【推荐1】Children love gardening. Here are 4 unique and memorable presents that are sure to be appreciated:

1. Big Kid’s Garden Tool Set

If you really want your kids to help out with the yard work, this garden tool set for children is a great idea. Coming with four pieces—rake, hoe, shovel, and leaf rake—this set is designed and sized for kids five years and up. Each tool is made with a metal head and a wooden handle—these are real tools that they can use in the garden. These kid’s garden tools are perfect for preparing garden beds for planting or cleaning up leaves in the fall.

2. Grow Light System

Here’s the next best thing! The Jump Start T5 Grow Light System is ideal for seedlings, cutting, lowers and other house plants. The super efficient T5 lights help with the growth by providing 15-200 more heat than traditional grow lights. It features simple lamp (夹子) for cay lamp height, adjustment, and the fixture has an internal reflective finish that directs more light to plants. The equipment won’t take up too much spa and it’s no too expensive.

3. Hydroponic Herb Garden Kit

If your kids are a little more high tech and less willing to get their hands dirty, you can still get them into gardening. Fully hydroponic, this self watering planter makes it easy to grow select herbs, veggies, and fruit without a traditional garden. This is a great option for a classroom or apartment dwellers who don’t have a yard. It’s also good for parents who don’t have a green thumb but want to teach their children about growing plants and food.

4. Electric Pressure Washer

The Sun Joe Electric Pressure Washer can perform a variety of cleaning tasks outdoors. Remove oil from concrete, rust from steel and caked mud on equipment. Its 34-inch spray (喷射) length and rear wheels provide easy access to hard-to-reach areas such as 2-story buildings.

For more information, call Anaclerio at 708-864-6584 or Carlisle at 708-205-9141.

【推荐2】Nowadays robots are taking the world of sports by storm, from the six-legged skier to the ping pong ace and the expert curler.

Mini Cheetah, a four-legged robot, was trained up by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley’s Hybrid Robotics Lab.

The robot can handle a range of thrown and kicked shots from humans. It can squat, jump, sidestep and dive to stop shots. It can save 87.5 per cent of shots taken on goal, compared to the average for human keepers of around 69 per cent.

Google’s ping-pong robot arm recently completed an epic 340-shot rally (对打) with a human. The arm plays “cooperatively” to get a good rally going, but according to Google its skills could be built up to match the level of a serious human competitor.

Researchers wanted to train it up in a simulation so it could play with humans in the real world. China’s badminton bot

In China, researchers have created a robot called the Robomintoner that can play badminton against human competitors.

The machine looks a bit like a lawnmower (割草机), but it firmly grips its badminton racket just like any human player would. It also gets sufficient power into the shuttlecock using a swift flicking motion, and zips around the court on four wheels.

Also in China, experts from the Shanghai JiaoTong University created a skiing robot that can control its own descent down a snowy slope. The machine stands with two legs on each ski and grips ski poles with its middle legs, which it can manoeuvre (操纵) to control direction.

The robot can stay upright, turn and avoid crashing to people. It is also capable of skiing at more than 30 feet per second across a 1, 300-foot course on an 18-degree slope.

【推荐1】Like many six-year-olds, Sam Pointon loves trains and dreams of working with them when he grows up. However, when the position for Director of the National Railway Museum in England was offered, Sam couldn’t help applying for it. And he got the job finally!

It all began during a family vacation, when Sam’s dad noticed the job opening. He joked that it would be the perfect position for little Sam when he grew up. But Sam thought he was able to do the job. After all, he had been on several train rides, owned an electric train and had mastered the technique of controlling two trains at once.

Little Sam’s handwritten letter caught the eye of the museum staff, who were so impressed by his enthusiasm that they decided to hire (雇用) him.

While the job doesn’t pay anything, it does have its perks (补贴). But young Sam doesn’t care about it. He thinks it would be an important experience for him. Therefore, he has been doing his job quite seriously and has already suggested that the museum should set up a model train area to attract more children.

In order to encourage Sam, his family was invited for a special VIP, behind-the-scenes tour of the museum, which covers more than 400 years of railroad history and houses over 100 old trains. They were also given free tickets to see a stage adaptation (版) of the popular kids’ book The Railway Children.

Sam is so serious about his new position that the six-year-old believes he doesn’t even have to go to school anymore — which of course, is not the case. His parents just haven’t had the heart to tell him yet!

【推荐3】I noticed some young students standing by the road. I could see they were sweating, which wasn’t surprising because of the 40-degree heat.

“Miss, do you have any water?” one boy asked.

“We don’t have any boxed water at home,” another explained.

My heart sank hearing this.

In Wilcannia, where I accepted a six-month contract as a primary school teacher, it hadn’t rain for a long time. A health warning had been issued, meaning you couldn’t drink the town water, which was filled with so much chlorine (氯) that you could feel dry from having a shower. What’s worse, not everyone could afford to buy supplies, so the local radio station distributed boxed water to the community.

“Let me check,” I told them.

Quickly searching my car, I pulled out a full bottle and gave it to the children before saying goodbye. It was moments like this that reminded me just how far I’d come from my old life as a teacher in Sydney.

The nearest shops were two hours away and the thought of not being able to feel quite warm at night was disturbing. But living in a small, two-bedroom house without the Internet or a phone connection also had its rewards. I enjoyed the silence and looked forward to each working day.

I taught Year Six, which consisted of just 10 students — a lot smaller than the classes of 30 I was used to. I also taught singing to the wider school community. Setting up my classroom with spaces — a bright-coloured tent with cushions for them to feel safe, sleep or have time away from conflict, I made a motto for our class: Mistakes are expected, respected, inspected and corrected.

The students and I bonded so well that I extended my contract to a full year!