Dear Kids Club Applicant：

    Thank you for expressing interest in the Kids Club.Staff members are hired twice a year: November and December for the spring semester,and April and May for the fall semester.

    November 20^th is the application deadline for the spring semester of 2017.Applications can be submitted（提交）in person to the Community Education Office,located at 1812 Welsh Avenue,during the hours of 8:00 am-4:00 pm, Monday through Friday.

    If you have any questions you may contact my office at the number below.

    Thanks again,Jana Church Program Director.(979)764-3831

    All applicants must meet the following requirements to be considered for hire:

    Available Monday-Friday,2:45 pm-6:15 pm

    Attend Training December 17,2016

    Attend Training January 4-15,2017 (we receive children January 5,2017)

    Commit to work through May 28,2017

    Rate of Pay: $8.00-$8.75/hr

Minimum Requirements:

1）.All Kids Club staff members must be currently Red Cross certified in First Aid.

2）.All staff members must be available to begin work on January4,2017 and continue through May 28,2017.

3）.Staff members must attend specified training sessions throughout the year.

4）.Staff members must attend weekly site meetings and monthly staff meetings.

Duties:

1）.Staff members assist the supervisor in performing his/her duties as necessary,such as:

a.Plan,coordinate and apply appropriate activities each day.

b.Lead group games,art projects and other similar activities.

c.Play with the children during free time.

d.Influence children in a positive manner.

2）.Participate in all daily activities. (BE POSITIVE)

3）.Assist in the daily,as well as weekly,clean-up of the facilities.

4）.Other duties considered necessary by Site Supervisor or Program Director

    I was a bit of a bookworm as a child.For car journey,day trip or family holiday,many books were always packed to keep me busy.Since then,I've continued reading all kinds of books but I'll always love my childhood favorites.

    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-timer—Mark Haddon

    This children's mystery novel is interesting,exciting,thought-provoking（发人深省的）,sad and happy all at the same time.The main character is a 15-year-old boy who has autism（自闭症）. The book gives you a window into his world, his thoughts, his hopes and his dreams. It's easy to read and both kids and adults love it.A must-read in my opinion.

    Secret Seven—Enid Blyton

    If you love adventures,this one is for you.The Secret Seven are a group of child detectives who make it their duty to solve crimes.They have many adventures along the way.It's a fun book that you won't want to stop reading. And in fact, there is more than.one book.There's a series of books about the Secret Seven's adventures so if you like the first one, you're in luck.

    Matilda—Roald Dahl

    It's now a film and show at the theatre,but we can't forget the original book.Matilda is about a loveable little girl who is very clever and,like me,loves to read.She goes to school and meets the very scary Miss Trunchbull who tortures（折磨）children,but thankfully makes friends with a kind teacher. The book will have you crying one, moment and laughing the next.

    The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe—C.S.Lewis

    As a kid I read the book, watched the film and listened to the tape.I really couldn't get enough of the book.It's an exciting story set in a magical land called Narnia. When you're reading it, you'll feel like you're really there.You'll get caught up in the adventures of the four children and the characters they meet.I can't rate it highly enough.

    Tim Richter and his wife, Linda, had taught for over 30 years near Buffalo, New York—he in computers, she in special education. “Teaching means everything to us,” Tim would say. In April 1998, he learned he would need a heart operation. It was the kind of news that leads to some serious thinking about life's purpose.

    Not long after the surgery, Tim saw a brochure describing Imagination Library, a program started by Dolly Parton's foundation (基金会) that mailed a book every month to children from birth to age five in the singer's hometown of Sevier, Tennessee. “I thought, maybe Linda and I could do something like this when we retire,” Tim recalls. He placed the brochure on his desk as a “reminder”.

    Five years later, now retired and with that brochure still on the desk, Tim clicked on imagination library com. The program had been opened up to partners who could take advantage of book and postage discounts.

    The quality of the books was of great concern to the Richters. Rather than sign up online, they went to Dollywood for a look see. “We didn't want to give the children rubbish,” says Linda. The books reviewed each year by teachers, literacy specialists and Dollywood board members included classics such as Ezra Jack Keats's The Snowy Day and newer books like Anna Dewdney's Llama Llama series.

    Satisfied, the couple set up the Richter Family Foundation and got to work. Since 2004, they have shipped more than 12,200 books to preschoolers in their area. Megan Williams, a mother of four, is more than appreciative: “This program introduces us to books I've never heard of.”

    The Richters spend about $400 a month sending books to 200 children. “Some people sit there and wait to die,” says Tim. “Others get as busy as they can in the time they have left.”

    Snoring(打鼾) is noisy breathing during sleep. It is a common problem among all ages and it influences about 90 million American adults. People most at risk are males and those who are overweight, but snoring is a problem of both genders, although it is possible that women do not present this complaint as frequently as men.

