Learn to Swim

Knowing how to swim prevents drowning (溺水) and improves your health, fitness, and safety. To help teach New Yorkers to swim, the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation is offering swimming lessons to children (6 to 17 years old) at our indoor pools.

Cost

Free with an NYC Parks Recreation Center membership. All Learn to Swim participants (参加者), including children and their parents, must be members of the recreation center.

About the Classes

·Your child must be 6 years of age on the first day of class in order to participate in the program. Please make sure to bring a legal document (法律文件) with the date of birth listed for the child on the day of the first class. Documents will be returned after confirmation is completed.

·There are classes at two different times: on Saturdays, and after school from 4:00 p.m.to 5:00 p.m.

·All participants must take a water test on October 30 for the fall session (学期),January 1 for the winter session, and March 29 for the spring session to determine class level. Missing the water test will result in a first absence.

·If a child misses the water test and the first day of class, they will be dropped from the session. Participants who miss two continuous classes will be dropped from the program.

·Level Ⅰ: Children at this level learn basic skills, such as getting into and leaving the water, controlling their breath, moving through the water and what to do in case of an emergency (紧急情况).

·Level Ⅱ: Children at this level learn to swim without assistance. They’ll be able to understand dangerous water conditions and how to help a swimmer in a water emergency.

Massimo Bottura is a widely celebrated cook. A restaurant he opened 27 years ago in Italy has twice been named the best in the world. Today, Bottura’s cooking empire spreads from Dubai, in the Middle East, to Beverly Hills, California.

At Refettorio Ambrosiano, the menu changes daily, depending on what comes with the morning’s delivery. By dinner, these supermarket wastes have been transformed (转化). The 100 or so diner — refugees (难民), the homeless, and the unemployed — enjoy the meal with obvious pleasure. Meals of charge for people in need. Bottura’s Refettorios are not restaurants — they’re actually soup kitchens (施食处). But Bottura would not call them that. He thinks of them as places that shine a light on the dignity of their guests while focusing attention on the food-waste problem.

Bottura came up with the idea of Refettorio Ambrosiano in 2015. He wanted to invite the world’s best cooks to cook with him for the city’s homeless and turned an abandoned theater into a dining room for people in need.

Turning basic materials into delicious meals in Bottura’s magic. He says his grandmother taught him how to make “the original no-waste kitchen”. Cooks at Bottura’s restaurants learn his approach to cooking. But they also learn about his belief in making a difference in people’s lives. “Everybody has the ability to contribute to positive change. It starts with all of us, in our own kitchens,” Bottura says. It starts by looking at an old carrot or a broken piece of bread and catching a shine of gold.

“The are 8 billion people on Earth. We produce enough food for 12 billion people,” Massimo Bottura says. “Every year, more than a billion tons of food ends up wasted. As a result, 820 million people don’t have enough to eat. And food waste is responsible for 10% of global greenhouse emissions (排放).”

The Ice Cream Machine is no ordinary tale. It’s a flavorful (好味道的) book made up of six stories, all of which have the same title, but each has a different story centering on one subject, ice cream.

One ice-cream story focuses on a boy and his robot in the distant future. Another is about a father and daughter who invent an ice-cream machine. My favorite story in the book talks about two sisters, Pam and Penelope, who try to enter an ice-cream-eating contest. The six stories go with black-and-white illustrations (插图) from six different artists.

The Ice Cream Machine is inventive and fun. Its author, Adam Rubin, has a lot of experience when it comes to writing about food. His most famous children’s book is Dragons Love Tacos. It was a No.1 New York Times best-seller. “I like to write about food because it’s universally beloved by people of all different cultures,” Rubin says. “It’s something we can all relate to.”

Rubin hopes The Ice Cream Machine inspires kids to write. Its jacket turns into an envelope in which readers can send him their stories. Rubin says writers should write about things they like. “If you’re trying to write something that someone else likes, you might not get it right. Then no one’s happy,” he says. “But if you focus on writing about something that you like, then it’s fun. When it makes you happy, your writing will bring joy.”

I recommend The Ice Cream Machine to anyone who likes creative storytelling. The book goes down just like ice cream: smooth, enjoyable, and with a pleasant aftertaste.

Rubin’s favorite flavor of ice cream? “Chocolate chip,” he says. Don’t tell him, but the best flavor is actually birthday cake！