【推荐1】Family vacations are a must whenever you have time.As a matter of fact,you never have to spend a lot of money taking a break because this can be done in various ways.       1    .

To begin with,you can just stay in a place near your house as long as you have the chance to be with your family.You can also have just a simple dinner where your family members can just talk to each other and have fun.    2    .In addition,it provides you with relaxation and moments to share with your family.    3    .That is because at the end of the day what matters the most is not how much money you have spent,but the quality of time you have given to your family.

You also need to search for new destinations for your family vacation so that you can at least be in a place that you haven't been to before.    4    .This will not only be beneficial to/you,but also to your children.Then you can all share your thoughts and views about the new things that you are seeing.You have to focus on your children while you are on vacation,too,because every child needs attention and time.

    5    .You need to spend some time with your family at least once a week and talk about the things that have happened.This is the best time to connect with your family.

【推荐3】From an early age, my daughter was a natural traveller. I remember being concerned about how she would handle the time difference when we travelled to Europe the summer after her kindergarten year, but she hit the ground running. She woke early enough to catch the first train to Brussels. She wasn’t afraid to try new food in Belgium or Greece.

My 10-year-old son, however, is not a traveller. He feels comfortable in familiar places, and he is a picky eater.

This past summer, my kids and I spent three weeks in Central America. My daughter’s eyes lit up when I told her about the trip; my son’s filled with trepidation.

I spent the month making preparations for our trip, finding ways to convince my son that he would have fun, and that we’d be able to find him food that he would eat. My son loves animals, so I left magazines lying around our house that were conveniently opened to stories on animals found in Central America.

On our first day, we took a bus across Belize to the zoo, which my son loved. It seemed like a successful day until he cried through part of dinner. Exhaustion had gotten the best of him. Much like that first day, the trip had highs and lows.

I learned that making sure my son had enough sleep was the best way I could set us up for success. I made sure both kids had activities they were excited about. I didn’t plan a schedule. This allowed us to plan our days based on how we were feeling.

There were days that were not easy, but when I look through our pictures and find the one of us having just hiked the Pacaya volcano, I know it was worth it.

【推荐2】Conversation goes far beyond talking. It also involves, as Swedish author Annika Thor has written, “eyes, smiles, the silences between the words.” When those elements are put together, conversational partners feel most deeply engaged and connected.

Dart-mouth College neuroscientists have taken that idea and carried it to new places. They report some surprising findings on the interaction between eye contact and how two people synchronize (使同步) neural (神经的) activity while talking. The researchers suggest that being in tune with a conversational partner is good — but that occasionally falling out of sync might be even better.

Maintaining eye contact has long been thought to act as the glue that connects two people in conversation. Similarly, the growing study of neural synchrony has largely focused on the way consistence in individuals’ brain activity benefits the social connection between them.

Earlier research by the Dartmouth lab had showed that synchronized pupil dilation (瞳孔扩张) serves as a reliable indicator of shared attention, which in turn marks greater neural synchrony. In the new study, which measured pupil dilation during unstructured 10-minute conversations, the researchers found that the initial moment of eye contact — rather than a continuing period of locked stares — marks a peak in shared attention. Synchrony, in fact, drops sharply just after you look into your partner’s eyes and begins to recover only when you and that person look away from each other. “Eye contact is not bringing synchrony; it’s disturbing it,” says Thalia Wheatley, the paper’s senior author.

Why would this happen? Wheatley claims that making and breaking eye contact ultimately drives the conversation forward. “Perhaps what this is doing is allowing us to break synchrony and move back into our own heads so that we can bring forth new and individual contributions to keep the conversation going,” Wohltjen says.

Connections between stare and synchrony might be relevant to research in mental disorders that involve untypical interaction. The findings also help explain frustrations over video-conferencing platforms, where real eye contact is nearly impossible to make or break because of the positioning of cameras and windows on screens.

【推荐1】Jason and Henry have been “wagon (四轮车) pullers” since the second day of kindergarten (幼儿园). They are very good at taking turns pulling or pushing the wagon. Today, a pair of twins would join my class. I asked Jason if he could be a “trainer” to train one of the twins, Bradley, to pull the wagon, if he didn’t cry in the morning so that he could be accepted by the other kids quickly.

Jason was so cute and said, “He isn’t very strong. How about if he’s a pusher, not a puller?”Very great idea by Jason! The kids took the job very seriously, and they became close friends in no time, which brought a comforting smile to my face. Jason is one of the youngest kids in my class but very kind, helpful and thoughtful!

Another student, Henry, took Nolan (Bradley’s twin) under his wing. We have our line leader and Henry is our “second in command” who helps the line leader stay focused and in line. I had Nolan be “third in command” behind Henry. From that moment on, Henry took Nolan under his wing, guiding him patiently.

After lunch, Henry told me, “I want to sit by Nolan in the wagon.” I helped seat the kids at once. Later in the day, Henry told me, “I hope Nolan gets to be the wagon puller tomorrow.” What a sweet idea! It’s so sweet to have a four-year-old boy cheering on a friend―when kids of all ages fight to be the one to pull the wagon.

It’s a kind, sweet group, and I especially loved these moments today. I emailed all the parents the sweet stories.

【推荐3】Since the lockdown (封闭) due to COVID-19, my kids had got much more time to spare at home, so I thought I would use this moment to teach them self-reliance (自力更生).

One day months ago, my daughter Tashi, 16, walked leisurely out of her bedroom at noon. I told her mopping (拖地) was her responsibility. She said, “Fine,” and went to the bathroom. With one hand, she pushed the mop slowly. I waited. Twenty minutes passed, and she didn’t even finish the kitchen area.

I was about to lose my temper before I controlled myself and went for a run instead.

As I ran, I got even more angry when I thought about how my 11-year-old son Sebastian still couldn’t tie his shoes, or fold a shirt, or pick up his wet towel off the floor and hang it up.

How can my kids be this lazy and incompetent (无能的)?

Of course, I knew. Every single morning, I pick up Sebastian’s towel because it’s just easier than wrestling him to do it. And Tashi acted like she’d never seen a mop because she hadn’t. I was angry, but the anger was misdirected. I was annoyed with myself.

I spoke to a psychologist friend, and she told me that my way of educating is called “snowplow (雪犁) parenting”, which means pushing every barrier out of the way. It’s a problem. Doing too much for kids makes them helpless.

Oh dear! I hurt my kids by helping.

For the last months, I have forced myself to turn off the snowplow, trying my hardest not to jump in and do the work assigned to the kids. I can’t say the kids do their tasks willingly. Or well. But they are learning.

Then yesterday, I got a small win. After I went grocery shopping, I told the kids to unload the car, then I went to the bathroom. When I came out, I heard Tashi shouting at Sebastian: “Help me put the stuff away. You can’t expect Mom to do everything.”