I have two sons. They are as different as night and day. My youngest is sweet, loveable, easy-going, and finds joy in everything. My oldest we've nicknamed the “Evil Genius” is ambitious, self-confident, and suffers no fools. Whenever we mentioned Santa my husband and I were rewarded with major eye rolling and deep sighs from my oldest. At first we both tried to ignore it.

    We both knew that our eldest had figured out the big secret. But I'd be damned(指责) if he was going to ruin it for his six-year-old brother who had plenty of Santa-loving years ahead of him. I looked at my husband in the eye and said, “I'll handle this.” to which he responded “Okay just be careful because I'm not sure he knows - he might just be acting like it.” But I knew. And I had it in my mind that he was about to break his younger brothers spirit and break the news to him. I was afraid he was going to take the Christmas spirit away from my sweet innocent youngest and stamp all over it. I had to protect him. I needed to control this now before it got out of control. I rushed into the play room where my oldest was playing alone. I looked him dead in the eyes and said: “Well you know Santa isn't real, right?” And as I stared at my eight-year-old son for what seemed like a long time of silence, his eyes started to fill with tears. And a tear dropped down his cheek when he screamed out, “He's not?” “Um well it's not that he's not real (shut up you idiot- stop saying he's not real), but he doesn't really make and deliver all the toys. Dad and I get some of them for you. So he's real. He's just got a little help from us.”

    The Evil Genius wasn't buying it. He just sat there looking at me with an expression of doubt. You know when you make a terrible mistake but you can't stop yourself from making it worse? That was me because I just had to know. I had to know why he had seemed to be over Santa. So I asked him why he rolled his eyes and sighed every time his father and I mentioned Santa, to which he replied that kids at school had been saying Santa wasn't real but that he still thought he was.

    Papa, as a son of a dirt-poor farmer, left school early and went to work in a factory, for education was for the rich then. So, the world became his school. With great interest, he read everything he could lay his hands on, listened to the town elders and learned about the world beyond his tiny hometown.“There's so much to learn,” he'd say. “Though we're born stupid, only the stupid remain that way.” He was determined that none of his children would be denied (拒绝) an education.

    Thus, Papa insisted that we learn at least one new thing each day. Though, as children, we thought this was crazy, it would never have occurred to us to deny Papa a request. And dinner time seemed perfect for sharing what we had learned. We would talk about the news of the day; no matter how insignificant, it was never taken lightly. Papa would listen carefully and was ready with some comment, always to the point.

    Then came the moment—the time to share the day's new learning. Papa, at the head of the table, would push back his chair and pour a glass of red wine, ready to listen.

     “Felice,” he'd say, “tell me what you learned today.”

     “I learned that the population of Nepal is ....”

    Silence.

    Papa was thinking about what was said, as if the salvation of the world would depend upon it. “The population of Nepal. Hmm. Well….” he'd say. “Get the map; let's see where Nepal is.” And the whole family went on a search for Nepal.

    This same experience was repeated until each family member had a turn. Dinner ended only after we had a clear understanding of at least half a dozen such facts.

    As children, we thought very little about these educational wonders. Our family, however, was growing together, sharing experiences and participating in one another's education. And by looking at us, listening to us, respecting our input, affirming our value, giving us a sense of dignity, Papa was unquestionably our most influential teacher.

    Later during my training as a future teacher, I studied with some of the most famous educators. They were imparting what Papa had known all along—the value of continual learning. His technique has served me well all my life. Not a single day has been wasted, though I can never tell when knowing the population of Nepal might prove useful.

The Young Scientists Club was founded in 1999 with a clear and simple goal—to offer young children quality science-related products that will attract them with the wonders of scientific discoveries and increase their interest in science.

    All the products are designed by a team of Harvard graduates, scientists, educators and parents with one purpose in mind to combine fun and interest with quality and learning in each product. Of course, no product is put on the market before it has passed the final test.

    The Young Scientists Club was created to fill a void(空白) of good-quality science products for young children. They believe that children should know the exciting field of science at any early age with fun and bands-on games, activities and experiments.

    All the young scientists in the club are encouraged to continue their scientific adventures by exploring each different topic in more detail by entering online Young Scientists Clubhouse. There the young scientists can not only explore scientific topics and scientific experiments in depth, but can also e-mail Celsius with questions, results and comments. Celsius loves to e-mail all young scientists back.

Those who are at The Young Scientists Club have received many awards for their products. The Young Scientists Club is excited to realize its goal—-to take children around the world and take part in an educational scientific adventure that lasts a lifetime.

    March 8 marks the annual International Women's Day. Around the world, women usually played a not well-known role in history. They were often buried with their unknown talents and amazing tales. Yet there are still some lucky ones whose stories have been recorded. Here are six talented ancient Chinese women who once impressed in their time, and still affect us in our time.

    Praised as the “No.1 talented woman”, Li Qingzhao, a poet from the Song Dynasty, was born in Shandong province. She excelled at poetry and in ink painting and calligraphy (书法). Li was most well-known for her poems, which were divided into two contrasting styles reflecting her life as a married woman and a widow. Before her husband's death, her poems were mainly about a carefree and happy life. The keynote turned into a sad tune after her husband passed away. However, Li was not a narrow-minded woman. Apart from expressing feminine (女性的) feelings and experiences, she also wrote poems praising war heroes and criticizing the corrupted emperor. As an example of female patriot, Li has a great effect on modern women's literature.

