【推荐2】Who needs friends? According to most psychologists (心理学家) we all do, especially nowadays when so many other aspects (方面) of modern life are changing. It seems that having friends keeps us both healthy and happy.

The number of TV series about groups of friends shows just how important friendship is to us. Psychologist Dorothy Rowe says that many of us now turn to our friends, instead of our families, for advice, comfort and security. One woman named Rebecca she interviewed even told her that if she had got to choose between her husband and her friend, she would choose her friend.

Since our friends mean so much to us, it is not surprising that the happiest marriages are also friendships. “Once the romantic stage of a relationship has passed, it is friendship that holds people together,” says Rowe. If the couple do not make some change, they will either get tired of each other and break up or stay together and seek friendship with others.

But is friendship equally important to women and men? According to author Rhonda Pritchard, women are more likely than men to have close friends. “ You tell a friend things that you’d never tell a partner”，says one woman she interviewed. For men, friendship is usually based on doing things together rather than the private conversations that are typical of women friend. Men share time and activities like building a fence or a business, running, riding a bike, fishing or watching football, but they don’t often share their feelings.

Although many women find their relationships with a husband or boyfriend is not enough, many men say that their partner is their best friend. Even women who are very happily married are likely to become very unhappy without a close friend and can even find the breakup of a close friend as painful as the end of a marriage.

Lasting friendships can provide a lot of the same support that families provided in the past, but the perfect situation is to have your family there for as well. Friendships and family relationships can both change, but a friend will not consider you when making really important decisions in the same way that a family member will.

【推荐3】It’s peak cold and flu season, which means taking a lot of preventative measures. Frequent hand-washing is a must, as is avoiding co-workers or friends who are sick. But we humans are not the only animals that change behaviors to keep diseases at bay. So do ants.

“So there are the foragers (工蚁) and the nurses — it’s two different groups of work,” said Natha of the University of Lausanne. She and her colleagues observed ants to see their reaction to the presence of a disease.

“The nurses being made of young workers typically, stay inside the nest and take care of the eggs. And the foragers are all the workers spending most of time at outside of the nest to collect food and defend the territory.”

Forager ants are at greater risk of getting exposed to diseases because they leave the safety of the nest. So the researchers sprayed a common virus on a small group of forager ants and then followed their movements to see the way other ants reacted.

“We marked all ants in the colony with individual labels, which carries these two-dimensional bar code marks like QR code which is automatically detected and recorded using a tracking system.”

After the infection, the nurse and forager ants stayed within their working places and interacted less outside of their work group. The researchers also saw that forager ants spent more time outside of the nest. “They increase that amount by 15 percent, so by quite a large amount.”

Isolating behavior stops the spread of the virus. “Something that’s quite interesting in these ants that’s been shown by the study is that in their ability to avoid infecting other members of the community, ants may be more advanced than we are,” Natha said.

Lately, there is a rising trend in families choosing to homeschool their child than send their child to a traditional educational institution. Let’s look at some of the benefits of homeschooling.

1. Flexible Schedule

Homeschooling enables a flexible schedule.    1    With homeschooling, your child can start homeschooling at 9 a.m. or later depending on your preferred schedule. You can schedule your child’s homeschooling education as you see fit with materials or subjects that may be not available in a traditional school.

2. Individual Attention

With homeschooling, your child gets all the individual attention. For example, if your child is weak in maths, you could devote more time and energy to teaching maths. Your child’s homeschooling schedule can be adjusted for that. For example, if your child is better at science than at maths, simply devote more homeschooling hours to maths and cut back on science. With homeschooling, the choice is yours.    2    

3. Family Activity

The schooling of the child can become an extended family activity. Examples are field trips and experiments. Plus, the child also receives more quality time with his/her parents.    3    The child is also free of any negative peer pressure or influences.

4.     4    

With homeschooling, the child does not need to prove his/her abilities to other children. Parents are able to plan the learning program according to his strengths and weakness. Parents can also change the curriculum to suit the learning style of the child.    5    Some children even learn better from experiencing or seeing things in action.

【推荐3】I think adults are affected by media, songs, and the Internet, and that is hard enough. After looking in all of the magazines and at models, my friends and I agree that our least favorite day of the year is when we wear swimsuits! It affects your whole mood and self-image for the day. Think about how hard it is for young girls if they believe “how hot you look” is how valuable you are.

Here are some ways parents can be proactive in encouraging a healthy self-image in their children.

First, teach what real value is. I think kids sometimes are confused about values. How valuable you are is not measured by how pretty you are on the outside and success is not measured by how famous you are. We were watching the Oscars and my 6-year-old son said “She is so pretty,” and then quickly looked at me and said “You are prettier, Mom.” And I said, “It’s okay. There are many people prettier than me on the outside. I know that’s not why you love me.” It is important to teach children this from an early age.

Second, tell your kids about “the grass is always greener syndrome.” It is very easy for all of us to see the glamour (魅力), whether it be in a famous singer or the most popular girl in the school. Do not dehumanize and judge famous people. Talk about what problems they might have that are different from the problems your child has and maybe some of the same struggles, like maybe wanting acceptance from peers (同龄人).

At last, use your mouth. Don’t be afraid to have conversations with your child about how they’re feeling about ads, songs, etc... Boys too! You are the parent! Kids of all ages want and need boundaries whether they admit it or not. Take a stand and have confidence enough not to be followers and not to purchase clothing, music, or magazines that you don’t believe sends the right message to your children!