Happy Chinese New Year!

  It is Chinese New Year here in Taiwan. It is the biggest holiday on
  the Chinese calendar and the only time during the year that our
  school is closed. Though I love them, I needed a well-deserved break
  away from students. It is nice to have a whole week to relax and
  catch-up on some backlogged tasks (i.e. like writing this newsletter
  ^_^).

  On the home front, my daughter Chloe has turned 1 year old on
  January 14th. My Taiwanese friends tell me that she has also turned
  3 years old by the Chinese calendar. Wow, it took a while for my
  friends to "educate me" on this Chinese phenomenon ^_^

  Chloe can climb the stairs at our school quite well (we really have
  to keep an eye on her). She also likes our school basketball very
  much (she likes chasing after it when the students are playing).
  Most of all, she likes being with students and likes playing with
  them. Our students all love her. She is such a lucky baby to have so
  many playmates.

  Last week, for the first time, we took some students to Caves Book
  Store. We wanted them to have the experience of picking and buying
  their own English books. It went much better than we expected. They
  were really excited about what they bought and what their friends
  bought. Even children that couldn't read yet were trying to piece
  together words using phonics. On the way home, I heard the excited
  voices of children anxious to start reading their books. It was a
  very good school outing and I was just as excited as they were about
  the results. We will certainly do this again sometime.

  There is something important I want to tell you. I love receiving
  emails from readers, but please don't use the "Reply" button on your
  email program to contact me. There are many email viruses and junk
  emails going around. I have setup a junk email account to catch these
  "unsolicited emails". If you use the "Reply" button, your email will
  goto this "junk account" and very likely I will NOT see it. If you
  want to contact me, instead of lazily hitting "Reply" when reading
  my newsletters, please take the time to type
  jacksonfive@path2english.com in the "To:" box. I want to read your
  email so please take the time to type my email address "manually".
  (N.B. If you have emailed me your resume in the past using the
   "Reply" button, please email it to me again.)

                                          Wishing You A Restful Chinese New Year,
                                           JacksonFive