Book of the Mind

I have been looking for good books to help teach Noah Chinese, or help Jonah learn ABC's or help learn Kung Fu, or help explain why the earth goes around the sun. What I have come to realize is the best book is the book you make yourself.

For instance, Noah and Jonah both have journals, and Noah also has some books that he made. Even though he hasn't looked at his book for a long time, he was able to "read" it to Gong Gong. What I mean is based on recognition of some of the letters of words Grace wrote for him, and of pictures he himself drew, he was able to read what was written. Once he read the meaning instead of the words that were there but then corrected himself, somehow realizing that he had made a mistake.

Those pictures and those words have more meaning to him than any other book with popular tv characters or just plain beautiful illustrations that endear you to a book. Because these pictures are pictures that Noah drew himself, and therefore they must be ingrained in his brain differently. Also the things he drew were important to him at the time and probably are still important, and so they come from a part of his mind that is more important and therefore probably easier to memorize as well.

He showed his journal to Gong Gong and I told him to ask Gong Gong to write the Chinese words, Gong Gong for him next to Noah's picture of Gong Gong, to indicate their arrival.

First of all, most of the books have Ye Ye for the grandfather because the books are not made specifically for the Chinese Language, but for any "foreign" language, with pictures and what not that they think you might need to know. Noah's Ye Ye is not alive which makes things confusing.

However in his journal, he has his own picture of Gong Gong. He has a mental image and memory of who his Gong Gong is and the memory of their visit and indeed the memory of showing the journal to Gong Gong and then drawing the picture with Gong Gongh. Then Gong Gong writes the Chinese words in front of Noah and now when we read the book he will regularly see that character. That's a lot of ties to a character than a normal book you buy can imprint on you.