even though our child rearing philosophy is quite different from those of the Taiwanese, we still believe in the homework system.  I am not talking about the heavy homework system implemented in Taiwan.  Homework is a tool to refresh what the kids learn in a day.  I like what I see from our school.  My son started writing homework when he was a kindergartener.  It is a refresher of what’s taught for the day, such as pairing up the words.  You can finish the homework in less than 5 minutes.  They are not hard but it helps the kids retain the knowledge with repetitive exercises. 

I cannot help but post this news here since I am a graduate from Washington University in St. Louis, aka, Wash U.  I take great pride as an alumnus, so you can imagine how glad I am to hear this news.  I have only good things to say about Wash U.  I met my husband there too.  I like my school and would highly recommend my school to anyone who is interested in its MBA program. 

Its social work program ranks number 1 in the states.  See http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-social-work-schools/rankings. 

This is not easy to translate.  Maybe you can provide a better translation. 

以謊圓謊,欲蓋彌彰

Since we are on the subject of children’s books, I would like to talk about some other books that my son reads by himself.  By the way, my son will be seven soon.  His favorite is the Magic Tree House book series by Mary Pope Osborne.  These chapter books target kids from kindergarten to 3^rd grade.  Each book is roughly 80 pages, written in simple sentence format, so it is pretty easy for kids who start to read chapter books.  The stories are entertaining and full of imagination. 

Chapter books - http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/magictreehouse/books.html

蓮花出淤泥而不染:
Growing out of mud, the lotus blooms pure and untainted.

Growing in slushy areas, the lotus remains pure and untainted.

“眼睛為之一亮”的英文

Eyes widen at the sight.

I highly recommend the Skippyjon Jones book series by Judith Byron Schachner for young children.  These book series target children from kindergarten to third grade (in an English speaking environment).  I like to read them to my kids, one in preschool (roughly over 3 years old) and one in first grade (close to seven years old).  It is about a hyperactive Hispanic siamese cat, Skippyjon Jone, which has ears too big for his head and a head too big for his body.  He has a fantastic imagination, too wild for his mummy to handle.  The stories are hilarious.  They often made our kids laugh.  Apart from being hilarious, the books are also a good practice material for my son to brush up his Spanish vocabulary.

Here is Skippyjon Jones' website:  http://www.skippyjonjones.com/

These are the books I have read to my kids.

Today, I would like to talk about the proverb, "Out of sight, out of mind".  There seems to be confusions to some about its definition and usage.  I hope that you will get a better understanding of the proverb after reading this article.   I have also provided several references throughout my article to help you understand the usage of it.     

Out of sight, out of mind

I just came back from my son's Halloween Party at school.  It is so amazing to see so many kids in costumes.  Some were really innovative and funny.  Here are some of the pictures I took.  I am sorry that I cannot enlarge the photos.  This is to protect the kids' identities. 

My daughter had her Halloween parade yesterday at her daycare.  I didn't have time to attend so I don't have pictures of her addressing as a Hello Kitty princess.  I will take the pictures tomorrow when she and her brother go out to trick or treat.