I was very frustrated with Abe’s recent performance in chess tournaments. He likes to blitz in his games regardless of the time control. I keep reminding him to slow down. He might realize his problem as shown in this post, but still, he will return to his bad habit very often. He did so poor [...]
Last week, Abe attended a chess camp, the same camp he attended last month. There were quite a few grandmasters as instructors at the camp. The lectures in terms of depth and quality must be excellent since Abe told me they were all very good. The biggest benefit the chess camp brought to Abe, I [...]
I read Anxiety On The Grass from New Yorker (issue of June 28, 2010). The article talked about Roger Federer: Unlike Agassi and countless other tennis prodigies, Federer never had to deal with pressure from an ambitious parent…His Swiss-born father… and his mother, who is South African, …played recreational tennis at the firm’s small club [...]
We arrived at our hotel a little bit after noon. Mommy left to her conference right away. In fact, during each day, Abe, his little brother David and I would stay in the hotel most of the time: spending hours playing in the pools and hours watching the World Cup on the TV. As usual, [...]
After reading this article (The Leap) from New York Magazine, I felt very very sad. I remember a similar case happened to one of my classmates when I was in the graduate school. After the first exam, at which I did poorly, so were most in the class—many failed, as told by the professor the [...]
About months ago, I pre-ordered the book: Chess Child: The story of Ray Robson, America’s Youngest Grandmaster. I received it two days ago, finished reading it yesterday. It has been long long time since I finish reading a book in one day, not even the book Searching for Bobby Fisher. What a great father-son story. [...]
Yesterday evening, driving Abe home from his soccer practice, I heard something interesting from an interview on NPR: Some one said that no chess players had reached grandmaster quicker than 10 years. I had an immediate doubt whether it’s a fact. I knew some recent chess prodigies got the GM titles when they were younger [...]
The book is My life and Hard Times by James Thurber. Although it is an old book, it includes many short, sweet and funny stories; it’s the best written book I have read so far. I have no reservation to recommend it to kids and the parents to read. Check you local library, and I am [...]
Last night, on the way home from shopping at Walgreens, we listened to a show from the audio CD: English Majors by Garrison Keillor, the show was about an English major working at a fast food restaurant and correcting customers’ misuse of who or whom. The show was very funny. Abe and I both laughed [...]
From time to time, you may feel frustrated with your kids. For example, they keep playing video games on the computer although you yelled several times ” It is dinner time. Go wash your hands.” The kids don’t listen to you, or listen but wouldn’t do what you asked. Be calm, it is normal, and [...]
I recently read a very interesting article named The Junior Meritocracy in New York magazine (Feb 8, 2010). The article explained why the kindergarten admission tests required by many New York schools could be worthless. It also discussed IQ scores and proposed a better alternative screening method for future success. Some interesting points and associated [...]
Thanks to the digital technology such as internet, David can watch many kids songs on YouTube for free; Every day, after school, Abe can’t wait to do three things on internet: checking latest chess news, following latest NBA news, and playing video games. Since the two brothers are not teenagers yet, I haven’t worried much [...]
Abe did it again within the same weekend, unfortunately, it’s the bad thing I warned him against many times; He did another thing the third time since he started playing chess, hopefully, it could be a good thing. Part 1 is about the bad thing; part 2 is about the good thing. This past weekend, [...]
Whenever we visit the local library, David, my younger son always loves to do the check-out using the auto-check-out machine. Since he is a toddler and not tall enough to reach the scan platform, he has to step on his toes and try hard, if his brother helps him, David will scream, he wants to [...]
Today, I asked Abe to read ten pages of a chess book, since the book is an advanced book, I supposed him to finish the reading no less than half an hour. He started to read the chess book, at the same time, I started to read an article from another book, minutes later, he [...]
I am puzzled by this wonderful proverb. As a parent, I know I should give more freedoms to the kids. “Leave the kids alone!” Is it the right approach to parenting? No. I don’t think so. If we just leave the lamp alone, it may never be lit. So the parents should generate a good [...]
Today, I heard an interesting interview of Andre Agassi on NPR (the website is here). Andre was a very famous tennis star. In fact, he was widely considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. On the show, he said he did not choose tennis when he was young but his father pushed [...]
Recently I reread a very good article about Josh Waitzkin from Betsy’s blog “Chess Parents and Kids”(It is pity that Betsy left her blog at November, 2008. We would like to see her back). Many of you know Josh was being featured in the movie “Searching for Bobby Fisher”, he was a chess prodigy and [...]
