Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination and physical, cognitive（认知的）, and emotional strength. Play is important to healthy brain development. Play allows children to create and explore a world they can master, conquering their fears while practicing adult roles. Undirected play allows children to learn how to work in groups, to share, to negotiate, and to resolve conflicts.

    Ideally, much of play involves adults, but when play is controlled by adults, children acquiesce（顺从）to adult rules and concerns and lose some of the benefits play offers them, particularly in developing creativity, leadership, and group skills. In contrast to passive entertainment, play builds active, healthy bodies. In fact, it has been suggested that encouraging unstructured play may be an exceptional way to increase physical activity levels in children, which is one important strategy in the resolution of the obesity problem.

    Children's development is critically influenced by appropriate, affective relationships with loving and consistent caregivers as they relate to children through play. When parents observe their children in play or join with them in child-driven play, they are given a unique opportunity to see the world from their children's vantage point as the child navigates a world perfectly created just to fit his or her needs. The interactions that occur through play tell children that parents are fully paying attention to them and help to build enduring relationships. Parents who have the opportunity to look at their children's world learn to communicate more effectively with their children aid are given another setting to offer guidance. Less verbal children may be able to express their views, giving their parents an opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of their perspective. Quite simply, play offers parents a wonderful opportunity to engage fully with their children.

    Play is essential to the academic environment. It ensures that the school setting attends to the social and emotional development of children as well as their cognitive development. It has been shown to help children adjust to the school setting and even to strengthen children's learning willingness. Social-emotional learning is best integrated（融合）with academic learning; it is concerning if some of the forces that enhance children's ability to learn are improved at the expense of others. Play and unscheduled time that allow for peer interactions are important components of social-emotional learning.

    You don't have to be a superhero to help the environment. Even small, simple actions can add up to big change. People around the world will celebrate Earth Day on April 22. But anyone – including kids – can work to help the earth at any time. TFK (Time for Kids) talked to a few kids about how they are protecting the planet. Let them inspire you!

    Mari, 10, lives in Flint, Michigan, where people have been without clean drinking water since 2014. That is when the water became polluted with lead（铅）. Children in Flint have suffered from health problems due to lead poisoning. Mari has worked hard to spread awareness of Flint's water crisis by organizing fundraisers and other events.

    At age 3, Ryan went with his dad to recycling center near his home, in Orange County, California. The next day, Ryan began collecting recyclables from neighbors. Soon, Ryan's Recycling Company was born. “Recycling keeps bottles and cans out of the ocean,” Ryan, now 8, told TFK, “so animals don't get sick from them and die.” So far, Ryan has helped customers recycle 320,000 bottles and cans. He has also donated nearly $6,000 to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center.

    Joris, 11, has always loved cheetahs. When he learned that the big cats might disappear in his lifetime, he set out to help protect them. Joris began raising money. So far, Joris has raised more than $14,000. The money goes to a wildlife sanctuary（避难所）in Namibia, a country in Africa. This helps prevent the animals from being killed. Jorin has spent three summers volunteering at the sanctuary.

    Jack Ma, whose Chinese name is Ma Yun, became the richest man in China, when the company he founded floated on the stock market last year with a value of around ￡140 billion. Here are some interesting stories about him.

    ⒈"Beer" was the first word that Jack Ma searched for on the Internet

    In 1995 Ma made his first trip to the US and used the Internet for the first time. After searching for "beer" and then "China", he saw that no results came up relating to China. He decided to set up a Chinese website一the seed for Alibaba had been sown.

    ⒉Jack Ma applied to study at Harvard 10 times and was rejected (拒绝) each time

Ma failed the entry exams for colleges in China three times and was also rejected for many jobs in China, including one at KFC. He was turned down by the Harvard 10 times after applying.

    ⒊Jack Ma learnt English by giving tourists free guides一every day for nine years.

    Limited resources meant it was difficult to learn English when Ma was young. However, he found that he could learn the language by giving tourists free tours around his hometown of Hangzhou一something that he did during his teenage years every morning for nine years. He found everything they said and did was so different from what he had been taught at school and by his parents, which opened his mind.

    ⒋Jack Ma named his company Alibaba because it's a globally known story

Ma simply wanted his company to have a global and interesting name, and realised that Alibaba is a story known across the world and it begins with A, appearing top of lists.

