A look back at 2014, and Welcome 2015!

2014
I reflect back at 2014 and remember the times where I learned great lessons and chose to share with others:

• losing the chance to be on the chess team. Pride hath a fall. 
• completing grade 5 Math was most fun this year!
• in my basketball clinic, I learned that you should never hold back (read about it in my fabulous post!) 
• from the Big Apple Circus I learned that the human body has a lot of flexibility, stay fit!
• from the fiction stories I have written, I have learned to be creative. I enjoyed every moment of it

2015

• I plan to finish Precalculus  (after Grade 8 Math, Algebra I, II, and finally Precalculus)
• Learn 40,000 new spelling words
• Became a 1500 in chess.com. Also get on the travel chess team
• Read 4000 page books
• Become more mature

Even though I am thinking positive about the new year, who knows what surprises and challenges await me?

I will love to grow and celebrate my birthday and I want to welcome hard work too. 

Wishing you a Happy New Year!

New Year's Resolution : Help my parents stop fighting but focus on my self too. 

Writing Girl (WG)

Quotes from the Writing Girl

As I sat on my desk to reflect on the passing by year 2014, these quotes below and just my raw thoughts influenced my year. Hope some other people will be able to relate to these as well!

1. Always love being yourself

2. Always think positive, but know the truth                            

3. Never hold yourself back
4. Never give up
5. Make fun of yourself, it feels good afterwards
6. When you make mistakes, don't defend them. Instead look back at them and improve
7. Always be thankful
8. Always stand up to a bully. Never be quiet when dealing with one, stand up for yourself
9. Never be scared of anything
10. Take care of your body. You'll look good and feel good if you do so
11. Be creative, it will keep you unique
12. Enjoy life, live in peace and have fun. Anyway, life is too short to fight
13. Be flexible, it will take you to unknown paths in life
14. Be open to new surprises and challenges that await you
15. Let work feel like play. That way, one will always be playing and loving life
16. Think big, bigger, best; you bet!
17. Help yourself before you help others
18. Be confident
19. Believe in yourself
20. Don't brag or boast
21. Look for problems around you, then do your best to solve or help solve
22. Don't make excuses, its 100% your loss

I think I should stop here, I'm thinking way too big. But hey, it feels good and my stuffed head feels so much lighter now.

Swimming

Swimming is a very challenging sport. First, when you do a flip turn you have to watch out because you can get water up your nose. It’s hard to hold your breath too long. Second, it takes a lot of time to learn to dive properly. It took me seven weeks to learn to dive because I usually do a belly flop. Third, it takes a lot of time to learn your strokes. There’s Breaststroke, Butterfly, Freestyle and Backstroke. In Butterfly I keep my hands inside the water when they are supposed to be out. I make mistakes in Breaststroke too. Even though swimming is a challenging sport, it’s all worth it after you finish.

Holding back..

This past weekend, I was at a basketball clinic where high school varsity players would coach the elementary players. I was excited and was looking forward to the clinic where I would meet varsity players. Soon I was in the the gym; I looked around and realized I was  the only girl. What? in grade 3 and grade 4, 70 students signed up, and 69 of them boys? I looked around and not only there were no elementary girls, there was also not a single girl varsity player. Thinking I was in the wrong gym, I ran out to find where the girls clinic was. I soon learned, I was in the right gym and was terribly disappointed. Because I was the only girl who signed up, I would be playing with the boys team.

At that moment of realization, I had a feeling I should go home. I was so lonely. I tried to shoot with the boys during warm-up when one of the boys took my ball and wouldn't give it back. With wet eyes, I started walking towards my mom standing far away. The boy came running from behind and returned the ball which got me back into the court. Shortly, one of the coaches lined up the players and the drills began. I enjoyed the running, pacing, dribbling, but something in me was holding me back and I still wanted to leave.

By now I had made a couple of friends around me waiting in the queue. Soon I realized we were all just people playing a game and having fun. Why should it matter if its girls or boys? I followed my feelings and stayed, I thought it was fun.

I think girls should not hold themselves back and do what they want no matter what. It may be difficult and lonely in the start, but then if we continue to love what we do and are having fun, it wouldn't matter who is around us.

Thankful Thanksgiving!

Here is an image of what I am thankful for!

