It is good to get in touch with your inner child from time to time，and obviously some people are willing to pay big money for the chance to do so in a proper environment．A Brooklyn-based adult preschool is charging customers between $333 and $999 for the chance to act like a kid again．

    At Preschool Mastermind in New York adults get to participate in show—and—tell，arts—and—crafts such as finger paint，games like musical chairs and even take naps．The month-long course also has class picture day where the adults are expected to have a field trip and a parent day．

    30-year-old Michelle Joni Lapidos， the brain behind the adult preschool，studied childhood education and has always wanted to be a preschool teacher．She's always on the lookout for new ways to get people in touch with the freedom of childhood．A friend encouraged her to start the mastermind course instead．

    According to Candice，her blogger friend，Preschool Mastermind gives adults a chance to relearn and master the things that they failed to understand as children．“I realized all the significances of what we learn in preschool，”said founder Michelle Joni，“People come here and get in touch with their inner child．It's magical．We are bringing ourselves back to another place，another time with ourselves when we are more believing in ourselves，more confident and ready to take on the world.”

    “One person's here because they want to learn not to be so serious．”Michelle said．“Another's here to learn to be more confident.” She explained that most of the classes were planned．However，Joni added that while the planned activities were fun，it was often the spontaneous(自发的)moments that attracted students．“It's the things you don't plan for，the sharing between friends and learning from each other.''

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    When I was 12, all I wanted was a signet (图章) ring. They were the "in" thing and it seemed every girl except me had one. On my 13th birthday, my Mum gave me a signet ring with my initials(姓名首字母) carved into it. I was in heaven.

    What made it even more special was that it was about the only thing that wasn't being "replaced". We'd been burnt out in fires that swept through our area earlier that year and had lost everything—so most of the " new" stuff (东西) we got was really just to replace what we'd lost. But not my ring. My ring was new.

    Then, only one month later, I lost it. I took it off before bed and it was missing in the morning. I was sad and searched everywhere for it. But it seemed to have disappeared. Eventually, I gave up and stopped looking for it. And two years later, we sold the house and moved away.

    Years passed, and a couple of moves later, I was visiting my parents' when Mum told me that she had something for me. It wasn't my birthday, nor was it Easter or Christmas or any other gift-giving occasion. Mum noticed my questioning look. " You'll recognize this one," she said, smiling.

    Then she handed me a small ring box. I took it from her and opened it to find my beautiful signet ring inside. The family who had bought our house 13 years earlier had recently decided to do some redecorations, which included replacing the carpets. When they pulled the carpet up in my old bedroom, they found the ring. As it had my initials carved into it, they realized who owned the ring. They'd had it professionally cleaned up by a jeweler before sending it to my mother. And it still fits me.

    One day, when I was working as a psychologist（心理学家）in England, an adolescent boy showed up in my office. It was David. He kept walking up and down restlessly, his face pale, and his hands shaking slightly. His head teacher had referred him to me. “This boy has lost his family,” he wrote. “He is understandably very sad and refuses to talk to others, and I'm very worried about him. Can you help?”

    I looked at David and showed him to a chair. How could I help him? There are problems psychology doesn't have the answer to, and which no words can describe. Sometimes the best thing one can do is to listen openly and sympathetically（同情）

The first two times we met, David didn't say a word. He sat there, only looking up to look at the children's drawings on the wall behind me. I suggested we play a game of chess. He nodded. After that he played chess with me every Wednesday afternoon—in complete silence and without looking at me. It's not easy to cheat in chess, but I admit I made sure David won once or twice.

    Usually, he arrived earlier than agreed, took the chess board and pieces from the shelf and began setting them up before I even got a chance to sit down. It seemed as if he enjoyed my company（陪伴）. But why did he never look at me?

    “Perhaps he simply needs someone to share his pain with,” I thought. “Perhaps he senses that I respect his suffering.” Some months later, when we were playing chess, he looked up at me suddenly.

    “It's your turn,” he said.

    After that day, David started talking. He got friends in school and joined a bicycle club. He wrote to me a few times, about his biking with some friends, and about his plan to get into university. Now he had really started to live his own life.

Maybe I gave David something. But I also learned that one…without any words—can reach out to another person. All it takes is a hug, a shoulder to cry on, a friendly touch, and an ear that listens.

    When my brother and I were young, my mom would take us on Transportation Days.

    It goes like this: You can't take any means of transportation more than once. We would start from home, walking two blocks to the rail station. We'd take the train into the city center, then a bus, switching to the tram, then maybe a taxi. We always considered taking a horse carriage in the historic district, but we didn't like the way the horses were treated, so we never did. At the end of the day, we took the subway to our closest station, where Mom's friend was waiting to give us a ride home—our first car ride of the day.

