Yes, study comes hard to you, my dear Enrico, as your mother says. I do not yet see you set out for school with that determined mind and that smiling face which I should like. You are still stubborn. But listen; reflect a little! What a miserable thing your day would be if you did not go to school! At the end of a week you would beg with tears that you might return there, for you would be eaten up with boredom and shame; disgusted with your sports and with your existence.

Everybody, everybody studies now, my child. Think of the workmen who go to school in the evening after having worked hard all the day; think of the women, of the girls, of the people, who go to school on Sunday, after having worked all the week; of the soldiers who turn to their books and copy-books when they return exhausted from their drill! Think of the dumb and of the boys who are blind, but who study, nevertheless. Think of the innumerable boys who, at nearly this precise hour, are going to school in all countries. Behold them with your imagination, alone, in couples, in groups, in long lines, all with their books under their arms, dressed in a thousand ways, speaking a thousand tongues, from the most remote schools in Russia almost lost in the ice to the furthermost schools of Arabia, shaded by palm-trees, millions and millions, all going to learn the same things, in a hundred varied forms. Imagine this vast, vast crowd of boys of a hundred races, this great movement of which you form a part, and think, if this movement were to cease, humanity would fall back into barbarism (野蛮); this movement is the progress, the hope, the glory of the world.

Courage, then, little soldier of the immense army. Your books are your arms, your class is your squadron (中队), the field of battle is the whole earth, and the victory is human civilisation. Be not a cowardly soldier, my Enrico.

A few years ago, I stood in a small classroom, watching a high schooler named Serena Stevenson answer math questions. An instructor read out numbers-7447, 7089, 9842-and Stevenson added them in her head. For each question, she closed her eyes, and then the fingers of her right hand began to move. She answered most of the problems correctly.

The key to her success was an ancient technology called the abacus (算盘). For much of that evening, Stevenson used a practice called "mental abacus", imagining the abacus in her mind and then using her fingers to work through the problem.

From watching Stevenson, I knew that gaining skills on the abacus was more than a matter of counting beads (珠子), so I decided to sign up for an abacus course with my two daughters to see if we could also improve our math skills. I was one of the many who held some math doubts and I felt a touch of fear of math. My typical solution was simple-just escape, and if I had to calculate something like percentage change, I would go online.

Then after a few abacus classes-and a lot of practice-math seemed a little less frightening. I hadn't become Euclid. But the practice brought my numerical fears down a level. This is long-demonstrated power of the abacus. Confidence grows easily on the device, and abacus students are less likely to be nervous about an upcoming math test, according to one study. Part of the reason, it seems, is practice and results appear to move in step, with hard work about performance.

My kids had gained some math confidence as well. My youngest daughter would smile broadly after getting math problem correct, while my older child brought her abacus to school to show to her classmates and teachers. These were small successes. But that's how they eventually develop confidence.

Nowadays kids can access various websites. However, they also need to aware of some websites that may bring them bad influences. There are a lot of good websites for kids that can be useful for their overall development.

Kids, national geographic

National Geographic Kids is one of the best websites for kids to stay updated with latest information on a wide range of topics. Every kid will surely find something important when he/she visits this website. It covers exciting information about activities, animals, education, fun and intellectual games, people and places, science and technology, stories, etc.

Factmonster

We know how much kids hate to study. If you also find it hard to make your kids study, you can ask him to visit Factmonster. This website is a fun way to study on all the school subjects. Kids will not have any punishments or long hours of lectures, but instead they will learn in a free way to study on their own!

Clubpenguin

Clubpenguin is an entertaining website, operated by Disney. As the name suggests, kids need to create a penguin alter ego (密友)and play online games and chat with fellow penguins, or friends. So, if you are looking for the chat rooms for kids only, then club penguin is a great choice for you! The best part is that all the chat information and history can be monitored by parents, in any time they want. Along with online chatting with friends, your kids can also participate in various activities that take place on club penguin, like drawing, painting! etc.