    The company was founded in 1999 and since then has grown from 15 employees to more than 30,000. Ma hopes to keep expanding Alibaba outside of China.

    We humans love to stare into our smart devices. We gaze for hours—about 10 hours and 39 minutes a day—at our computers, smartphones, tablets and televisions. Is all this staring bad for us? It might be, mainly because as we stare at our devices we are exposing ourselves to blue light.

    Blue light is a type of electromagnetic radiation with a very short wavelength that produces a high amount of energy. While it's true that light can damage our eyes under certain circumstances, there's no scientific evidence suggesting that blue light is harmful to our eyes. But many people still think it is, which is why blue light—blocking glasses are so popular. So do the glasses work?

    “Everyone is very concerned that blue light may be causing damage to the eye, but there's no evidence that it may be causing serious damage, "Dr. Rahul Khurana, clinical spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmologists, told Business Insider.

    Blue light exposure is nothing new. In fact, the sun is the largest source of blue light. Moreover, blue light is also present in LED light. But if blue light isn't harmful, then why are we constantly rubbing our eyes when we're looking at our screens? The answer is eyestrain(眼疲劳):More than 60 percent of people experience eye problems associated with digital eyestrain. And blue light, it seems, isn't the cause. Instead, our eyes are so strained because most of us blink less when we stare at our digital devices. So if eyestrain is the real issue, blue light-blocking glasses are probably of little use.

    October 15^this the Global Handwashing Day. Activities are planned in more than 20 countries to get millions of people in the developing world to wash their hands with soap. For example, donors(捐赠者) will give 150,000 bars of soap to schools in Ethiopia.

    Experts say people around the world wash their hands every day, but very few use soap at so-called important moments. These include after using the toilet, after cleaning a baby and before touching food.

    Global Handwashing Day is the idea of the Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap. Partners include the United Nations Children's Fund, American government agencies, the World Bank and soap makers Unlever and Procter and Gamble. The organizers say all soaps are equally effective at removing disease-causing germ(细菌). They say the correct way to wash is to wet your hands with a small amount of water and cover them with soap. Rub(揉搓) it into all areas, including under the fingernails(指甲). Rub for at least twenty seconds. Then rinse well under running water. Finally, dry your hands with a clean cloth or wave them in the air.

    The Partnership for Handwashing says soap is important because it increases the time that people spend in washing hands. Soap also helps to break up the dirt that holds most of the germs. And it usually leaves a pleasant smell. The Partnership for Handwashing also says washing with soap before eating or after using the toilet could save more lives than any vaccine(疫苗)or medicine. Hand washing could also prevent the spread of other diseases. When people get germs on their hands, they can infect(感染)themselves by touching their eyes, noses or mouths. Then they can infect others.

    I was so fortunate today to be able to offer my love and help to an older lady at my local supermarket. I saw her standing there. I felt quite strange about such a situation.

    What was she looking at? As I looked, I found it was a "Shredded Pork Bun Meal Kit", which is a service that sends customers food ingredients and recipes for them to prepare their own fresh meals. "That's new," I thought. Then I watched as the lady began to dig into her handbag and tried to pull out one of the biggest magnifying glasses (放大镜) I had never seen in my whole life! "Oh, she can't read it," I realized.

    So I stood there and continued watching her. The voice in my mind often asks me to do the right thing. It told me to help her. But I argued back saying, "No. I won't offer help. It will only embarrass her and she is OK now anyway. She has the world's biggest magnifying glass to help her！"

    And I stood there longer. But the voice came back, "Help her, Nicole. Don't be embarrassed. Just do it. Offer your help." So I did it. I read and explained all the things that were included in that box. I read out the ingredients, the instructions on how to cook it and so on.

    She didn't end up buying it, but she was still quite grateful. I walked away knowing that I had helped her and made the right choice. Mostly, I had reminded her that people in this world still care about the old.

    She was seen. She was loved. And she mattered so much that a complete stranger took time to help her. And that stranger was me, a person who argued and didn't want to do so in the beginning.

    So grateful I am when I choose to listen to the voice in my heart. It is because of love. Love is all that ever really matters. I also get happiness through helping her.