    The good thing about Transportation Days is not only that Mom taught us how to get around. She was born to be multimodal (多方式的). She understood that depending on cars only was a failure of imagination and, above all, a failure of confidence—the product of a childhood not spent exploring subway tunnels.

    Once you learn the route map and step with certainty over the gap between the train and the platform, nothing is frightening anymore. New cities are just light-rail lines to be explored. And your personal car, if you have one, becomes just one more tool in the toolbox—and often an inadequate one, limiting both your mobility and your wallet.

    On Transportation Days, we might stop for lunch on Chestnut Street or buy a new book or toy, but the transportation was the point. First, it was exciting enough to watch the world speed by from the train window. As I got older, my mom helped me unlock the mysteries that would otherwise have paralyzed my first attempts to do it myself: How do I know where to get off? How do I know how much it costs? How do I know when I need tickets, and where to get them? What track, what line, which direction, where's the stop, and will I get wet when we go under the river?

    I'm writing this right now on an airplane, a means we didn't try on our Transportation Days and, we now know, the dirtiest and most polluting of them all. My flight routed me through Philadelphia. My multimodal mom met me for dinner in the airport. She took a train to meet me.

ZOOKEEPER FOR A DAY

    Go wild with an extreme zookeeping experience!

    The Khaki Extreme program is a wild behind-the-scenes zookeeping adventure like no other! The program offers the chance for 11-15 year olds to see first-hand what's involved in looking after amazing wildlife at Australia Zoo.

    During the guided adventures, you'll gain an understanding and appreciation of what's involved in working in one of the world's most popular zoological and conservation areas, and you'll love getting up close with the awesome animals.

    Whether it's helping keepers prepare diets for the animals, cleaning enclosures (围场) for large animals, or making improved activities for Australia Zoo's wildlife — you will have a chance to get involved at grass-roots level.

    After a busy morning getting up close with wildlife, you can enjoy a specially provided lunch while watching the performance in the world-famous Crocoseum. Then you'll also receive a guided behind-the-scenes tour of the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital. Here you'll see the kind veterinary (兽医的) team treating sick and injured native wildlife, and you'll learn what you can do to protect Australia's native wild animals.

    Every season is different and so is our Zookeeper for a Day Khaki Extreme program! We'll change the animals and activities each school holiday period to keep it exciting, but with so many great animals on offer, the Khaki Extreme program is always a bunch of fun.

    If reptiles (爬行动物) are more your thing, check our Zookeeper for a Day Khaki Extreme Reptile program. Here you'll have a wild day out with some of Australia Zoo's most scaly (有鳞屑的) and slippery friends. This program may not be available every school holiday period and program dates will be limited. Check the booking page for further details on availability.

    www.australiazoo.com.au

    Open daily 9:00 am—5:00 pm

    Bedtime for some of our animals is 4:30 pm.

    Closed Christmas Day

A surprising new research from Auckland University of Technology (AUT), New Zealand contradicts the commonly held view that surfers are folks only focused on their own fun. Instead, they often play an important role in saving lives. The research reveals that these thrill seekers selflessly save people they see struggling in the ocean as swimmers or after boating incidents, and so actually reduce deaths from drowning (溺水), playing a key role in making beaches safer. 

According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 236,000 people drown worldwide each year, with drowning the third leading cause of unintentional death. 

However, according to a survey, at the heart of the research, life-saving acts of heroism by surfers who save others in difficulty in the ocean waters around them, are surprisingly common. In fact, based on the sample of 418 surfers, respondents reportedly rescue an average of three people drowning or struggling in the water over the course of their lives, and some even report taking part in 10 to 20 rescues. This makes surfers the under-recognized guardians of the beach rather than the self-centered images shown in movies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, or Point Break. 

In addition, the survey found that in almost 90 percent of rescues, people aided by the responding surfers required no further treatment after the incident, making their help unlikely to be reported and so recorded, As one of the survey's co-authors Jamie Mead says, "We need to get surfers the recognition they deserve and do more research to accurately quantify (用数量表述) how many rescues they're actually doing."

Since this research was published, there has been a growing interest in the training of surfers in life-saving skills. Sonia Keeper, an experienced surfer and instructor, explains that the insights provided by the survey have motivated surfing organizations to expand their reach and connect with an even broader community of surfers. "If life-saving skills are rolled out (正式推出) to the broader coastal surfer communities around the world, this preparation can help ensure that a good day at the beach doesn't turn into a sad one," she adds.