【推荐1】I do my best to educate my kids to eat healthy food. I teach them how to read labels, what to look for on packaging, and how certain foods affect their growing bodies. But my kids are also like most other children—they love junk food.

My ten-year-old son Zack is very aware of his body and how food affects him. This past summer Zack was invited to a camping trip. He left on Friday and came home on Sunday morning. On Saturday night, Zack ate a lot of food...and junk food...and who knows what else. He went to bed at 11:00 p.m. and at around 1:30 a.m. Zack threw up in the tent. It was his body telling him that it didn’t like what he ate that day.

Recently, Zack and I were asked to speak to an audience of more than 200. I spoke about Unjunk Your Junk Food and Zack spoke about his appreciation of our book and how it has impacted his life as a ten-year-old child.

I asked Zack to write his own speech because I wanted what he said to come straight from his heart.

Here’s his speech:

“Today I’m going to talk to you about my mom’s book, Unjunk Your Junk Food. It’s a great book, but I’m a little disappointed that my favorite type of candy is in it, Twizzlers. I realized that it’s bad after reading the book, so I don’t eat it anymore.

I saw the movie Super Size Me and I realized that junk food, especially fast food, is really unhealthy, and I won’t ever go to McDonald’s.

I brought my mom’s book to school, and my mom even gave presentations to many classes, including mine. Well you guys can do the same thing and show people the book at your work and schools, and give them tips on eating healthy food.

Thanks for listening.”

While not all children have as much reaction to junk food as Zack, it’s clear that the human body doesn’t work as its prime(全盛时期) when we give it this type of food. It’s important to me that my children eat a healthy diet and limit their exposure to the food that isn’t good for them, and the best way for them to do that is for me to teach them about making healthy choices. While I fill my home with healthy options, it’s wonderful to see my son now come to realize, on his own, that the choices he makes affect the way he feels.

【推荐2】Latest Competitions

Win a copy of Fergie Frog’s First Aid Adventures

Closing Date: 30th January 2021

Fergie Frog’s First Aid Adventures introduces first aid knowledge to children, just to meet their curiosity and help them feel confident in an emergency situation.

By gently introducing different characters, we can gradually improve their understanding and abilities as they learn and grow. Fergie Frog’s First Aid Adventures can be bought from Amazon for £8. 99. To enter this competition you must register.

Win a copy of Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright!

Closing Date: 14th January 2021

This gift book collects 365 animal poems, including poetry in translation. The illustrations (插图) bring together all the richness and wonder of the animal kingdom, making this poetry a perfect gift that will be liked by generations.

Win The Fireman Sam Bundle

Closing Date: 30th January 2021

To celebrate the new TV series of Fireman Sam，Mattel is giving you the chance to win a special prize including: Fireman Sam Five Figure Pack, Fireman Sam Helmet with Sound and Sam Fire Rescue Centre.

Make sure you watch the new and exciting series of Fireman Sam on Cartoonito from Monday 26th December 2020 at 7 am & 4 pm. Expect lots of Fireman Sam fun, excitement and laughter for pre-school children combined with those important safety lessons.

Win prizes in Toyota’s Dream Car Art Contest

Closing Date: 4th February 2021

Toyota is giving children a chance to use their imagination and drawing skills to explore what future cars might look like. There are prizes in three age groups: under-eight, eight to 11 and 12 to 15 years old. The three winners in each group will each receive an iPad or a Samsung tablet, plus a Toyota food bag.

【推荐2】Ling was a Chinese girl who had always been fascinated by the culture and people of Africa. She had grown up reading books about the continent and watching documentaries about the wildlife and the people who lived there. So, when she graduated from college, she decided to take a gap year and volunteer in Africa.

She arrived in a small village in Kenya, where she was greeted by a group of friendly locals who showed her around and introduced her to the other volunteers. Ling was excited to start her work, but she quickly realized that it was going to be much harder than she had expected.

The village was poor and lacked basic necessaries like clean water and electricity. The people were struggling to make ends meet, and Ling knew that she had to do something to help. She started by teaching English to the children in the village, who were eager to learn and improve their communication skills.