-Rita Goldworth (The Writing Girl)

My Third Grade Girls Soccer Team

This fall, I played soccer with my school team. We had weekly practise sessions followed by weekend games. We played 9 games in all, lost 5 and won four. Pretty miserable, right? For me though this season was my best record ever - I made 7 goals of the total 18 goals my team made in the entire season. I did not prove to be a good goalie though; in one game I let in four goals. In the three positions - offense, defense and goalie; I was the best at offense, somewhere in the middle for defense and bad at goalie.

For kids who  want to be  better at offense, they should stay in their opponents area and when the ball comes, go and score a goal. For kids who want to be better at defense, when the ball comes in, kick it out. In defense don’t let the ball come near your goalie. For kids who want to be better at goalie, stay in the box and don’t go out or keep your legs open because the ball will slide away from you into the goal. Also don’t just pick up the ball with your hands because if you miss, the other play team can score a goal on you. Sometimes you do have to kick the ball.

All the tips I have here are for kids who want to improve their soccer game. More tips later when I learn more in the next season.

Writing Girl (WG)

The Big Apple Circus - an act of bravery

We were in New York City driving to the all famous Big Apple Circus. ( My First Circus!) We got our popcorn and me and my brother raced to our seats. I watched as I saw a trapeze actor going in the air like a Merry-Go-Round. Also going like a Merry-Go-Round a spaceship was flying around. If the trapeze actor crashed it would be terrible. After that performance there was a big wait. I was restless in my seat when the music started to play.

Two camels ran across the stage then two horses started galloping behind the camels. Suddenly two very cute baby camels joined in. The baby horses came in after. The trainer fed each animal from her hand. The amazing animals galloped off stage. A woman came out in a sparkling dress. When the ringmaster put a bag on her she came out in a millisecond dressed in a different dress. I clapped and clapped trying to find out how she was able to do that. A woman in a leprechaun dress juggled tennis rackets and stood on five items and while she was doing that she performed other amazing acts. Then came the men who did chinese Yo-Yo, they threw the Yo-Yo up and the other caught them. It was surprising.

The final one was the best and most dangerous act of all. The showman set up a humongous net, and some trapeze actors climbed up. They went up big ladders and stood on platforms. One trapeze actor swung on a loose platform. A trapeze actor swung to him and grabbed onto his feet. They swung up and down and the trapeze actor landed on a platform higher than the other one. They kept on doing those  things and also swung dangerously back and forth. When everyone was on a high platform, they jumped into the net one by one. It was very dangerous. Last but not least a trapeze performer climbed to the highest point and dived headfirst into the net. We all stood in shock. The Big Apple Circus with its dangerous acts was over. I walked to the car and we drove home.

The dangerous trapeze act!

Writing Girl(WG)

The Magical Tomb

a true story by Writing Girl(WG)

“Yay!” I shouted! “We’ve reached the tomb finally!” I said running past my parents into the doors of Taj Mahal. “Wait up, wait up” my mom yelled to me. “I know you are excited but you have to stay with us.” I sadly walked back to my parents, my excitement lowering. I ran to the sign in and quickly pulled on my booties. My dad’s booties broke so he had to get blue ones. “Hurry up” I shouted!

We were finally going up the stairs to Taj Mahal. When I looked up I saw the tall point of Taj Mahal glittering above my head. We entered the doors and guards showed us where to go. When we reached the tomb other guards showed us the surprises the tomb held. I could not believe that it had all been made with hand tools, the lotus flowers 64 petals each, all different colors!

Just then it was our turn to look at the tomb! I peered in the tomb to see the tombs of dead bodies lying in the dark. The warm smell of the lotus flowers felt hot on my cold cheeks. My body shook with the sparkling sights of the Taj Mahal. When I was ready to go I felt amazed. The tomb’s beauty had been glorious. I wished I could go to Taj Mahal again. I walked to the car wondering what my next surprise would be.

Day Dreaming In School

This morning something weird happened to me. When I was walking to school a ghost started chasing me; at first , I thought it was Samantha from school. She always likes to do things which are funny; except they never are. Then I saw it was not Samantha; the ghost had turned into a witch. Now I started to really run. As I ran, the ghost turned into different things behind me; like a person, bear, clock, paper and bed: but they all ran really slow; I wondered why.Then it turned into an ant. Just then I figured out why it ran really slow; it was a magic ant that could turn into anything.

Since I was late for school I made a wish to the ant if I could fly to school. Immediately I had a jetpack on my back and I was at school. When I went inside my classroom it was show and tell time. When it was my turn I told the class about what I had just experienced. When I was finished no one in my class believed me. Just then I woke up; I was confused. Then I realized I had been day dreaming in school!!!