    Cai Wenji was good not only at poetry and calligraphy, but also mathematics, astronomy, debate and music. Her masterpieces were Hu Jia Shi Ba Pai. As the daughter of literatus Cai Yi of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai had a very unusual life. After her first husband died, she was forced to marry Xiongnu tribe's king. Living in a totally different environment, Cai was very homesick. Twelve years later, Cao Cao, a student of Cai Yi, rescued Cai from the Xiongnu tribe. At the age of 35, Cai got married for a third time in a union arranged by Cao to a man named Dong Si.

    Ban Zhao was the first female historian in China. She was also good at writing poems, yet only seven of her works have survived. Ban was often invited by the emperor to teach the queen mathematics, astronomy and poetry. She was honored as Da Gu, a title for knowledgeable and noble women. At the age of 40, Ban finished Han Shu, based on her brother's writings. A total of four people wrote the book, and Ban, as the last writer, faithfully kept the style of the first three. Ban Zhao also wrote Nv Jie, a book to teach women how to deal with relationships with their husbands and husbands' relatives and how to properly behave.

    Shangguan Wan'er was famous for being given an important position by the only female emperor, Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty. Despite Shangguan's grandfather being killed for offending Wu, she was highly praised by the female emperor for her literary talent. She served as a key secretary to Wu and was called “a female prime minister” at the time. Shangguan changed court poetry so that it used more meaningful expressions than empty praise, and further developed her style based on her grandfather's poems.

    Su Hui was known for a handkerchief she made. It was embroidered (刺绣) with 841 characters that could form 7,958 poems. Named Xuan Ji Tu, the handkerchief was originally made by Su to send to her husband, Dou Tao. Su waited for her husband to come back after Dou's exile (流放), yet Dou had an affair with another woman. Sad and angry, Su created the poems on a handkerchief in red, yellow, blue, white, black and purple silk thread and sent it to her husband. Dou was deeply moved by the poems, felt guilty for his behavior and reunited with Su.

    When Xue Tao's name was mentioned, people would think of the famous Xue Tao Jian, a sort of small-size colorful writing paper. It is recorded that Xue Tao created this colored paper to write poems. During her time, writing paper was yellow, yet Xue changed the simple color into different shades of red or green. Later, people made similar colorful paper and named them “Xue Tao Jian”. Xue had talent for poetry and music. Her poems were not limited to those private feminine feelings and emotions; she also expressed her empathy (共鸣) to soldiers on the frontier.

    When I was a little child, my parents divorced, making my mother a single parent. We had little money, but my mom gave me a lot of love. Each night, she sat me on her lap and spoke the words that would change my life, "Kemmons, you are certain to be a great man and you can do anything in life if you work hard enough to get it."

    At fourteen, I was hit by a car and the doctors said I would never walk again. Every day, my mother spoke to me in her gentle, loving voice, telling me that no matter what those doctors said, I could walk again if I wanted to do it badly enough. She drove that message so deep into my heart that I finally believed her. A year later, I returned to school—walking on my own!

    When the Great Depression（大萧条）occurred, my mom lost her job. Then I left school to support the family. At that moment, I was determined never to be poor again.

    My real change occurred on a vacation I took with my wife and five kids in 1951. I was angry that the second-class hotel charged an extra $2 for each child. That was too expensive for the average American family. I decided to open a motel（汽车旅馆）for families that would never charge extra for children. There were plenty of doubters at that time.

    Not surprisingly, mother was one of my strongest supporters. We experienced a lot of challenges. But with my mother's words deeply rooted in my soul, I never doubted we would succeed. Fifteen years later, we had the largest hotel system in the world—Holiday Inn. In 1979 my company had 1,759 inns in more than fifty countries with an income of $ 1 billion a year.

    You may not have started out life in the best situation. But if you can find a task in life worth working for and believe in yourself, nothing can stop you.

    There was a gardener who looked after his garden with great care. To water his flowers, he used two buckets（桶）. One was a shiny and new bucket. The other was a very old and dilapidated one, which had seen many years of service, but was now past its best.

    Every morning, the gardener would fill up the two buckets. Then he would carry them along the path, one on each side, to the flowerbeds. The new bucket was very proud of itself. It could carry a full bucket of water without a single drop spilled（溢出）.The old bucket felt very ashamed because of its holes: before it reached the flowerbeds, much water had leaked along the path.

    Sometimes the new bucket would say, "See how capable I am! How good it is that the gardener has me to water the flowers every day! I don't know why he still bothers with you. What a waste of space you are!"

    And all that the old bucket could say was, "I know I'm not very useful, but I can only do my best. I'm happy that the gardener still finds a little bit of use in me, at least. "

    One day, the gardener heard that kind of conversation. After watering the flowers as usual, he said, "You both have done your work very well. Now I am going to carry you back. I want you to look carefully along the path. "

    Then the two buckets did so. All along the path, they noticed, on the side where the new bucket was carried, there was just bare（光秃秃的）earth；on the other side where the old bucket was carried, there was a joyous row of wild flowers, leading all the way to the garden.