Word Magic

Arisa, is one of my private student kids. She is a rich, smart girl.
I'm sure she, an elementary school girl who will be in the fifth grade soon, has a busier schedule than me, an English teacher who is in my mid-30's!
She has been preparing for entrance exams of private junior high schools, so she goes to cram schools every weekdays.
She couldn't come to my group lesson because of her cram school's schedule. That's why she started to take my private lesson, starting 7:00pm.

Arisa's mother trusts me, so she always says "Yes," to my offers.
When I suggested extending Arisa's private lesson time, whenever I recommend new textbooks or study materials, the mother says, "OK, I'll pay it by credit" and gave me her GOLD card.
(Sorry for digressing the topic! But since my school branch area is located in a RICH area, I was stunned when I saw my student, who was a junior college student girl, used a BLACK credit card!!)

Actually, sometimes I felt a kind of guilty about that.
I don't recommend BAD things...but is it OK to have her use so much money for a 10 year old school girl???
However, Arisa is worth to invest. Her understanding, concentration, pronunciation and reactions in English... The more she comes to my classes, the two or three times more her English improves.

On Thursday, my recognition for her became "assurance."
Now, she has been working on our new self-study drill, "Word Magic."
This is a special drill for building up vocabulary.
She has some quiz, wrote several words on her original "word book" many times, and I give the stickers having illustrations about the words.
Last Thursday, after I gave the unit's stickers for her, she showed me a notebook.
"Keiko sensei, my mom said I should show it to you!"

That was her notebook. But it was her another "word magic" book.
She wrote her new words from the "Word Magic" material many times, and she DREW pictures of the words, instead of stickers!!
I mean, she already wrote new new vocabulary (for example, "binoculars,") on the school's word book (and she has a sticker which has "binoculars" illustration.) But she bought another notebook by her own, and wrote "binoculars" also many times, and besides that, she drew her original "binoculars" illustration!

She does not only our school's original self-study material, but also makes her original material to build up her English vocabulary.
I hope I can show your her notebook!
That was so neat, amazing!

Now I understand, why her mother invests Arisa a lot. She can work hard. The more she learns, the more she can absorb new information!
I was very glad when I saw her original notebook.
Such a moment is exactly when I feel, I'm grateful about my job.