Mouse daydreaming!

Moral: Don’t close your eyes in school. It could lead to the same thing that happened in this story.

A Failure Party

Why do we have parties only to celebrate good things? Why can we not have a failure party? Though I am feeling much better, I am still sad for losing the chance to be on the school Chess team.  Maybe I should invite my family and we can have a discussion on how not to lose again. After talking for long time, we can eat pizza, cupcakes, and do bowling. I can see this will be a lot of fun! The only hard part is that at the end I have to come up with a list of ways this will not happen again. I hope my failure party will be interesting!

Spookey me

Above is me in my Halloween costume. For Halloween I got 21 pounds of candy! For the less fortunate I donated 11 pounds. At least we have enough to eat the poor people don't. So I think it was a great idea to donate my 11 pounds. Too much candy isn't healthy.

How to be good at Chess in 3 easy steps?

Start with getting a good chess book. I recommend the Chess bookof idiots by Patrick Wolff. Now, get a Chess board. This is what I got: Roll-up vinyl chess board

Here are the 3 easy steps:

1. Learn where the pieces move 

2. Learn the top 5 tactics: fork, double attack, check+ attack, discovered attack, pawn structures 

3. Practice the tactics in step 2 on your chess board alone or with a parent/sibling, and on an online chess website like www.chess.com or www.chesskids.com. This will significantly improve your game!

You will feel like a chess champion in 3-4 weeks! Keep practicing and learning new tactics to improve further! Good luck! Share with me how it goes.

-Writing Girl

t H e S u P e R n A t U r A l H a U n T

                     - a spooky story by Writing Girl

Hello, my name is Jock. Today was going to be the best day of my life. I was going to go to Millburn Haunted House. As we were driving there, the pencil I was writing with dissapeared. I told my mom what happened; and she asked; are you sure? I am sure, I know I did not throw the pencil anywhere. Mom said; that’s weird, meanwhile you can just see the sights along the way. My mom didn't seem to care, but I wasn't going to see the sights along the way. I had to think what just happened to my pencil. Would it be gone forever?

How to author a spooky story in 4 easy steps?

Halloween is around the corner, and this time I want to author my own spooky story. Below are the steps I will use:

Step 1: Create a Story Map – list your characters, charter traits, decide the setting, create a list of problems that keep getting worse before they start to get better, and finally decide an ending. I am attaching a story map template below (click on it to print/preview full-size)

My loss at the Chess tournament

Yesterday was the day of my school chess tournament. The top 12 of the 64 kids would make the school chess travel team. Before the tournament I thought I had a chance to make the team. Top 5 would get trophies, and I thought I could even get one of the trophies! I was feeling super-duper excited. If I got on the team, it would be sooooooo much fun! I thought.

An Interview with a Police Officer

During my visit to India this summer, I had a great opportunity to meet IPS Rahul Prakash, Head of Police in Bharathpur, Rajasthan.

Sir, as he is called mostly, is from Indian Civil Services batch of 2006. In India, if you want to lead a police department for a district (i.e. town) or run the administration for a district, you need to first succeed at the competitive entrance tests called UPSC Civil Services. Out of approximately 350,000 candidates that appear for the test each year, only 200 candidates get a ranking that allows them a chance to become IAS (Indian Administrative Service), or IPS (Indian Police Service), or get a few other elite roles in the government. This is an acceptance rate of only 0.057%. Compare this with business school acceptance rate of 7% at Stanford University, 11% at Harvard University, and 13% at MIT. This service is pretty impressive, and sought after by the brightest people in India. Once selected through the entrance exams, they are trained, and then they work for the government to run the country!

A different kind of get together!

This summer when I visited my grandparents in India, I learned about a special kind of get-together called ‘Satsang’. In this get together, a lot of people gather at someone’s house every day. They do yoga, sing songs, and listen to knowledge from the leaders. My grandma and grandpa are both leaders in Satsang. Earlier, I thought they make money by imparting knowledge, but later I learnt that they are volunteers.  I couldn’t understand the knowledge because it was in Hindi language. Though I understand and speak basic Hindi, the language they used was way too advance for me and I found Satsang really boring. I still accompanied my grandparents few times in the morning at 5 AM to make them happy.

My Indian Odyssey, continued!

This is my second week in India. I have a few more things to share. Most importantly, this week is really a lot more fun.