    Snoring is often the loud or harsh sound that can occur as you sleep. You snore when the flow of air makes the tissue in the back of your throat vibrate(颤动) as you breathe. The sound most often occurs as you breathe in air, and can come through the nose, mouth or both two organs. It can occur during any stage of sleep.

    About half of people snore at some point in their lives. Snoring is more common among men, though many women snore. It appears to run in families and becomes more common as you get older. About 40 percent of adult men and 24 percent of adult women are habitual snorers. Men become less likely to snore after the age of 70.

    Sleeping on your back may make you more likely to snore. You may snore when your throat or tongue muscles are relaxed. And substances(物质) that can relax these muscles may cause you to snore. These include alcohol, muscle relaxants and other medicine.

    Snoring can be a nuisance to your partner and anyone else nearby. You may even snore loudly enough to wake yourself up. Though, in many cases people do not realize that they snore. Snoring can also cause you to have a dry mouth when you wake up.

    Light snoring may not disrupt your overall sleep quality. Heavy snoring may be connected with a risk factor in the heart disease, stroke and many other health problems. So never take it lightly.

    As businesses and governments have struggled to understand the so-called millennials—born between roughly 1980 and 2000—one frequent conclusion has been that they have a unique love of cities. A deep-seated preference for night life and subways, the thinking goes, has driven the revitalization of urban cores across the U.S. over the last decade-plus.

    But there's mounting evidence that millennials' love of cities was a passing fling(放纵). Millennials don't love cities any more than previous generations.

    The latest argument comes from Dowell Myers, an urban planning professor at USC. As they age, says Myers, millennials' presence in cities, will "be evaporating(蒸发) through our fingers, if we don't make some plans now." That's because millennials' preference for cities will fade as they start families and become more established in their careers.

    It's about more than aging, though. Demographer William Frey has been arguing for years that millennials have become stuck in cities by the 2008 downturn and the following slow recovery, with poor job prospects and declining wages making it harder for them to afford to buy homes in suburbia.

    Myers, too, says observers have confused young people's presence in cities with a preference for cities. Survey data shows that more millennials would like to be living in the suburbs than actually are. But the normal career and family cycles moving young people from cities into suburban houses have become, in Myers' words, "a plugged up drain."

    But unemployment has finally returned to healthy lows (though participation rates and wages are still largely stagnant), which Myers says should finally increase mobility for millennials.

    Other trends among millennials, supposedly matters of lifestyle preference, have already turned out to have been driven mostly by economics. What was once deemed their broad preference for public transit may have always been a now-reversing inability to afford cars. Even decades-long trends towards marrying later have been accentuated as today's young people struggle for financial stability.

    Investors are already taking the idea that millennials will return to old behavior patterns seriously, putting more money into auto manufacturers and developers. But urban lifestyles, up to and including trendy bars, aren't just hip—they're a part of what powers a city's economic engines, bringing people together to explore new ideas, create companies, and build careers.

    From the 1960s to the 1990s, we saw that suburbanization(城市郊区化)also means an economic and social hollowing out for cities. Now that the economic shackles are coming off today's young city residents, cities that want to stay vibrant(充满生机的) have to figure out how to convince them—and their growing families—to stick around.

    People who play computer games to train their brains might as well be playing Super Mario, new research suggests.

    In a six-week study, experts found people who played online games designed to improve their cognitive(认知的) skills didn't get any smarter.

    More than 8,600 people aged 18 to 60 were asked to play online brain games designed by the researchers to improve their memory, reasoning and other skills, for at least 10 minutes a day, three times a week.

    They were compared to more than 2,700 people who didn't play any brain games, but spent a similar amount of time surfing the Internet. All participants were given an "IQ test" before and after the experiment.

    Researchers said the people who did the brain training didn't do any better on the test after six weeks than people who had simply been on the Internet.

    "If you're(playing these games) because they're fun, that's absolutely fine," said Adrian Owen, assistant director at Britain's Medical Research Council. "But if you're expecting these games to improve your IQ, our data suggests this isn't the case."

    Computer games that are supposed to improve memory, reasoning and other cognitive skills are played by millions of people worldwide, though few studies have examined if the games work.

    "There is precious little evidence to suggest the skills used in these games transfer to the real world," said Art Kramer, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, US.

    Instead of playing brain games, Kramer said people would be better off getting some exercise. He said physical activity can help produce new brain cells.

    Other experts said brain games might be useful, but only if they weren't fun.

    "If you set the level for these games to a very high level where you don't get the answers very often and it really annoys you, then it may be useful," said Philip Adey, a professor of psychology at King's College in London.

    If people are enjoying the brain games, Adey said they probably aren't being challenged and might as well be playing a regular video game.

    He said people should consider learning a new language or sport if they really want to improve their brain power. "To stimulate(激发) the intellect, you need a real challenge," Adey said, "Getting smart is hard work."