The Yosufs’ house is unlike any other house. In the sitting room, instead of a television, there is a blackboard on the wall. For two hours every day, Mr Yosuf writes complex mathematical problems on the board. His daughter, Zuleika, copies them into an exercise book and solves them.

Zuleika is special. She’s five years old, but instead of watching cartoons or playing computer games, her favourite pastimes are solving equations and reading books. She already spends hours every day in a university library. Next year Zuleika will become Britain’s youngest “A” level student.

Not surprisingly, the Yosufs are a very clever family. Zuleika’s two sisters and a brother, aged 16, 14 and 12 are also good at maths and are already at university. Her father, who specialises in maths research, has taught them all. “Zuleika is very competitive, says her father.” She sees her brother and sisters working every day and she can’t wait to catch up with them. I remember teaching the others maths when they were eight. Zuleika solves the same problems now, although she took up maths much earlier. We could see she was interested in numbers at a much younger age. ”

So what is the secret of their success? When their first child arrived, Mr Yosuf and his wife made up their minds to teach all of their children at home. They say that home tuition combined with love and understanding has helped their children to succeed. “We’ve been patient and supportive, and they take pride in what they do,” says Mr. Yosuf. “Maybe Zuleika has a natural talent for maths, but I believe given the right surroundings, any child could do well. ”

One thing all child prodigies(神童) do have in common is a complete dedication to and love of their subject. They spend many more hours working at it than the average child, and this extra effort is reflected in their achievements. It is not necessary to be extremely talented to be a child prodigy, but you do have to have a lot of motivation.

6 . Joshua williams was five years old when something came into his heart that would change his life and the lives of thousands of others. His journey began with a $20 birthday gift from his grandmother. She said he could use it any way he wanted.

On his way to the mall that morning, the five-year-old began thinking about all the things he could buy with the money. Then, looking out of the car window, Joshua noticed a homeless man standing on the street corner. That moment changed his life forever. Joshua instantly gave the man his $20 bill in the hope that it would make a small difference.

With this gesture, Joshua discovered his life’s calling to help the needy. At just five years old, Joshua knew he would need help in order to make his dream — to wipe out hunger — a reality. He enlisted his family, and soon they were delivering meals to the homeless every Saturday. Joshua began to realize, however, that he needed a “bigger, better and easier way to distribute food.” He and his family came up with the idea to have the homeless community come to a centralized distribution point. On their first distribution day, Joshua and his team of helpers provided more than 300 families with food. They continued distributing groceries this way every month for two years.

With the success of his work, Joshua eventually created the Joshua’s Heart Foundation to continue his mission of feeding the homeless. Now, several years later, his foundation continues to provide food and cooking classes for needy families.

Joshua and his team have helped feed over 20,000 people over the past eight years and they’re still working to increase that number. Each bag of groceries represents a brighter day in the lives of these individuals and families, and it all began with one young person who saw a need and decided to make a difference.

Jean Paul Getty was born in 1892 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He became a millionaire when he was only 24. His father was wealthy, but he did not help his son. Getty made his millions alone. He made his money from oil. He owned Getty Oil and over 100 other companies. The Fortune magazine once called Getty “the richest man in the world.”

But money did not buy happiness for Getty. He married five times and divorced five times. He had five children but spent little time with them. None of Getty’s children had very happy lives.

Getty loved to make money and loved to save it. In spite of his great wealth, Getty was miser. Every evening, he wrote down every cent he spent that day. He even put pay telephone in the guest’s bedrooms in his house so he could save money on phone bills.

In 1973, kidnappers took his 16-year-old grandson, and demanded a large amount of money for his safe return. Getty’s son asked his father for money to save his child. But Getty refused. The kidnappers were merciless and Getty’s son made repeated requests for help from his father. Finally, Getty agreed to lend the money, but at 4 percent interest.

Getty started a museum at his home Malibu, California. He bought many important and beautiful pieces of art for the museum. When Getty died in 1976, the value of the collection in the museum was $1 billion. He left all his money to the museum. After his death, the museum grew in size. Today it is one of the most important museums in the United States. Getty made a large fortune in his life, but he gave his money to the art world because he wanted people to learn about and love art.

8 . Recently, my husband and three kids were playing in the Mediterranean, swimming and floating in the picture-perfect sea. It was very beautiful in Majorca, Spain. The way the sun danced across the water and how the blue horizon was dotted with sailboats were such beautiful scenes. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

My husband and I always dreamed about taking our kids on a trip around the world. It was something we always wanted to do “one day”. It was one of the things we talked about when we imagined our life with the children.

Fourteen years later, we had three boys who were growing up faster by the day. It was time to make good on those plans. We spent dozens of hours discussing, researching and planning.

We had to learn how to “road school” our kids and arrange time off from work. We renewed our passports, and then packed our bags. We showed our kids the world. It was about experiencing the dozens of flights and trains and taxis together. We wanted them to learn all that we had learned ourselves, through our own travels as young adults.

But there was something more than that: What we really wanted is to slow down time. We wanted the days to last a bit longer, and the weeks to take their time. The years with our children are going too fast. We wanted to control our busy lives, and just be with our kids. We wanted a break from the daily morning timetable of making lunches, eating breakfast rushing out the door in time for school. We need a family time-out.

It was a wonderful two-month trip in Europe, full of wonderful moments. And when we looked back at our lives, I know we’ll be glad we did it. I know we’ll be happy that this is a part of the story of our family.

Many years ago, when I was fresh out of school and working in Denver, I was driving to my parents’ home in Missouri for Christmas. I stopped at a gas station about 50 miles from Oklahoma City, where I was planning to stop and visit a friend. While I was standing in line at the cash register (收款台), I said hello to an older couple who were also paying for gas.

I took off, but had gone only a few miles when black smoke poured from the back of my car. I stopped and wondered what I should do. A car pulled up behind me. It was the couple I had spoken to at the gas station. They said they would take me to my friend’s. We chatted on the way into the city, and when I got out of the car, the husband gave me his business card.

I wrote him and his wife a thank-you note for helping me. Soon afterward, I received a Christmas present from them. Their note that came with it said that helping me had made their holiday meaningful.

Years later, I drove to a meeting in a nearby town in the morning. In later afternoon I returned to my car and found that I’d left the lights on all day, and the battery (电池) was dead. Then I noticed that the Friendly Ford dealership – a shop selling cars – was right next door. I walked over and found two salesmen in the showroom.

“Just how friendly is Friendly Ford?” I asked and explained my trouble. They quickly drove a pickup truck to my car and started it. They would accept no payment, so when I got home, I wrote them a note to say thanks. I received a letter back from one of the salesmen. No one had ever taken the time to write him and say thank you, and it meant a lot, he said.

“Thank you” – two powerful words. They’re easy to say and mean so much.