Chores weren't popular at my house. My children didn't like to do chores. They always saw me do chores, but they hardly ever helped me dothem.

    A year ago, I made a game called "The Endless ChoreGame". It's really great. Here's how the game works.

    I make a card with forty squares(方框), and I write adifferent chore on each square. These chores can be easy and interesting likemaking dessert. Then my family roll the dice(骰子)to decidewhat chores we have to do. The card also has a few squares with fun things, like watching TV and singing. If you're lucky, you can watchTV when the others are doing the chores.

    My son likes the game very much. He goes to the kitchen happily every morning to do the game. It's really a good way to make my children do chores. You can have a try if you have the same problemas me.

    Erden Eruc has been rowing across the Pacific Ocean in a rowboat since he left California on July 10, 2007. He has been heading for Australia with only birds, fish, and sharks ever since.

    Crossing the Pacific is only part of his journey. Eruc has decided to go all the way around the world using his own energy. He will row, bike, walk and climb the world without help from any motors(发动机) at all. His plan includes climbing the tallest peak on six of the continents(洲) along the way.

    For the first part of his trip, he bicycled 5,546 miles from Seattle, Washington to Mount McKinley in Alaska and back, walked 67 miles to base camp and climbed 20,320 feet to McKinley's peak. Now in the second part of his adventure(冒险活动), he is rowing to Australia.

    Why would he try to go around the world this way? He explains that he wants to encourage kids to dream their dreams and get to their own goals. He wants to show kids that there might be hard parts along the way, and sometimes they might not even get to that final goal. But they can have adventures and learn a lot along the way.

    When his trip around the world takes him across land, he enjoys meeting people—especially children. He has already visited many schools and shared his story. Eruc encourages all kids to set their eyes on a goal and not give up. He says, "with goals, we will make progress, and we will be farther along than when we started, even if we don't get to some goals. That's called life!"

    Mum gave little Tom ten yuan. Then little Tom went shopping. He got on the bus and sat down next to an old woman. Then he saw the old woman's bag was open. There was ten yuan in it. He quickly looked into his pocket. The money wasn't there now! Little Tom was sure that the old woman was a thief（小偷）. He decided to take back the money from the old woman's bag. So he carefully put his hand into the old woman's bag，took the money and said nothing. Suddenly the old woman shouted，“Where is my money? I can't find it. There is a thief in the bus.” Little Tom felt strange. Then he saw his own ten yuan under his seat. Little Tom is thinking a question now，“Am I a thief ?”

    On Miriam's 9th birthday two years ago, her aunt, who lives in Kenya（肯尼亚）, gave money to a group that cares for elephants to celebrate Miriam's birthday. Then Miriam and her mother visited Africa to learn how the group was helping elephants. Later, Miriam fell in love with the animals and wanted to help save them.

    A few months after visiting Africa, Miriam watched How I Became an Elephant, a film about the mistreatment of elephants in Thailand, and a young girl's effort to save them. Miriam decided she wanted to raise money to save elephants.

    Last year, Miriam created a program called They Deserve（应得） to Be Free after seeing how young elephants are abused in Thailand. She learned how people take a baby elephant, don't give it food or water for days and beat it hard. "It made me really sad. I need to do something useful." Miriam said.

    Miriam is working to make money for Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. She asked her friends to give money to the park rather than giving her birthday gifts.

    She recently joined about 12 other students in an art center. They made elephants from clay and decorated（装饰） them. Then she created a plan to sell clay elephants.

    Kate, Miriam's art teacher, opened her art studio（工作室） to Miriam and her friends on weekends so they could make clay elephants. She even gave them the clay." It's great to see a young student wanting to spend her time on something meaningful. This is what we should all work towards," Kate said.

    Miriam says she has sold 180 clay elephants worth 2, 000 dollars, and all of that money has been sent to Elephant Nature Park in Thailand.

    When I was a little child, my mom sometimes liked to make breakfast food for dinner. And I remember one night she made breakfast after a long, hard day at work.

    That evening, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and burned cookies in front of my dad. I remembered waiting to see if anyone would say anything. Yet all my dad did was to reach for his cookie, smile at my mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him eat every bite of that cookie!

    When I got up from the table that evening, I remembered hearing my mom say sorry to my dad for burning the cookies. And I'll never forget what he said, "Dear, I love burned cookies."

    Later that night, I went to kiss Dad goodnight, and I asked him if he did really like his burned cookies. He kissed me and said, "Your mom had a hard day at work today, and she's very tired.  Besides, a little burned cookie never hurt anyone!"

    Life is full of imperfect(完美)things and imperfect people. We need to learn to accept each other's faults and differences.