The jobs of the future have not yet been invented. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. By helping them develop classic skills that will serve them well no matter what the future holds.

1). Curiosity

    Your children need to be deeply curious. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. Ask kids, “What ingredients (配料) can we add to make these pancakes even better next time ?” and then try them out. Ingredients make the pancakes better? What could we try next time?

2). Creativity

    True creativity is the ability to take something existing and create something new from it. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. There are a dozen different things you can do with them. Experimenting with materials to create something new can go a long way in helping them develop their creativity.

3). Personal skills

    Understanding how others feel can be a challenge for kids. We know what's going on inside our own head, but what about others? Being able to read people helps kid from misreading a situation and jumping to false conclusions. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. “Why do you think she's crying?” “Can you tell how that man is feeling by looking at his face?” “If someone were to do that to you, how would you feel?”

4). Self expression

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} there are many ways to express thoughts and ideas—music, acting, drawing, building, photography. You may find that your child is attracted by one more than another.

A. Encourage kids to cook with you.

B. And we can't forget science education.

C. We can give kids chances to think about materials in new ways.

D. So how can we help our kids prepare for jobs that don't yet exist?

E. Gardening is another great activity for helping kids develop this skill.

F. We can do this in real life or ask questions about characters in stories.

G. Being able to communicate ideas in a meaningful way is a valuable skill.

The National Gallery

Description：

    The National Gallery is the British national art museum built on the north side of Trafalgar Square in London. It houses a diverse collection of more than 2,300 examples of European art ranging from 13th-century religious paintings to more modern ones by Renoir and Van Gogh. The older collections of the gallery are reached through the main entrance while the more modern works in the East Wing are most easily reached from Trafalgar Square by a ground floor entrance.

Layout：

    The modern Sainsbury Wing on the western side of the building houses 13th- to 15th-century paintings, and artists include Duccio, Uccello, Van Eyck, Lippi, Mantegna, Botticelli and Memling．

    The main West Wing houses 16th-century paintings, and artists include Leonardo da Vinci, Cranach, Michelangelo, Raphael, Bruegel, Bronzino, Titan and Veronese.

    The North Wing houses 17th-century paintings, and artists include Caravaggio, Rubens, Poussin, Van Dyck, Velazquez, Claude and Vermeer．

    The East Wing houses 18th- to early 20th-century paintings, and artists include Canaletto, Goya, Turner, Constable, Renoir and Van Gogh.

Opening Hours：

    The Gallery is open every day from 10 am. to 6 pm. (Fridays 10 am. to 9 pm.) and is free, but charges apply to some special exhibitions.

Getting There：

    Nearest underground stations: Charing Cross (2-minute walk), Leicester Square (3-minute walk), Embankment (7-minute walk), and Piccadilly Circus (8-minute walk).

    Our brains work in complex and strange ways.There are some people who can calculate the day of the week for any given date in 40,000 years,but who cannot add two plus two.Others can perform complex classical piano pieces after hearing them once,but they cannot read or write.

    Dr.J.Langdon Down first described this condition in 1887.He called these people idiot savants.An idiot savant is a person who has significant mental impairment（损伤）,such as in autism（孤独症，自闭症）or retardation.At the same time,the person also exhibits some extraordinary skills,which are unusual for most people.The skills of the savant may vary from being exceptionally gifted in music or in mathematics,or having a photographic memory.

    One of the first descriptions of a human who could calculate quickly was written in 1789 by Dr.Benjamin Rush, an American doctor.His patient,Thomas Fuller,was brought to Virginia as a slave in 1724.It took Thomas only 90 seconds to work out that a man who has lived 70 years,17 days,and 12 hours has lived 2,210,500,800 seconds. Despite this ability,he died in 1790 without ever learning to read or write.

    Another idiot savant slave became famous as a pianist in the 1860s.Blind Tom had a vocabulary of only 100 words,but he played 5,000 musical pieces beautifully.

    In the excellent movie Rain Man,made in 1988 and available on video cassette,Dustin Hoffman plays an idiot savant who amazes his brother played by Tom Cruise,with his ability to perform complex calculations very rapidly.

    Today we more clearly recognize that the idiot savant is special because of brain impairment.Yet not all brain impairment leads to savant skills.Some studies have shown that people who have purposeful interruption of the left side of the brain can develop idiot savant skills.However few people wish to participate in such experiments.There are many excellent reasons for not undergoing unnecessary experimentation on one's brain.The term idiot savant is outdated and inappropriate.Virtually all savants have a high degree of intelligence and are thus not idiots.

