Today's demands for measuring childhood success have chased household chores from the to-do lists of many young people. In a survey of 1,001 US adults released by Braun Research, 82% reported having regular chores growing up, but only 28% said that they require their own children to do them. “Parents today want their kids spending time on things that can bring them success, but ironically, we've stopped doing one thing that's actually been a proven predictor of success—and that's household chores.” says Richard Rende, a developmental psychologist.

    Giving children household chores at an early age helps to build a lasting sense of mastery, responsibility and independence, according to research by Marty Rossmann, professor at the University of Minnesota. In 2002, Dr. Rossman analyzed data from a longitudinal(纵向的) study that followed 84 children across four periods. She found that young adults who began chores at ages 3 and 4 were more likely to have good relationships with family and friends and to achieve academic and early career success, as compared with those who didn't have chores or who started them as teens.

    Chores also teach children how to be empathetic(感同身受的) and responsive to others' needs, notes psychologist Richard Weissbourd. In research, his team surveyed 10,000 high-school students and asked them to rank what they treasured more: achievement, happiness or caring for others. Almost 80% chose either achievement or happiness over caring for others. As he points out, however, research suggests that personal happiness comes most reliably not from high achievement but from strong relationships. “We're out of balance,” says Dr. Weissbourd. A good way to start re-adjusting priorities(优先事项), he suggests, is by learning to be kind and helpful at home.

    The next time that your child asks to skip chores to do homework, resist the urge to let him or her off the hook. Being slack(懈怠的) about chores when they compete with school sends your child the message that grades and achievement are more important than caring about others. What may seem like small messages in the moment but add up to big ones over time.

    New Yorkers and visitors to the Big Apple will get to ring in the Lunar New Year，also known as Chinese New Year in the U．S．，in style with a fireworks display on the Hudson River set to music written by Academy Award﹣winning composer Tan Dun．

    The display is part of the second annual"Happy Chinese New Year：Fantastic Art China"festival held in New York on February 5﹣10，2016．The China Central Academy of Fine Arts （CAFA），the U．S．﹣China Cultural Institute and the Cultural Associate of the Committee of 100announced this year's events on November 18at a press conference at the Lincoln Center．

    The"Fantastic Art China"festival will feature a larger and more diverse series of artistic and cultural events across New York's top cultural venues （地点） and landmarks，including the Lincoln Center，Empire State Building and Jacob K．Javits Convention Center．

    This year's theme focuses on exploring the complicated relationship between sound and image，said Professor Yu Ding from CAFA，who is also president of Fantastic Art China and in charge of the festival's design．Lunar New Year，which celebrates the"Year of the Monkey"in 2016，is an opportunity to bring China's modern art to mainstream America，and the festival serves as  an innovative approach to establishing cultural exchange between China and New York City，Yu said．

    UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Tan Dun's music is a new edition that will be featured  at several venues，including a major art exhibition at the Javits Center，events at the Lincoln Center and the fireworks display on the Hudson，which will take place on the evening of February 6．Five barges （游艇） on the river will launch the fireworks designed by CAFA that will tell a story about celebration and conservation．

    "We Chinese are fond of nature，so the best way to celebrate the Lunar New Year is to salute with the sounds of nature，such as sounds of water，stone and bamboo，"said Tan Dun at the press conference，"And it will be fun to use the music of water during the firework display．"

    In addition to the fireworks，a special lighting show at the Empire State Building will illuminate New York City during the holiday．

    Chinese New Year is being recognized as a public school holiday for the first time in New York．Children from the National Dance Institute，which represents 75schools，will perform traditional Chinese dances at the Lincoln Center and the Javits Center．And，in celebration of the"Year of the Monkey"events will feature a conservation message about the endangered golden monkey in China．

    The GRAMMY Museum is a musically fascinating journey of music in downtown Los Angeles. Turn up the beat over four floors of modern exhibits, interactive(互动的) experiences and interesting films that will give you a one-of-a-kind experience. They want to engage you, educate you, and inspire you — just like music does!

    There are over 30,000 square feet of interactive, traveling and permanent (永久的) exhibits. This includes over two dozen exhibits along that explore the greatest of the GRAMMY music! Your whole family will find something they love — rock, classical, hip hop to country…

    The Crossroads exhibition invites you to explore nearly 160 kinds of music! Open them up on the interactive table in front of you to show photos, songs and stories that describe the influence that music has on the world, as well as the music itself.

    Journey down the Songwriters Hall of Fame. How many of these songs do you know? How many songwriters have you heard of? You can also try writing a song with some songwriters in the songwriting kiosks(自助式服务设备)!

    Have you wondered how a song gets from someone's head to your radio? The third floor shows the art of recording.

    The museum always has a host of programs and events throughout the year, so make sure you keep up to date — you won't want to miss out!

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

Adults: $ 12.95

Children: $ 10.95 (6-17 yrs)

Free: under 5 years old

WHEN CAN WE GO?

