Planning a vacation is one activity your family is sure to enjoy as there are plenty of options to choose from. To help you decide, here are four of the best cities for family vacation.

The nation’s capital is a treasure place of fun, family activities that just happen to be rich with history. Start off exploring the National Mall and you’ll find the Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson monuments all within walking distance. Then there are the war memorials: Vietnam, Korean, and WWII.

Can’t get enough US history? A trip to Boston just might be for you. Go back in time by taking a tour of the USS Constitution, aka Old Ironsides. From there, walk The Freedom Trail where you’ll come across such landmarks as the site of the Boston Massacre, the Old North Church, Paul Revere’s house, and the Bunker Hill Monument.

There is always something to do in Los Angeles. For starters, enjoy a beach day on the miles and miles of coastline. Malibu, Redondo, Manhattan, Venice, and Hermosa are just a handful of sunny SoCal beaches. In need of some culture? Get your art and architecture on at The Getty Center, where admission is free though you do have to pay to park.

If Southern California isn’t your speed, perhaps Northern California is. And San Francisco is a great place for a family to explore. Start by driving, or walking, across the Golden Gate Bridge. On the west side of the city is over 1,000 acres known as Golden Gate Park, home to gardens, trails, playgrounds and much more.

One morning a deer rushed into a courtyard where a little boy was playing. The deer hooked the boy's clothing with its antlers(角).This scared the little boy so much that he let out a loud cry which brought his mother running out to see what was happening. She came out just in time and saw the deer running off towards the mountains with her little boy.

The mother was so afraid !She ran after the deer as fast as she could and   not too far away. she found her son sitting on the grass safely. Seeing his mother. the little boy laughed and reached out his arms to her. His mother held him tight. She was so happy that she cried.

She hurried back with her dear son. When she got home, she was amazed at what she saw. The huge tree behind her house had fallen down while she was out running after the deer. The whole house was destroyed under the tree's great weight.

Then the mother remembered the day about a year before when a deer fleeing from a hurt had run into her house. She felt sorry for the frightened deer, so she covered it with some cloth and let it return to the forest.

The deer seemed to understand that she had saved its life. When leaving, it kept bowing its head to her as if it were thanking her for her kindness.

She never imagined that the deer could remember her help. It somehow knew the tree were going to fall and kill her and her son, so it came back to save them.

When the mother remembered all this, she said, “Saving the life of another is the same saving the life of your own.”

People speak English in different parts of the world. The same words can be used in different ways, depending on where you live. People can also have completely different ways of saying the same thing.

The Oxford English Dictionary(OED) is asking the public to help it add new words. Editors want to find the regional differences in English around the world. They want to expand its record of the language.

Last year, the OED, BBC Radio and the Forward Arts Foundation teamed up to find local words in the United Kingdom. It resulted in more than 100 regional words and phrases being added to the dictionary. One was “cuddy winter”, which means a left-handed person.

Now, the OED is widening its search to English speakers around the world. Eleanor Maier, an editor at OED, said the response has been great. Editors are listing a bunch of suggestions to include in the dictionary.

These include Hawaii's “hammajang” which means “in a disorderly state”. Another is the word for a swimming costume, " lookers" or “duckers”. It is used in Scotland.

The OED also might include the word “ frog-drowner” , which Americans might use to describe a downpour of rain. Another possibility is “brick”. It means “very cold” to people in New Jersey and New York City.

The dictionary has already found that, depending on location, a picture hanging off center might be described as “agley”. It might also be called “catawampous” or “ahoo”.

“The OED aims to cover all types of English,” Maier said. That includes scientific words, slang and regional language. Maier also said that it can be difficult for the OED's editors to identify regional words. The terms are more often spoken than written down.

The appeal is called Words Where You Are. It is looking for more suggestions. “We were surprised and pleased by the number of regional words we were able to include,” said Maier.

I was speaking to the faculty (全体教师) at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Canton, Massachusetts, a couple weeks ago. I arrived early and decided to take a walk.

There was a Little League field nearby. I spotted a sign on the fence .

The sign, posted by the Canton Little League, read:

PLEASE REMEMBER

·These are kids.

·This is a game.

·The coaches volunteer.

·You don’t play for the Red Sox (an American professional baseball team).

I had to laugh, especially at the joke about the Red Sox. But I think the sign is a good reminder to everyone connected with youth sports－kids, parents, coaches and the folks who run the leagues－what is important about the games.

First, kids who play are just kids. They are not mini professional athletes. So youth sports leagues and coaches should take it easy on them. Kids don’t need long schedules and lots of faraway games or high-pressure tournaments.

Adults should try to set up youth leagues so more kids play with and against kids from nearby schools and neighborhoods. They should make it easier for kids to play a sport for just a few months so that they can try other sports. Kids shouldn’t play one sport year-round.

And everyone should stop worrying about which team wins or loses. A friend of mine who coached a lot of youth teams once told me, “When you coach kids, it’s not how many you win or lose, but how many sign up for next season.” According to the Aspen Institute’s latest “State of Play” report, fewer kids are signing up. Research indicates a smaller percentage of kids ages 6 to 12 (37 percent) are playing team sports on a regular basis than in 2011 (42 percent).

The aim of youth sports should be to have fun, learn some skills and enjoy being part of a team. When we lose sight of those simple goals, the games suffer, and the kids stay away.

Maybe in 2021 every field or gym where kids play should have a sign like the one in Canton. All you would have to do is change the name of the team.