    Every man wants his son to be somewhat of a clone（克隆）, not in features but in footsteps. As he grows you also age, and your ambitions become more unachievable. You begin to realize that your boy, in your footsteps, could probably achieve what you hoped for. But footsteps can be muddied and they can go off in different directions.

    My son Jody has hated school since day one in kindergarten. Science projects waited until the last moment. Book reports weren't written until the final threat.

    I've been a newspaperman all my adult life. My daughter is a university graduate working toward her master's degree in English. But Jody? When he entered the tenth grade he became a "vo-tech" student (技校学生). They're called "motorheads" by the rest of the student body.

    When a secretary in my office first called him "motorhead", I was shocked. "Hey, he's a good kid," I wanted to say. "And smart, really."

    I learned later that motorheads are, indeed, different. They usually have dirty hands and wear dirty work clothes. And they don't often make school honor rolls (光荣榜).

    But being the parent of a motorhead is itself an experience in education. We who labor in clean shirts in offices don't have the abilities that motorheads have. I began to learn this when I had my car crashed. The cost to repair it was estimated at $800. "Hey, I can fix it," said Jody. I doubted it, but let him go ahead, for I had nothing to lose.

    My son, with other motorheads, fixed the car. They got parts (零件）from a junkyard, and ability from vo-tech classes. The cost was $25 instead of $800.

    Since that first repair job, a broken air-conditioner, a non-functioning washer and a non-toasting toaster have been fixed. Neighbors and co-workers trust their car repairs to him.

    These kids are happiest when doing repairs. They joke and laugh and are living in their own relaxed world. And their minds are bright despite their dirty hands and clothes.

    I have learned a lot from my motorhead: publishers need printers, engineers need mechanics, and architects need builders. Most important, I have learned that fathers don't need clones in footsteps or anywhere else.

    My son may never make the school honor roll. But he made mine.

    It's well-known that meditation (冥想) has many benefits, but do you know how to practice it for a beginner?

    Set a proper scene

    Find a space for meditation. It should be private and quiet. Make sure the temperature is comfortable. Sit on a cushion (垫子) if the floor is uncomfortable. You may play soft music if you like.
                   

    Take a moment to loosen up. Remember that the goal of meditation is to relax. Loosen your clothing, remove your shoes and have a good stretch. Do your best to ease any muscle tension that might keep you from achieving relaxation. Make an effort to relax your facial muscles.

    Focus on your breath

    Sit down in the space you've prepared. Close your eyes and breathe. Each time you breathe in, count “one”. Each time you breathe out, count “one”. The idea is to strengthen being in the moment — the last breath doesn't matter, and the next one doesn't matter; only this one matters.

    Feel your breath inflate (胀大) your lungs and push on your diaphragm (隔膜). Feel how sweet it is to inhale the fresh air. As you do this, your body will gradually begin to relax and all of your attention will be centered within your mind.

    Return to real life

    Once you feel fully centered in your mind, allow yourself to gradually drift back to real life. Move your fingers and toes and slowly wake your body up. Open your eyes and remain there for a few minutes until your senses come back, and then slowly stand up.

    Even if you can't make it fully into your mind, you still get some benefits from it. If you want to feel better, you just need to practice. Set about 10 minutes around the same time every day and repeat this exercise.

    Boomerang children who return to live with their parents after university can be good for families, leading to closer, more supportive relationships and increased contact between the generations, a study has found.

    The findings contradict research published earlier this year showing that returning adult children trigger a significant decline in their parents' quality of life and wellbeing.

    The young adults taking part in the study were “more positive than might have been expected” about moving back home – the shame is reduced as so many of their peers are in the same position, and they acknowledged the benefits of their parents' financial and emotional support. Daughters were happier than sons, often slipping back easily into teenage patterns of behaviour, the study found.

    Parents on the whole were more uncertain, expressing concern about the likely duration of the arrangement and how to manage it. But they acknowledged that things were different for graduates today, who leave university with huge debts and fewer job opportunities.

    The families featured in the study were middle-class and tended to view the achievement of adult independence for their children as a “family project”. Parents accepted that their children required support as university students and then as graduates returning home, as they tried to find jobs paying enough to enable them to move out and get on the housing ladder.

    “However,” the study says, “day-to-day tensions about the prospects of achieving different dimensions of independence, which in a few extreme cases came close to conflict, characterised the experience of a majority of parents and a little over half the graduates”.

    Areas of disagreement included chores, money and social life. While parents were keen to help, they also wanted different relationships from those they had with their own parents, and continuing to support their adult children allowed them to remain close.