Are you looking for some new and exciting places to take your kids to? Try some of these places:

Visit art museums. They offer some activities to excite your kids' interest. Many offer workshops for making hand-made pieces, traveling exhibits, book signings(签名) by children's favorite writers, and even musical performances and other arts.

Head to a natural history museum. This is where kids can discover the past from dinosaur models to rock collections and pictures of stars in the sky. Also, ask what kind of workshops and educational programs are prepared for kids and any special events that are coming up.

Go to a Youtheater. Look for one in your area offering plays for child and family visitors. Pre-show play shops are conducted by area artists and educators where kids can discover the secret about performing arts. Puppet (木偶) making and stage make-up are just a couple of the special offerings you might find.

Try hands-on science. Visit one of the many hands-on science museums around the country. These science play-lands are great fun for kids and grown-ups alike. They'll keep your child mentally and physically active the whole day through while pushing buttons, experimenting, and building. When everyone is tired, enjoy a fun family science show, commonly found in these museums.

How Women Were Freed From Their Homes

    As late as 1800, a woman's only place was in her home. Women in business were unheard of. No respectable woman would dream of entering what was strictly a “man's world”. Even if she would, what could she do? Men were sure that no woman could do a job well outside her home.  This was a widely-accepted idea. When the famous Bronte sisters began writing books in 1846, they had to resort to using men's names as aliases.

    Teaching was the first profession opened to women, soon after 1800. But even that was not easy for women to take because most high schools and colleges were open only to men. Oberlin College in Ohio was the first college in America to take in women.

    Nursing was regarded as a respectable profession for women only after Florence Nightingale won high credit for her nursing career and became famous. Miss Nightingale opened the first training school for nursing in 1860 in England.

    The invention of typewriters in 1867 helped to bring women out of their homes to join the business world. Because women are careful and have nimble fingers, businessmen found that they were well suited to this kind of work.

    By 1890, tens of thousands of women were working in schools, hospitals, shops, offices, and factories both in England and the States. Some even managed to become doctors or lawyers. The idea of women working in business and other circles was accepted. 

    Years ago, I lived in a building in a large city. The next building was only a few feet away from mine. There was a woman who lived there, whom I had never met, yet I could see her seated by her window each afternoon, sewing or reading.

    After several months had gone by, I began to notice that her window was dirty. Everything was unclear through the dirty window. I would say to myself, “I wonder why that woman doesn't wash her window. It really looks terrible.”

    One bright morning I decided to clean my flat, including washing the window on the inside.Late in the afternoon when I finished the cleaning, I sat down by the window with a cup of coffee for a rest. What a surprise! Across the way, the woman sitting by her window was clearly visible. Her window was clean!

    Then it dawned on me. I had been criticizing her dirty window, but all the time I was watching hers through my own dirty window.That was quite an important lesson for me. How often had I looked at and criticized others through the dirty window of my heart, through my own shortcomings?

    Since then, whenever I wanted to judge someone, I asked myself first, “Am I looking at him through my own dirty window?” I try to clean the window of my own world so that I may see the world about me more clearly.

    You're in a department store and you see a couple of attractive young women looking at a sweater. You listen to their conversation: “I can't believe it—Lorenzo Bertolla! They are almost impossible to find. Isn't it beautiful? And it's a lot cheaper than the one Sara bought in Rome.”

    They leave and you go over to see this incredible sweater. It's nice and the price is right. You've never heard of the brand of Lorenzo Bertolla, but those girls looked really stylish. Their clothes follow the fashion. They must know. So, you buy it. You never realize that those young women are employees of an advertising agency. They are actually paid to go from store to store, talking loudly about Lorenzo Bertolla clothes to be heard by others.

    Every day we notice what people are wearing, driving and eating. If the person looks cool, the product seems cool, too. This is the secret of undercover marketing. Companies from Ford to Nike are starting to use it.

    Undercover marketing is important because it reaches people that don't pay attention to traditional advertising. This is particularly true of the MTV generation-consumers between the age of 18 and 34.It's a golden group. They have a lot of money to spend, but they don't trust ads.

    So advertising agencies hire young actors to “perform” in bars and other places where young adults go. Some people might call this practice misleading, but marketing executive Jonathan Ressler calls it creative. “Look at traditional advertising. Its effectiveness is decreasing.” It is true, because everyone knows an ad is trying to persuade you to buy something. However, you don't know when a conversation you overhear is just a performance.

    Coming to the end of my assistantship in Barcelona, I start to think about what the future might hold.

    It's been seven months and a few days since I arrived here and things have changed so much in what some might call a short period of time. When I first arrived in Terrassa I was excited and nervous to start a new adventure in a country I love. The first few days seem so long ago now, trying to find a place to live, organizing my timetable with the schools, meeting new people.

    However, a fortnight later, the excitement started to fade and I began to spend more than a few nights thinking about family and friends back home, wondering if I should be there with them. Everything started to change after meeting some new friends and spending good time with them, eating together and seeing new places as a group. I suppose we should never forget how important it is to have good people in your life, because they can make a difference.

    Coming back to Terrassa after visiting home for Christmas felt like returning to a second home, to a place that was mine with people I cared about. Things got even busier and more people came into my life; new friends, romance and a whole lot of good food flowed by in what seems to have been weeks, not months.

    Now, looking forward, there are some decisions to make. Should I return home to Scotland and move on with life there or try to extend my time here, perhaps make it something permanent? Experiencing other cultures or learning about the world is such an important thing to do if you have the means.

    My advice from my experience so far is to travel and try new things whenever you get the opportunity. You may find somewhere you were always supposed to be.

    Our mother earth is going through a very tough situation and we, the entire human race, are destroying our environment or unconsciously without even realizing its consequences. Now we have to act very smartly and plan something to sustain what we still have, getting all necessary support from nature to lead healthy lives.

    Gardening is always an excellent and environmentally friendly idea. If you can go for sustainable gardening, then it will be even more useful for all. Gardening is a favorite hobby for many. It is time to channelize your hobby towards a more meaningful motivation.

    When we do gardening we need to use different ingredients (材料) to grow plants. Some of them are natural resources like water, soil, sunshine, and many things like this. Using these resources smartly is a part of sustainable gardening. Some simple techniques include: use less water and organic things to grow plants; try to store rainwater so that you can use them for gardening; try using less energy to drive devices; avoid using plastics in any form while gardening; reuse the leaves from your garden to fertilize them. These are the basic sustainable measures. To do so we need to have proper knowledge about gardening and its requirements so that we can use proper resources without wasting any of them.

    In today's busy life we don't get much time to spend on our environment. Gardening gives us a chance to do so. We can also have some pesticide-free (无农药的) and fresh food if we grow them in our garden. This is the right time to do some good to protect our own environment and gardening is one of the easiest ways. Do you want to start gardening, but you're not sure how? Click here: http://www.gardenhowto.com.