First of all, I heard dogs barking like crazy, and knew that my mom had arrived. It was 2 AM!! I ran and woke up my grandpa so he could unlock the door. Early that morning, my cousins arrived. Since I was the only girl with 4 cousins, I did what the boys were doing, wrestling on the bed. It was actually really fun. After 5 – 10 rounds of wrestling, I ate dessert. Then I played video games and watched my cousins play some too. After that the cousins left and I went to drop them off to the train station.

While we were waiting for the train, 2 beggars came asking for money. In my opinion, the train station was very trashed and smelly. Even though it is not safe to walk on the train track, people were walking across the train track to get to the other side! What if a train came and hit them; that would be dangerous. When my cousin’s train came we said good-bye and went home. In the car when we were going home, I got to sit in the front passenger seat on my dad’s lap; so cool! When we reached home I did some math sheets and now I’m writing this, my blog!!

Also in the second week we traveled to Taj Mahal. The palace took 22 years and 20,000 people to build it! The flowers on the tomb each had 64 petals of individual stones that were hand cut! They did not let us see the real tomb because they thought we will make it dirty. Instead they made a replica of the tomb. I think the Taj Mahal office should just clean the real tomb and let us see it too. I felt awesome after I saw the Taj Mahal; it was splendid!

At Taj Mahal with my aunt

We also went to Fatehpur Sikri; King Akbar’s palace. There was a section very high where the king sat and answered to people’s problems.  King Akbar had 2 bedrooms for himself and his queen. One was a winter bedroom and another was a summer one. The summer one was high, and to make it cool, there was a waterfall on the side. I wish I had a bedroom like that for the summer; too bad I don’t.

At the Tomb in Sikri Palace

Despite the rain, Fatehpur Sikri Palace looked beautiful!

I WISH I COULD LIVE IN THIS PALACE in FATEHPUR SIKRI!!

WRITING GIRL (WG)

My Indian Odyssey

This year I went to India for two weeks. This is week one and I’m going to share my experience with you.

Stray Dogs treated like Pets

First of all, there are so many dogs strolling on the street. These are all stray dogs and are not anyone’s pet. There are also so many cows roaming around on the streets. While we were driving, the car almost hit one!

My brother brought his drum pads here and is teaching me how to play. There is this real big problem of electricity here; there is power cut and we get only few hours of electricity. The generator can keep one fan and few dim lights running. With temperature of 104 degree Fahrenheit during the day, it was way too hot without an air conditioner. I was fainting on day 2, but then I am getting used to it little bit more. There is also a major bug problem here. I can’t go anywhere without stepping on one or getting one up my nose. That’s really disgusting!! Maybe by next week, I will get used to this as well. The bathrooms have no toilet paper so it gets really weird using spray water. Can’t get used to this one!

Rickshaw used to carry goods

Its interesting to see how goods get transported within the towns. Most of the time they use a bicycle connected to a big cart at the back. Its called a 'Rickshaw'. In India, a rickshaw is used to transport goods as well as people, and even kids to school.

A full-sized refrigerator home delivered in a Rickshaw

A kid going to school, and a busy road for sure!

Another scene: a motor bike that drives a family of four, and its common to see these bikers. 

A biker family, and a cap for biker. We don't like helmets. 

Another one: a public water fountain, its called a 'Hand Pump'. Its cool, you get some exercise as you pull water from the fountain. The fountain is attached to an underground well.  

A public water fountain; Hand Pump

This is all for now. 

Next week is going to be a lot of fun. My mom is joining us, and then we are planning to go to Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri and few other places. I cannot wait for next week.

-Writing Girl (WG)

Book Review: Curse of the Bologna Sandwich

- a book from Melvin Beederman Superhero series

Melvin Beederman is a superhero who yet hasn’t found his weakness at the academy. But after his friend James held up a piece of bologna, he found his weakness and went to the place he was supposed to protect; Los Angeles.

He started by catching purse robbers, then saving babies, starting to catch bank robbers, and so on. When his cape got dirty, he gave it to the cleaners. His future partner in crime is Candace Brinkwater who gets picked in her school play as Little Red Riding Hood. Instead of her small cape she gave to the cleaners, she gets Melvins big one when the cleaner switches the capes accidently.

Since Candace really loved being a superhero, a person who had agreed to make changes to Melvin’s cape, split it in half and the second part was given to Candace. Now Candace and Melvin are partners in crime.

They caught the Mcnasty brothers when they were trying to rob a bank. When the partners gave the bad guys to the police, people all around cheered for them. The next day they were in the newspaper. Both superheros were famous all around Los Angeles.

