A Tapestry of Life

Nia

Dear Diary,

Today was a super cool day! I learned some really important things from shosho and I want to share them with you, but also write them down so I don't forget.

The first story is about a teeny-weeny bird. This birdie decided to build a nest on a tree. She worked very hard, picking up little twigs and leaves and making a cute nest on one of the branches. But just when she was done, a scary storm came and poof! The nest was gone. I felt so bad for the little birdie.

But you know what? The birdie didn't give up. She started to make her nest again. But again a storm came and blew it away. This happened a lot of times. Like five times! But the birdie never stopped. She kept trying and trying until one day, there were no more storms and her nest stayed in the tree.

Shosho said that we should be like that birdie. We should keep trying, even when things go wrong. Just like how I keep trying to get better at my math homework, even when it's super hard.

The second story is about a big wise elephant named Mzee Tembo. He was like the smartest elephant in the whole world. Or at least in the savannah. All the animals, whether big or small, would go to him when they didn't know what to do.

One day, a little hare, kinda like the one in my storybook, asked Mzee Tembo, "Why are you so wise?" And you know what Mzee Tembo said, Diary? He said, "Because I never think I know everything. I learn something new every day." Isn't that amazing, Diary? It means we can keep learning things all our lives.

I told shosho that I want to be like Mzee Tembo and keep learning new things every day. Maybe I can start by learning more about those tricky math problems.

I'm really happy that shosho shared these stories with me. They made me think about a lot of things. About not giving up, like the birdie. And about learning new things, like Mzee Tembo. I think these stories are very special and I want to remember them always. That's why I'm telling you, Diary.

I feel sleepy now, Diary. Tomorrow is another day of school and I need to rest. I hope I dream of the birdie and Mzee Tembo. That would be super fun! Goodnight, Diary!

Love,

Nia

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Dear Diary,

Guess what?! We got a computer at home!! It's our first ever family computer. It's not a new one or anything, but it's ours and it's awesome. I can't believe we have our very own computer.

Dad set it up in the living room. It's got this big screen, a keyboard, and a mouse. It even has speakers! When dad turned it on, it made this cool humming sound and then there was our computer, ready to go.

The first thing we did was try to figure out how to use it. The mouse was a bit tricky at first, and the keyboard has so many keys! But after a while, I got the hang of it. I even helped shosho to use the mouse. She was so funny, moving it all over the place.

But the really super cool part is the internet. We can connect to it using something called a modem. And once you're on the internet, you can find out about almost anything!

I started by looking up things for my school project on animals. Did you know that a blue whale's heart is so big that a person could swim through the arteries? Or that an octopus has three hearts? I found all of this on a website called Wikipedia. It's like an encyclopedia, but on the computer. And it's HUGE!

I also found some fun games. There's one where you have to solve puzzles to help a little character navigate through a maze. It's really fun and it makes you think a lot. I even got my little brother to play it with me. He usually doesn't like puzzles, but he really liked this game.