Living Museum of Learning
The “Continue” Moment
On August 3, a father contacted me after finding my contact information through a former teacher and YouTube.
His 13-year-old daughter, Tianjing, had been in the UK for almost a year. She was entering a new school environment with very limited academic English. Her father described a child who was probably strong in mathematics, good at observation and thinking, and very smart—but who had become unhappy, somewhat withdrawn and rebellious, and less willing to communicate with adults.
He also told me something important:
She had once enjoyed the 24-point game.
So my first questions were not about grades.
I asked:
What is her name? What does she like? What computer does she use?
Then I asked whether she had played 24.
A few minutes later, I gave her a puzzle:
5, 6, 6, 9 → 24
The learning journey had begun.
When her father apologized for not responding quickly, I told him:
“学习是咱们大家伙共同的事 😂”
“Learning is something we all share.”
Later that day, he worried that his daughters might not know how to interact with adults or pay enough attention to manners.
I simply replied:
“Tianjing 非常棒！”
“Tianjing is really wonderful!”
and:
“前途无量”
“She has a very promising future.”
The first few days revealed that the difficulty was much deeper than English.
On August 6, I discovered that Tianjing had attended school in the UK for only a little over two months. She could struggle even with the language in a Grade 2 mathematics problem—not because the mathematics was beyond her, but because she didn't know the academic English.
Her father explained:
“国内的英语就是普通对话之内的。”
“English education in China was basically limited to ordinary conversation.”
I told him about my own daughter, who had also immigrated to Toronto as a young child and initially knew almost no English at school. I understood the situation.
Then came a moment that told me much more about Tianjing than her English level did.
After seeing her attitude toward learning and the happiness she showed when solving difficult problems, I wrote:
“没问题，她会突飞猛进的。她的积极的学习态度，她破解难题后的开心，昨天让我老泪纵横了好几次。😂”
“No problem. She will make tremendous progress. Her positive attitude toward learning, and the happiness she showed after cracking difficult problems, brought me to tears several times yesterday. 😂”
I told her father that English was something she could acquire by using it every day—in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
“身在英国，最不用担心的就是英语了。”
“Being in the UK, English is actually the thing we need to worry about least.”
The mathematics potential was already visible.
Then the story expanded.
The father told me about Tianjing's older sister, Enning.
Enning had a very different background. She had entered formal primary school relatively late, had a weaker mathematics foundation, and was more careless in her work. She had also experienced a very high-pressure educational environment and had struggled with confidence.
Her father wrote:
“以前我管教太严，加上那种环境心情也不是很好，管教也缺少方法，造成孩子缺发自信。”
“I used to discipline them too strictly. Combined with an environment that wasn't good for their mood, and my lack of effective parenting methods, it caused the child to lose confidence.”
At that point, this was no longer just a story about helping one girl with English.
It was becoming a story about two children rebuilding themselves through learning.
On August 6, I asked:
“要不要把妈妈也加到群里，看着孩子们进步的脚印👣”
“Shall we add Mom to the group too, so she can watch the children's footprints of progress? 👣”
Then:
“咱们共同努力，帮助孩子们重建自信！💪”
“Let's work together to help the children rebuild their confidence! 💪”
That became the spirit of the next month.
Tianjing and Enning both entered the learning journey.
We did mathematics, puzzles, programming, learning tools, and countless small exercises in thinking.
The two sisters were different.
Tianjing could grasp ideas quickly and often showed strong mathematical intuition.
Enning required much more patience. She could make the same mistake immediately after discussing it. But instead of simply labeling her “careless,” we began working on the deeper habit:
stop → think → check → correct.
Then September arrived.
School was about to start again.
On September 1, their father sent me another message.
He apologized for not interacting much in the group recently and wrote:
“真的非常非常感谢你每天花那么长时间来教她们，帮助她们🙏”
“Thank you, truly, very, very much, for spending so much time every day teaching and helping them. 🙏”
Then came the sentence that connected everything back to the original hope:
“Tianjing最近的心情明显变化很多，您真是帮了大忙了。”
“Tianjing's mood has changed noticeably recently. You have really helped a great deal.”
He also described Enning's difficulty honestly:
“她就是那种粗心大意不动脑筋的人，说了就忘了，同样的错误说了马上就忘。”
“She is the kind of person who is careless and doesn't stop to think. She forgets what she's been told, and immediately forgets after being told about the same mistake.”
But then his conclusion was different:
“只能慢慢的让她培养思考习惯。”
“We can only slowly help her develop the habit of thinking.”
And finally:
“您看看到时候有没有空余时间辅导她们。🙏🙏🙏”
“Could you see whether you have any available time to tutor them when that time comes? 🙏🙏🙏”
The question had changed.
A month earlier, the father had been asking whether someone could help his daughter.
Now he was asking how the learning could continue.
I replied simply:
“不客气，她俩很棒。”
“You're very welcome. Both girls are wonderful.”
Then I went to the family group and asked the girls themselves about their new school schedules.
Enning would get home around 3:20.
Tianjing around 4:00 or later.
The school timetable was changing.
But the journey wasn't.
I wrote:
“Cool. All set. Our happy learning journey 👣 won't change. 😀”
Enning replied:
😁
Looking back at the entire conversation, the most important change was not a particular mathematics score or programming project.
It was the change in what the adults were talking about.
At the beginning, the conversation was about a child who was struggling:
English.
School pressure.
Confidence.
Mood.
Communication.
A month later, the conversation was about how to keep the learning going.
The father's original hope was to find someone who could help his daughter adapt, understand her, encourage her, and rebuild her confidence.
The evidence that something had emerged was not a certificate.
It was his observation:
“她的心情明显变化很多。”
“Her mood has changed noticeably.”
And then his question:
“有没有空余时间辅导她们？”
“Do you have time to continue tutoring them?”
Sometimes a learning relationship becomes meaningful before anyone has a name for what is happening.
A child begins to look forward to learning.
A parent begins to see a different child.
A difficult behavior becomes understood as a habit that can be patiently changed.
And eventually, nobody asks whether the journey should continue.
They simply ask how to make it fit into the new school year.