Phrases like “tiger mom" and "helicopter parent” have made their way into everyday language. Many of us find ourselves drawn to the idea that with just a bit more parental hard work and effort, we might turn out children with bright futures. But is there anything wrong with a kind of“over parenting style”?

    Parental involvement has a long history of being studied. Many of the studies, conducted by Diana Baumrind, a famous psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, have found that a good parent is the one who is involved and reacts to her child in a positive way, who sets high expectations but gives her child independence. These “authoritative parents”appear to hit the sweet spot of parental involvement and generally raise children who do better academically, psychologically and socially than children whose parents are not strict and less involved, or controlling and more involved. Why is this parenting style so successful?

    Authoritative parents actually help improve motivation in their children. Carol Dweck, a social psychologist at Stanford University, has done research that indicates why authoritative parents raise more motivated children. In a typical experiment, Dr. Dweck takes young children into a room and asks them to solve a simple puzzle. Most do so with little difficulty. Butthen Dr. Dweck tells some, but not all, of the kids how clever they are. As it turns out, the children who are not told they're smart are more motivated to solve increasingly difficult puzzles. They also show higher levels of confidence and show greater progress in puzzle-solving.

    As the experiment suggests, praising children's talents and abilities seems to shake their confidence. Dealing with more difficult puzzles carries the risk of losing one's status as “smart”. Dr. Dweck's work strongly supports that of Dr. Baumrind, who also found that reasonably supporting a child's independence and limiting interference (干涉) causes better academic and emotional results.

    The central task of growing up is to develop a sense of self that is independent and confident. If you treat your young child who is just learning to walk as if she can't walk, you reduce her confidence. Allowing children to make mistakes is one of the greatest challenges of parenting. It is easier when they are young. The potential mistakes carry greater risks, and part of being a parent is reducing risk for our children.

    You're happy to let your best friend borrow your mountain bike, but would you be willing to loan it out to a total stranger if you could make some money from the arrangement?

    That's the idea behind peer-to-peer (P2P) renting, a new model concluded by sites such as eBay and Craigslist. Instead of selling an idle (闲置) thing, you loan it to people in your town, get paid a small rental fee and gel it back when the borrower's done with it. In the past few years, almost a dozen websites have popped up promising to connect lenders and borrowers. For example, you can use GetAround to rent out your car or motorcycle, SnapGoods to rent out electronics and gadgets, ToolSpinner to rent electric drills and lawnmowers, Zaarly and Knb to rent out a little bit of everything else.

    Old as it may sound, P2P renting is more high-tech than before, with websites that avoid cash for credit cards. A user creates an online listing for the item she wants to rent out, choosing her own rental fee. When someone wants the item, he keeps it on an online calendar, and the two arrange a time and place for pickup. Each site operates a little differently, but all use technology to make renting easy, safe and relatively inexpensive.

    Why rent your idle things? You may not make a ton of money, but it is a good way to get some use out of idle things. The people who rent those goods are able to save thousands of dollars by renting instead of buying new.

    There may be other benefits. "It brings convenience, security and adventure," says Ali Hart, JustSharclt's spokesperson. “But, more importantly, we're really connecting people and building community, too."

    Get to know your neighbors and make a few dollars in the process? Sounds like a good deal.

    The Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

The Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, on the island of Hawaii, has two active volcanoes: Mauna Loa, which last erupted (喷发) in 1984, is 13,677 feet (4.17 km) above sea level; Kilauea is next to Mauna Loa and it has been erupting since January 3rd, 1983. It is 4,190 feet (1.23 km) above sea level.

When to visit

    The park is open 24 hours a day all year round. There are no plants or trees on the lava (火山岩) fields and no protection from the sun, so you must bring sunscreen (防晒霜).

    How to get there

    The best way to get to the park is to take Highway 11. From the airport at Hilo, Highway 11 will take you southward across the eastern part of the island.

    Things to see

    If you want to know more about the park, the Kilauea Visitor Center is surely a stop to make. It is a quarter of a mile (402 m) from the park entrance. There, you can see a great movie about real lava and learn about the island's natural and cultural history. The center is open from 7:45 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. There are also many guided walks and hikes around the park. You must check weather conditions and volcanic activity before hiking alone. If possible, you may drive down Chain of Craters Road to see lava flowing into the ocean.

    Tickets

    Entrance to the park is $10.00 for each vehicle, $5.00 for those who travel on foot or ride a bicycle. Children under the age of 15 are free.

