Edward walked slowly past the school blacktop where his older brother, Leon, was playing basketball with his friends. Leon didn’t notice Edward until he turned to shoot the ball. Leon really loved basketball and was good at it. But Edward was another story.

Edward would beg to play with them but Leon’s friends complained a lot. For some reason, in that last game, Edward’s playing was worse than ever. He couldn’t do anything right. He was completely unable to keep possession of the ball. He missed even the easy rebounds. His dribbling was useless, and none of his throws were anywhere near the basket. Leon had to turn his brother away.

Edward was always a whiz at math. He was so advanced that he already knew how to solve long division problems before he was taught in school. Word problems, even the complicated ones with several steps, were no problem.

One day, Leon’s math teacher, pulled him aside. “ You need to do better, a lot better, or you’re not going to pass this class. There’s a big test coming up. ”

Leon’s heart sank. When he got home, he talked with Edward about it. The boys agreed that over the next two weeks they intended to spend an hour each day after school working on math problems and then an hour playing basketball.

“Here is a good one,” Edward said and pointed to a word problem. “ Why don’t you read it?”

Leon looked at the book for several seconds. “ I’m dizzy already!” He exclaimed.

“Do you know what the first step is?” asked Edward, “The first step is to stay cool and focused.” Edward talked Leon through the problem. “Think about what you need to find out. Don’t let the problem trick you.” Step by step, together they figured it out and got the right answer. Leon soon discovered that Edward was really good at helping him.

Soon it was time for basketball practice.

The morning of the math test came all too soon for Leon.

2 . When a Houston dad found out his eight-year-old son was being bullied (欺负), he didn’t get mad at the classmate who teased him. Instead, he talked with the so-called bully and realized that the boy was struggling, too.

Aubrey Fontenot’s son, Jordan, told him a boy named Tamarion was teasing him. Fontenot decided to sit down with his son and Tamarion to understand what was going on, and something unexpected happened.

Tamarion told Fontenot he was being teased at school, too. “I asked, ‘By who? You are big. You are huge. Who is teasing you?’” the father said. “He said, ‘Just all the other kids, man. They are making fun of me.” Fontenot learned that Tamarion was getting teased for his clothes and shoes—his clothes and shoes were old and dirty. Fontenot then spoke to the boy’s mother. “She kind of confirmed it,” Fontenot said. “And she said, ‘That’s the kind of situation.’”

He felt sympathetic to the young boy and wanted to help. So he asked Tamarion’s mom if he could take her son to do some shopping.

Fontenot posted videos of their trip to the mall on social media and they went viral. Tamarion eventually smiled, and then the two were laughing and singing together on their shopping trip. Just as if he were taking his own son to do some shopping, Fontenot got Tamarion new clothes and shoes, and shared words of wisdom with him.

Then, the dad united the two boys. He said it was awkward at first—just a day earlier, they didn’t get along well at school. But the two classmates started playing sports games together and soon became friends.

It was not just about the clothes and shoes. Tamarion gained a friend in Jordan, and a mentor in his dad. Fontenot said he was also bullied when he was a child, so he knew it was important to listen to Tamarion’s story. He chose kindness instead of anger and brought the two boys together. “I wouldn’t say that was the goal, but that was the reward,” Fontenot said.

The Trouble With Chores (家庭杂务)

The twins, Jenna and Jeff, were good at most things. Their dad was good at most things, too. But there was one thing the twins and Dad were not good at—that was chores. It wasn’t that Dad and the twins didn’t want to do their chores. It was just that they always seemed to have reasons not to do them. And they had such good excuses.

“You’re right, my dear,” said Mum. “The grass does need cutting. But a spider has spun a wonderful web on the lawn mower and I haven’t the heart to put all her hard work to waste.”

“Mum,” said Jenna, “I know it’s my week to put up my cards. It’s just that I’m waiting for them to dry. They’ll be easier to scoop up that way.”

“Mum,” said Jeff, “may I skip setting the table tonight? There’s a TV show on the Ice Age, and I have to do a report on the Beast of Baluchistan.”

There were also the endless quarrels about who did what and who got the easy job. Mum sighed. If only Dad and the twins were as good at doing their chores as they were at arguing about them, life would be easier. Talking of chores, Mum thought instead of pushing them for chores, it would be a lot easier to do them herself. And that was what she did. She put away all cards and set and cleared the table. She chased the dust bunnies from under the furniture and cleaned up the twins’ messy room.

The twins did pick up and put away things occasionally. Dad did cut the grass once in a while. Not surprisingly, things began to slide. Everybody got a little unhappy, especially Mum, who spent much time doing chores. Something had to be done. But what?

My mom is really a good cook （I bet all of us have this same claims） and she never really taught me how to cook.She enjoys experimenting various dishes and occasionally she will ask for my help to grind chili，onions or garlic.Basically all simple chores.I sometimes look at how she prepares the dishes and became more observant over the years.Every day she will buy meat or vegetables from a local market near us and just store it in the fridge to be cook later for dinner.She works for the government and she is not available to cook lunch.Every day after coming back from school I would always open the refrigerator and see what she bought and I can always tell what will be for dinner that night.If I see chicken，potatoes and shredded coconut，I would be very excited because I know she will make my favorite dish – Chicken Curry.

My parents do okay but we are by no means wealthy.I think we are comfortable in our daily basic needs but we definitely have no room for luxuries.But when it comes to our dinner，my mom will always make 3 dishes for dinner without failure.It’s almost like eating in a restaurant.I have to admit I was spoiled by my mom when it comes to my eating habits and have high expectations when eating somewhere else.      

One day my mom came back from work in the office and she was really in bad mood.She was complaining about how untidy we are and we （my siblings） never contributed in the household chores.To me that is not a fair statement as my elder brother and I took turns to wash the dishes.I was also given the privileged of ironing my mom and dad’s office attire each week.I was 14 at that time and being a boy，I have no intention of letting my friends know.Most of my friends have a maid to do all this but my parents simply couldn’t afford one.