Letter to my child's class Hello Class, My name is Jennifer. I’m Sara’s mom. You may not know about me, but I feel like I know every one of you, because Sara tells me the detail of what’s happening in the class everyday. She talks a lot, doesn’t she? Like a machine gun, doesn’t she? I sometimes feel like I want to mute her. I wish I had a remote that I can control her volume. If that’s not what you think, you don’t know about her. Well, she was born in Jan.27, 2010. So she’ll be 8 yrs old tomorrow. Happy Birthday Achaka! I guess this is something you don’t know about her. Believe or not, I haven’t called her “Sara” since she was born. She’s been always “Achaka” to me, meaning “Baby” in Japanese. She has a older brother named Shuma in 4th grade. When he was one year old, I told him that a baby was arriving soon. He thought Ms. Baby would be visiting us sometime soon. So he waited Ms. Baby’s arrival, but once she arrived, she never left. She’s still staying with us, with the name of “ Achaka” Sara has grown to love drawing. She can draw all day long. She also loves crafting, skating, skiing, riding a scooter, camping with her friends and family. Plus, bullying banana slug and arguing with her brother. Since her brother takes too mcuh care of her, she is a bit less independent, but she is always sweet to her friends, and likes to help. She is a loving girl and is so fun to be around. I love her smile, and she’s good at making others laugh. I’m so happy that she gets to spend the entire year with your class. Have a great rest of the school year. Thank you

Tense I get always confused when I talk something in the future tense. Which is correct? I'll let you know if she didn't show up. I'll let you know if she doesn't show up. If you don't hear from me by tomorrow, please know that the item was taken. If you don't hear from me by tomorrow, please know that the item is taken.

Is "shadowing" usefully? Is "shadowing" useful? I'm no sure that the word "shadowing" is the right word, but what I mean is to repeat the words right after they're spoken by native speakers. I was told that this method would help English learners improve their speaking ability a lot. I've been doing it for a while, but I don't see any difference, I think... I've been using TED talk speech on YouTube. I'm sure there are many English learners on italki. Can I hear your opinion?

Thanksgiving By the way, I have a question. Thanksgiving is the around the corner. Why do American people cerebrate? When I was in my country, there wasn't such a thing. What are they cerebrating for? Is it important to do so?

Letter to my son Dear son, I’m writing to let you know something important. It’s 4 A.M. I’m about to go to bed. It seems like you have a trouble with writing journals for past few months. I know it’s been bothering you every day. So I want you to know that you don’t need to write a big story every time you write. It doesn’t need to be “ I went to SeaWorld” kind of super story. It could be about your friend at school, or your first experience of the book case restoration you did today. Tell your dad what he missed while he was at work. Tell him how you were good at disassembling, and how much you’re excited about giving the old book case a new look. Writing is fun, because you can let other people know what you did or felt, even if they’re not around. Write me back !

Aquarium VS Zoo For some reason my family prefer visiting aquariums to zoos. I guess it’s because we could see the movement in water tanks. Sea otters move quite fast as well as penguins. It’s fun to watch them swim. Sharks move openly. Do lions run fast in zoos? Do cheetahs move like we see in TVs? I don’t think so. They’re almost always sleeping during a day. That’s not so impressive.

Spaces between sentences Please help me with this. My son's teacher believes that there should be two spaces between sentences. So my son has been following this rule. Now his online English teacher is telling him not to put any spaces between them. They're both native American English speakers. I'm not. I automatically put two spaces between sentences. Which is right?

Trip to San Diego So our trip to San Diego was over. I feel so empty now. Our stay was so short, but it was filled of excitement. Visiting our old friends in L.A. was the biggest event for me this time, but for kids, watching Shamu show in SeaWorld was it, of course. Since they’ve watched the movie “Free Willy”, they’ve been wanting to see the real killer whale. So their dream finally came true in this trip.