    All Summer Camp Programs

    Llandovery, Wales

    Language and Music for Life (LMFL) — Founded in 1997, LMFL offers unique 2-week summer music and language courses. LMFL provides quality one-to-one training in a wide range of instruments & voice lessons for highly-motivated musicians of all ages. Study programs & classes include: Composition; Violin; Piano; Recorder; Guitar and Classical Singing…

    Cambridge, UK

    Reach Cambridge — Academic Camps (RC) — RC offers UK & international high school students the opportunity to gain an invaluable academic experience through a summer course. We provide unique and academic programs for students (ages 14-18). Study programs & classes include: Chemistry & Medicine, Computer Science & Math, and Economics & ESL…

    Saint-Raphael, France

    France Langue and Culture (FLC) — Experience a fun, educational language holiday for all the family this summer! FLC is the most family-friendly language school providing French summer classes for teens and young children. Study programs & classes include: Children's Summer Camps for ages 4-12, with home stay accommodation by French host families.

    Quebec City, Canada

    Education-Inter Summer Language School (EI) — EI offers summer French programs for children and teenagers (ages 10-17) and adults (16+). Quebec City is the only major city in Canada that offers a 100% French-speaking environment, making it the ideal location for learning and practicing French. Study programs & classes include: 2 weeks' Summer French Programs For Children & Teenagers (ages 10-17), French & Dance, and French & Horse Riding…

    How does an ecosystem（生态系统）work? What makes the populations of different species the way they are? Why are there so many flies and so few wolves? To find an answer, scientists have built mathematical models of food webs, noting who eats whom and how much each one eats.

    With such models, scientists have found out some key principles operating in food webs. Most food webs, for instance, consist of many weak links rather than a few strong ones. When a predator（掠食动物）always eats huge numbers of a single prey（猎物）, the two species are strongly linked; when a predator lives on various species, they are weakly linked. Food webs may be dominated by many weak links because that arrangement is more stable over the long term. If a predator can eat several species, it can survive the extinction（灭绝）of one of them. And if a predator can move on to another species that is easier to find when a prey species becomes rare, the switch allows the original prey to recover. The weak links may thus keep species from driving one another to extinction.

Mathematical models have also revealed that food webs may be unstable, where small changes of top predators can lead to big effects throughout entire ecosystems. In the 1960s, scientists proposed that predators at the top of a food web had a surprising amount of control over the size of populations of other species—including species they did not directly attack.

    And unplanned human activities have proved the idea of top-down control by top predators to be true. In the ocean, we fished for top predators such as cod on an industrial scale, while on land, we killed off large predators such as wolves. These actions have greatly affected the ecological balance.

    Scientists have built an early-warning system based on mathematical models. Ideally, the system would tell us when to adapt human activities that are pushing an ecosystem toward a breakdown or would even allow us to pull an ecosystem back from the borderline. Prevention is key, scientists says because once ecosystems pass their tipping point（临界点）, it is remarkably difficult for them to return.

    When to go: The Magic Kingdom, which was opened in 1971, was the first theme park at Walt Disney World. All Disney World theme parks are opened 365 days a year, although opening and closing time for each park changes from day to day. If you plan to make a trip to the Magic Kingdom without kids, try to visit on a school day to avoid the largest crowds. If you need to visit during a school vacation, try at least to avoid the week between Christmas and New Year's Day and the fourth of July.

    If you are not staying at a Disney World hotel, avoid visiting the Magic Kingdom on its Extra Magic Hours days, as Disney's hotel guests get into the park early on those days, and visitors who arrive at the Magic Kingdom's normal opening time have to wait for a long time.

    Before you go：Buy your Walt Disney World tickets online at Disney World's website. For advice on picking the right ticket, see our guide to Disney World tickets.

    You will also need to call in advance to make lunch or dinner reservations. Disney accepts reservations(预订)up to 180 days in advance, but you need to contact 1-407-WDW-DINE.

    When you get there: Plan to arrive at the Magic Kingdom's front gate before the park opens in the morning. Keep in mind that to reach the Magic Kingdom, you must park at Disney World's Transportation and Ticket Centre parking lot, ride a tram (有轨电车)to the TTC, then take a ferry boat across the Seven Seas Lagoon to the Magic Kingdom. It makes a fantastic approach, but takes extra time. Give yourself an extra hour in the summer and half an hour during the school year.