Ling also worked with the local women, teaching them how to sew and make handicrafts that they could sell in the market. She helped them set up a small business, and soon they were making enough money to support their families.

But Ling’s work was not without its challenges. She had to deal with cultural differences and language barriers, and she often found herself feeling frustrated and overwhelmed. However, she persevered, knowing that her work was making a difference in the lives of the people she was helping.

As time went on, Ling became more and more involved in the community. She helped to build a well that provided clean water to the village, and she organized a fundraiser to buy solar panels that would bring electricity to the area.

Ling’s work in Africa was not easy, but it was incredibly rewarding. She had made a difference in the lives of the people she had met, and she had learned so much about herself and the world around her. As she prepared to leave the village and return home, Ling knew that she would never forget the experiences she had had in Africa, and she hoped that she had inspired others to follow in her footsteps and make a difference in the world.

【推荐3】There was once a jeweler, known for many virtues. One day, the Jewish elders came to him to buy some diamonds to decorate part of the dress of their high priest (神父，牧师), which the Bible calls an ephod.

They told him what they wanted, and offered him a fair price for the diamonds. He replied that he could not let them see the jewels at that moment, and requested them to call again.

As they wanted them without delay, and thought that the object of the jeweler was only to increase the price of the diamonds, the elders offered him twice, then three times, as much as they were worth. But he still refused, and they went away angrily.

Some hours after, he went to them, and placed before them the diamonds, for which they again offered him the last price they had named, but he said, “I will only accept the first one you offered to me this morning.”

“Why, then, did you not close with us at once?” asked they in surprise. “When you came,” replied he, “my father had the key of the box, in which the diamonds were kept, and as he was asleep, I should have been obliged to wake him to obtain them. At his age, a short hour of sleep does him a great deal of good, and for all the gold in the world, I would not be wanting in respect to my father, or take from him a single comfort.”

The elders, affected by these feeling words, spread their hands upon the jeweler’s head, and said, “Thou shalt be blessed of Him who has said: Honor thy father and thy mother, and thy children shall one day pay thee the same respect and love thou hast shown to thy father.”

【推荐2】Jim Glaub and his wife just moved into their new Manhattan apartment on 22nd Street when the previous houseowner said something curious: “Just so you know, there’s this thing where letters addressed to Santa come to the apartment. It has been coming for years and no one knows why. But it’s not that big a deal. ”

Then in the months leading to Christmas, letters from kids or parents to Santa came flooding in, asking for gifts they could not otherwise afford. Glaub and his wife responded to as many as they could, writing notes, even buying gifts. But they could do only so much.

Glaub, of course, is not Santa. He runs a marketing company. But one night, when the couple threw a Christmas party, a solution appeared. The guests noticed the hundreds of letters they’d yet to act upon piled in the corner of their dining room and asked about them.

“I told them the story, ” Glaub said. His guests were very interested. “A lot of people were like, ‘I’ll take a letter. I’ll fulfill it. ”

And so was born Miracle on 22nd Street, a community-based volunteer organization that responds to children’s letters to Santa with season’s greetings and gifts. Working with other nonprofits that help those in need, Glaub invited families from around the country to go online and request gifts for their children. Meanwhile, donors can sign up to buy gifts for a child or family, accompanied by a signed note.

Letters typically request popular items, such as toys, coats, a doll for little kids, makeup and bikes for older ones. One child suffering back pain from sleeping on the living room couch in a crowded household asked for a bed.

Some letters are heartbreaking. One child wrote: “Dear Santa, for Christmas, I want my brother to get better. My younger brother has a hard time walking and has to use his wheelchair. I wish he could play like me.”

That’s a tough ask. But Glaub did send the children gift cards and a kind note.

Last year, Glaub and the organization helped more than 800 families. One beneficiary wrote: “…you gave my babies a reason to smile and enjoy their Christmas after everything we’ve been through. All I wanted was to see them happy and I got just what I wanted.”

Glaub no longer tries to figure out why the letters come to the apartment. Putting in the long hours to help the families is what it’s all about for him.