They had one deal; Melvin would help Candace do her math homework and Candace would help Melvin save Los Angeles!

If you want to become a law enforcement office (like Police) and fight crime, I suggest you read this book because you can learn tricks about fighting crime and catching criminals. I also suggest it to kids who live in dangerous places because they can find ways to fight criminals and protect themselves.

- Writing Girl (WG)

If you are still deciding whether ‘Melvin Beederman Superhero’ series is for you, you can read the review for this series here: http://thebasketballchamp.wordpress.com/

Get the Book

My First Showcase

- narrated by Writing Girl

This year, for five weeks in summer I went to a performing arts camp. Every day we worked very hard. Our schedule was, warm ups, learn songs and review songs. At the end of everything we were going to have a show case; and everything had to be perfect.

My group was vocal singing and the songs we sang were; Summertime Porgy and Bess, Avia Maria - Old Man River, La Habanera, and Lets Call The Whole Thing Off. My most important song was ‘Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off’ because me and the http://thebasketballchamp.wordpress.com; my brother had a solo together. There was also an opening and a finale. In the girls dressing room we changed and then talked. When we got our cue we went out of the dressing room and got in line backstage. When we went on stage we had to be smiling and happy. when we went off stage we went to the dressing room to get prepared for the next song. They were other groups like drama and dance so it wasn't like we were the only ones on stage.

Singing Summertime!

Singing La Habanera

Singing Lets call this whole thing off!

Photo shoot after the show

In the audience my parents recorded the whole showcase; the showcase was two hours long. I was excited that I could watch it again and see my improvements. At the end, my brother couldn't find his suit jacket. All the boys basically got the same thing; so someone might have accidentally taken it. The place was a mess; I even found a pack of gum. I still had an amazing time; it was awesome!

Singing is my passion. My mom tells me I don't have a rhythm, oh well I am learning. I do think she is right because I just sing songs, without thinking how they sound. During these five weeks, I learned more rhythm.  Now I keep humming my songs when I wake up and many times during the day especially during the boring rides in a car. At times, I make up my own lyrics, and add my own tune to them. It really doesn't matter to me how my song sounds, at the end of it I just feel relaxed and calm.

-Writing Girl (WG)

The amazing series, The Secrets of Droon

- a series review by Writing Girl

This summer I chose series like The Secrets of Droon because it was exciting to me. It was exciting because it was about three kids who entered another dimension under Earth. The kids names were Julie, Eric and Neal. They helped out the good guys.

The good guys are Keah, Max, Galen, Urik who is lost, Sparr who turned out to be a bad guy but was really a good guy and Zara who is dead but can be brought back alive. Zara is a queen and the mom of Galen, Urik and Sparr.

If you wanted to know the bad guys they are Ungast he is Eric’s bad side, Gethwing, Neffu Keah’s bad side and Ninns. Remember Gethwing, he has a wheel of life. To make him die seven people have to put their hands in the hand spots. Until the last book they don’t know where Gethwing keeps his wheel of life. The only clue they have is that it is at a very cold place. In fact it is kept in a cave on the moon of droon.

When I read this series and my mom asks me to do a favor,  I don’t listen because I am so into the book.When I read this series I feel suspicious about what will happen. According to this review do you think you like the secrets of droon? If you do please message me with a clue from you.

The trick I use is that I read the last books first because they involve more people and more action. You learn more information in them too.

I learned what it means to be brave. Bravery is not that if someone is sitting peacefully and you hurt him trying to be brave. It is when there is a problem and you are not scared of anything, you go up and solve the problem.

Writing Girl (WG)

You can review the list of all books in this awesome series here.

I Do Not like to Fail

I have always enjoyed learning, and find it exciting and challenging. I remember my kindergarten teacher once taught me the concept of friction, and I tried it out with many different objects. It was fun. When I do not understand a concept quickly, I get frustrated. I don’t have the patience to learn it from someone else, and I just want to figure it out myself.  In front of people, I do not like to accept my mistakes, and I do not like to let people know I failed. This is how I was (maybe still somewhat), and I do not enjoy it.

During a chess game recently, when I lost, and my opponent shook my hand; I got so angry that I started telling him to shut up. You can tell that was embarrassing.