Mon-Fri: 11:30 am – 7:30 pm

Weekends: 10:00 am – 7:30 pm

    Sometimes shut for private events, so check before you go.

    On the eve of our daughters' weddings, I gave both of them what I considered to be excellent marital advice: never leave your husband unsupervised （无人监督的） with pruning shears （修枝剪）.

    If only I had taken my own advice. I recently let my guard down. Thirty﹣some years of marriage can do that to a woman. Give a man pruning shears and electric trimmers （电动修剪器） and he will give new meaning to "armed and dangerous."

One day earlier this year, my husband said that the crab apple tree was dead.

    "Why do you think it is dead?" I asked.

    "Look at it. There's not a leaf on it."

    "There's not a leaf on anything. It's March," I said.

    "It looked sick last fall and with this bitter winter we had, I'm convinced it's dead."

    The truth is he's never liked the crabapple. Sure, it has beautiful blooms in the spring, but then it gets a disease, the leaves curl, and it drops those little apples that sit on the driveway.

    Each passing week he pronounced the tree dead. Eventually I began to believe him. Though he agreed it would be a regrettable loss, there was a twinkle in his eye. He armed himself a couple of weeks ago and began trimming. A branch here, a branch there, a small limb, then a large limb. I watched and then decided to check the wood on some of the branches closer to the trunk. I broke one off and saw green.

    The crabapple was not dead. It just hadn't had time to leaf out. The tree was now falling to one side, but it was not dead. I would have told him so, but he had moved on to a maple. Once the man starts, he can't stop. One trim leads to another.

    "Please, stop!" I called.

    He smiled and nodded, but he couldn't hear because he had started the hedge （树篱） trimmers and was getting ready to fix a line of hedges.

    Zip （飕飕声）, zip, zip.

    "What do you think?" he shouted.

    "It's supposed to be a privacy hedge; now all that will be private are our ankles."

    He started the trimmers again.

    "Stop!" I called, "Come back!"

    "Why?" he shouted.

    "You're in the neighbor's yard."

    Most people can't live to 100. Those who do live so long can hardly walk, let alone take part in any activities. A few people, however, take part in dangerous activities even though they are more than 100 years old. They keep going and going! There is a great grandmother who likes challenging herself although she is 101 years old this year.

    Mary Hardison believes that people should always be cheerful and more importantly, take on all kinds of adventures while they physically still can. So, instead of celebrating her 101st birthday with a boring party, she decided to go paragliding（滑翔跳伞）﹣an idea she got from her 75﹣year﹣old son who recently took it up as a hobby.

    So on her birthday, cheered on by her big family, she tied herself up together with expert instructor Kevin Hintze, and jumped down fearlessly from the sky near her home in Ogden, Utah. And, it was not just a simple jump either. According to Kevin Hintze, the grandmother encouraged him to turn around, as they made their way down.

    This is not the first time that Mary has done something "wild" and "crazy". For her 90th birthday she rode all the adult rides at Disneyland. And, she is not done yet﹣ For her 102nd birthday she hopes to go down the 3,000 feet Alpine Slide at Utah's Park City Mountain Resort!

    Not surprisingly, this great action has made Mary Hardison very famous and also earned her a place in the Guinness World Records where she broke a 2007 record set by a 100﹣year﹣old British woman. What an amazing lady!

Kajal moved to the United States in February 2017. Having previously volunteered for two years as an assistant yoga teacher in her home country, Kajal was enthusiastic about volunteering and began looking for volunteer opportunities that match her interests on VolunteerMatch. "I enjoy volunteering and it's a way to make an impact in my new community," says Kajal.

Kajal was drawn to a volunteer opportunity with the Meridian International Center to review applications on behalf of the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI). Kajal had previous experience, and the position also afforded her the opportunity to work remotely. After connecting with the opportunity on VolunteerMatch and successfully completing the application process, Kajal got to work. Her role involved reviewing applications from potential candidates for a four-week fellowship in the U.S. She was responsible for describing the business ideas presented by these candidates, assessing the social impact of their businesses, and determining the strength of candidates to carry out their plans.

With almost 4,000 applicants in 2017, Meridian International Center considers volunteers like Kajal to be integral (必要的) members of the team. With help from volunteers, 250 candidates have now been selected to take part in the program and will travel to the U.S. this fall.

Kajal says that this volunteer opportunity super-charged her existing skills, while helping her build new ones such as time management, business analysis, decision-making, planning, and presenting.

She is now looking for her next volunteer opportunity and reflects positively on her experience with Meridian International Center, "A new country brings in a lot of new experiences and volunteering helped me to settle into a new environment," adds Kajal. "By helping others, I felt needed in society. Not only did it improve my self-esteem (自尊), other people benefited too. Volunteering is a great opportunity to improve yourself, others, and the whole society".