【推荐1】Children’s lack of sleep is “hidden health crisis (危机)”, experts say. Thousands of children and teenagers face a rising sleeplessness crisis, with the number of admissions to hospital of young people who have sleep disorders increasing sharply in six years, the Guardian reported.

Experts have described the problem as a hidden public health disaster, putting the waves down to a combination of exploding obesity (肥胖) levels, abuse of social media before bedtime and a mental health crisis.

The Guardian analyzed data from NHS Digital, revealing that admissions with a primary diagnosis of sleep disorder among those aged 16 and under has risen from 6,520 in 2012-13 to 9,429 last year. Despite all ages for sleep disorders it has fallen slightly since 2012-13, moving from 29,511 to 29,184 in 2017-18.

At Millpond Sleep Clinic, a private children’s sleep clinic in London, the founder, Mandy Gurney, said that in the last year there had been a 30% rise in anxiety-related references for sleep issues among school-aged children.“It is a very worrying increase, especially if this rate rise continues to go up,” Gurney said. She added that prescriptions for melatonin (褪黑激素), a hormone the body produces naturally in reaction to darkness that helps prepare us for sleep, had also risen. “We feel that the rise in sleep problems is very much based on anxiety--school pressure, peer pressure and social media pressure.”

Vicki Dawson, the founder of the NHS Doncaster----funded the Children’s Sleep Charity, said her charity was flowed by families seeking help. She said the rise was partly caused by technology and the fact that the blue light from screens reduces the production of the sleep hormone, making it harder to fall asleep. “We are increasingly seeing families where both parents are out working and this can mean that bedtime becomes later, bedtime routines may be rushed or abandoned all together,” she said.

【推荐3】Alvin Irby, a former kindergarten and first-grade teacher, was at a barbershop when he saw one of his former students sitting in the shop with a bored look on his face. That’s when Irby realized that by pairing barbershops and books, he might be able to inspire young black boys to read.

Four years ago, he launched Barbershop Books as a way to not just get books into the hands of young black boys, but to also create community reading spaces in a place where kids go frequently. Since its inception in 2013, the program has created kid-friendly reading spaces in 50 barbershops in 12 states throughout the United States.

Irby isn’t the first person to see the connection between barbers and books and boys. Hair stylist Courtney Holmes, launched a program a few years ago offering free haircuts to kids as long as they read to him while he cuts their hair.

That’s the kind of environment that Irby wants to promote with his program. The reading spaces created by Barbershop Books help to spark an interest in books by showing kids that reading is about more than just spelling and vocabulary skills, it’s about making reading a low-stress activity that can help them relax, laugh and have fun.

“Our belief is that if we can create positive reading experiences early and often for young black boys, then they will choose to read for fun because they will identify as a reader,” Irby noted, adding, “This is really what Barbershop Books is about, getting young black boys to say three words: I’m a reader.”

Irby’s idea is catching on, and it will continue to spread thanks in part to the National Book Foundation. Barbershop Books recently won the organization’s 2017 Innovations in Reading prize, which is given to Programs that use reading to make a social impact.

【推荐2】Homeschooling is the education of children at home, usually by parents, rather than in a formal public school setting. It is now widely practiced in the United States due to its advantages.

    1     Too often in public schools a lesson has to be repeated many times even if your child may understand the problem, while homeschooling gives your child the opportunity to skip what he has already mastered. On the other hand, there is a possibility that your child may not completely grasp a math concept. Then homeschooling may provide the opportunity to repeat necessary issues.     2     Besides, some children learn best in the morning, in the afternoon or in the evening, and homeschooling allows you to work out a learning schedule that will best work for your child.

Additionally, most public schools have a single teacher to care for a class of many students, which results in lack of attention given to each child, while in a homeschooling environment a child can get undivided attention and understand academic issues at a better level.     3    

Homeschooling also offers much flexibility. A day’s learning can end at any time when the child is tired. Likewise, the timetable can be changed when there is a special learning opportunity, such as attending an interesting event or lecture.     4     Homeschooling parents usually make their classrooms much larger than just their home, making trips to science museums or carrying out field trips.     5     You can choose curriculum that is tailored to your child. Children have different learning styles, and you can use programs that meet your child’s particular style.

【推荐3】The spring break, as the name suggests, mentions the custom among American schools, colleges and universities to give their students a full week off from their studies at some time during the spring season. The dates of the spring break will vary from school to school. Some schools time their breaks to fit in with the Easter weekend, allowing students to travel home for that important holiday, while others time the spring break to St. Patrick’s Day.

While some college students might indeed use their spring breaks to catch up on their studies or to spend time with their family, many others travel to resorts （度假胜地）, in or out of the United States, in order to get together with their friends, sometimes on occasions that involve a great deal of drinking and public disorder. For many years, Fort Lauderdale, Florida was a popular destination for students from all over the country, until local residents said no to the damage caused by the students. The same case occurred in popular Daytona Beach, Florida.

Many American communities still turn a blind eye to the disruption （破坏）, however, since spring break traffic is an important factor in the local economy, despite the fact that most college students are under the minimum legal drinking age of 21. Tour companies provide special discounted spring break packages for the students to Mexico or countries of the Caribbean. These countries often have a lower minimum drinking age than the United States or are more tolerant of underage drinking.