Last year, my brother and I did a charity sale of our toys, and we sold zero items. I was miserable. I had worked hard to create flyers and posted them outside my front yard one day in advance so people would know about it. I and my brother stood outside with the sale sign next to a table full of toys for 3 hours and not a single customer came to our table. Few people passed by, and we just smiled. My mom asked me later that night, “what was the biggest mistake in your sale?” I did not want to answer her or even speak with anyone about it. Deep in my mind I knew that I needed customers and my house was on a quiet street and not just the right place to do it.

Recently I was reading a book that had a question which caught my attention, “Would you rather try more ambitious things knowing you might fail or try easier things knowing you would succeed?” Obviously, I want to do ambitious things, it’s fun!

If doing ambitious things is fun, then failing should also be fun, and this is what I must learn. When we fail, we look over our mistakes, carefully spotting the miscalculations in our ideas. Failure and defeat are life’s greatest teachers.

I came across this amazing article on Michael Jordan: http://launching-a-leadership-revolution.blogspot.com/2011/10/failure-is-one-of-lifes-greatest.ht

Failures of famous people:

·       It took Thomas Edison 10,000 tries to make the light bulb!

·       In her lifetime, Emily Dickinson published less than a dozen of her 1,800 poems! After Emily Dickinson died, the rest of her poems were found

·     Vincent Van Gogh only sold ONE painting out of 900 in his life! The rest of his paintings were found after he died

Source: GoComics.com

The Dumb Cat

Once upon a time a bird was sitting in a cage beside a cat. She did not want to be in the cage, she wanted to fly freely in the forest. Suddenly the bird’s mind lit up like fire. She had an idea to free herself. The cat could break open her cage! The only problem was that the cat was a guard cat.

The only good thing about the cat was that it was really dumb. The bird could easily outwit the cat. The cat was trained to be a guard, but he was lazy and depended on another cat so he never mastered his skills. Everytime he needed to do guard work, he ordered the other cat to do it instead, without thinking about his own future. Finally he had turned out dumb and lazy.

As soon as the bird noticed a window in the room was open, she knew her idea would work. The bird asked the cat, “Dear Cat, if you can just open the door to my cage, I can help you out with your chores, and then get back in”. The lazy cat thought that was a brilliant idea and immediately open the cage door.

The bird flew out the open window and that was when the cat realized his mistake. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO the cat screamed, but it was too late because the bird was out of view.

Prologue

Months later the cat was given to a local pet shop. He wasn’t a guard cat any more. He wasn’t special because of the big mistake of depending on the other cat.

After 3 years in the pet shop the cat was adopted. His new owners named him Biscuit. Biscuit lived happily ever after. He was only a little jealous of all the other guard cats and how he wasn’t one any more because of the big mistake.

Moral: Don’t depend on others to do your own work or you will fail in life like the guard cat.

Happy cat thinking of bird doing its chores, and eager bird thinking about her plan!

Image credit: http://www.supercartoons.net/character/19-1/tweety.html

                                                                   

How Timetables Hypnotized Me

One day when my mom was driving my brother and me to the summer camp, she had an idea that we could do timetables on the way. My mom said it would be fun, but I wanted to read my book. She started doing squares, cubes, and timetables with my brother instead. It became a daily ritual during driving, and after a few days, I was getting jealous that my brother was popping out answers to multiplication and repetitive addition within seconds. I decided to give it a shot, and in few days I was comfortable going all the way upto table of 14 and squares up to 15. Can’t wait to get up to table of 20 soon. Learning them turned out to be super exciting, and I fell in love with timetables. I was doing them the whole way to the camp and when I reached I couldn't take my mind off; it was as if the timetables had hypnotized me. I finally had to make an effort to unhypnotized myself to enjoy the breakfast before the camp started.

Three quick ways to learn timetables:

a. Understand the pattern: first understand that timetable is just a pattern of repetitive addition. Write your own timetables using this pattern

b. Memorize in a sequence: memorize tables at least once a day and in your free time like driving or at other places where you have to wait

c. Practice in a random order: once you have mastered them in a sequence, practice them or take a quiz with a random pattern. If you can tell the answer to the timetable in 1 second, you know its now in your memory. If you are taking longer, keep memorizing

Three reasons why timetables are helpful:

a. Finish your math homework faster - problems in repetitive addition or multiplication or division or fraction; everything can be completed at fast speed with timetables

b. Impress as a Girl scout cookie cashier - quickly tell the customers how much money they owe, and also add up the money you earned

c. Manage your money: help parent to count money at the ATM or bank, and also better manage your allowance by keeping a notebook of your personal bank account

Enjoy learning your timetables!Writing Girl

PS: I used this 20*20 timetables chart to  practice