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    How often do you check your phone? According to a study led by Nottingham Trent University in Britain, the average person looks at their phones 86 times a day. Updating their status on social media platforms also made people reach for their electronic companion frequently.

    Even the participants thought that was a lot: this figure is twice as often as they thought they did. Our phones might be shaping our behavior more than we realize. Do you actually look at your surroundings more than at your phone? Is it rude to check your phone when someone is talking to you?

    Sherry Turkle interviewed hundreds of college students about this. She's a professor of social studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They talked about something they called "the rule of three".

    The rule has to do with being considerate to others despite the allure (诱惑力) of the little flat box. Turkle explains: "If you go to dinner with friends, you don't want to look down at your phone until you see that three people are looking up in the conversation. So there's a new rule where you don't look down unless three people are looking up in order to keep a little conversation alive."

    Actually, if you are clever enough you might use your phone as a tool to connect with people next to you. Sharing a bit of your life with them can bring you closer together. And you can also invite everyone to take a selfie (自拍照) with you.

    But the best thing to deal with mobile phone addiction is to go cold turkey and leave the machine behind occasionally or just switch it off and keep it firmly in your pocket for a while.

    A parent might place his daughter's drawing on the fridge out of a love for his child rather than for the wonderful image, but for many people, that children art is actually quite amazing. In fact, adult artists were often inspired by children's drawing. For the museum-goers out there who tend to point to a piece of modern art and say, “My kid could have made that !”It's worth remembering that often, that's actually just what the artist had in mind.

    For many kids, drawing is exciting not because of the final product it leads to, but because they can live completely in the world of their drawing for a few minutes. Even children are scribbling(涂鸦), they're representing through action, not through pictures. Liane Alves, a prekindergarten teacher, recalled a student who presented her with a drawing featuring a single straight line across the page. Alves assumed the child hadn't given too much thought to the drawing until he explained that the line was one of the stems (茎) from The Princess and the Pea, one of the fairy tales they read in class.

    Maureen Ingram, who's a preschool teacher at the same school,said her students often tell different stories about a given piece of art depending on the day, perhaps because they weren't sure what they intended to draw when they started the picture. “We as adults will often say, 'I'm going to draw a horse, 'and we set out. . . and get frustrated when we can't do it, ”Ingram said. “Children seem to take a different approach, where they just draw, and then they realize, 'it is a horse. '”

    And what about those odd or scary-looking drawings? Does that mean kids are telling themselves stories that are odd or scary? It's hard to say, but it's rarely a good idea to over-interpret it. Ellen Winner, a psychology professor, pointed to parents who worry when their kid draws a child bigger than the adults. What's most important to remember is that“children's art has its own logic,” Winner said. “Children are not being crazy. ”

    When Veronika Scott was a student at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, she received a task to “design to fill a need.” She dreamed up an idea for overcoats that would double as sleeping bags, made 25 of them, and handed them out to people living in shelters on an abandoned city playground. While her efforts were greeted mostly with enthusiasm from those braving Detroit's cold winters, one woman voiced dissatisfaction. “We don't need coats; we need jobs,” she told Veronika. Then she had her second inspiration.

    After graduating from college in 2012, Veronika founded the Empowerment Plan, a nonprofit organization. She hired two homeless women to sew the coats and paid them with donations she received through her blog. Now, the Empowerment Plan employs about 20 people and has produced more than 10,000 coats and distributed them in 30 states, Canada, and elsewhere abroad.

    “We don't require previous employment,” Veronika says. “We're looking for people who are motivated.” The Empowerment Plan provides free classes and lends money to those who qualify. Nearly all the employees eventually move into permanent housing, and some go on to jobs in the auto industry and construction.

    Veronika has bettered the coat's design by making its outer layer of a lightweight material that resists air, wind, and water and its inner layer of a material that stores body heat. Still, Veronika is less focused on the coats than on the workers who make them. “At the end of the day,” she says, “the coat is a vehicle for us to employ people.”   

    Whether you're on a long road trip or stuck in traffic while driving home from work, a low phone battery (电池) could mean disaster for the bored driver. At first, it may seem harmless to plug your phone into your car's USB port. But unless you're desperate, charging your phone in your car might be a big mistake.

    Why? First, the USB port in your vehicle probably provides less electricity than your phone really needs to charge. As a result, your phone might stop working while it charges, or worse—hardly charge at all.

    Brad Nichols, a technician at Staymobile, told Reader's Digest. “This is mostly due to the fact the phone is using more power than the car charger is supplying it.”

    Nichols also says that your phone could receive too much power, especially if you're using a “Cigarette Lighter” port to charge up. Most Cigarette Lighters can supply up to 10 amps (安培), while most chargers use one to three amps. A damaged charger can provide inconsistent power to the phone, leading to sudden power increase that could cause damage to the inside parts, or on the rare occasion, destroy it.

    Charging your phone while on the road could use up your car's battery, too. If your engine is off, but you still use the radio—the phone will draw power from your car's battery as it charges. This usually isn't a big deal for those who own new cars with healthy batteries Nichols says. But if your car is an older model, you might want to avoid charging your phone through its USB port.

    Most importantly, it, s not safe to use your phone while operating a vehicle. “Anytime a person's hands leave the wheel or eyes leave the road, it becomes very dangerous for them and the other people around them,” Nichols says. Bottom line: Play it safe, and wait until you get home to plug in.

Sweet Dreams While You Sleep

    Did you sleep the day away on Friday March 21? Well, you should have done that because it was World Sleeping Day.

    This is the day of the year when people around the world care about their sleep and ask themselves questions about sleep.

    Why do we need sleep?

    Nobody as yet can give a perfect answer to this question. However, lab tests on rats have shown that lack (缺少) of sleep over about four weeks leads to a strong drop in body temperature, great weight loss and finally, death.

    How much sleep?

    Different people need different amounts of sleep. Eight hours a night is considered the average amount of sleep. For teenagers, the least number of sleeping hours advised by doctors are 10 hours for primary school students, nine for junior highs and eight for senior highs.

    Some people seem to get along just well with very little sleep at night. Leading American scientist Thomas Edison, for example thought of sleep to be a waste of time. He did, however take naps (打盹) during the day. On the other hand, Albert Einstein, another great scientist, said he needed at least ten hours sleep a night.

    How can we sleep well?

    Here are some of the most popular tips for a good night's sleep:

    Listen to your body clock, not your alarm clock (闹钟).

    Use your bed only to sleep.

    Get up and go to bed at the same time (also on weekends).

    Exercise in the morning and in the early afternoon. Don't exercise in the evening.

    Stop looking at that clock while you can't sleep! And don't worry.

    Avoid alcohol (酒精), caffeine (咖啡因) and smoking before going to bed.

    Keep the bedroom dark, quiet, and cool.

    We can take online joyful learning experiences to a new level by combining the best practices in education with inspiring hands-on lessons that parents and children can enjoy together.

    ◆◇Starting a Writer's Notebook      June 13th-June 17th

    This workshop is to inspire children to see themselves as true authors. The writing activities in this workshop are meant to help young authors develop their sense of voice and enthusiasm for writing. Participants will learn a variety of strategies and techniques for generating ideas and producing meaningful writing.

    PRICE: $27.00 ($22.00 cash payment)      AGE: 6-10

    ◆◇Backyard Science    June 20th-June 24th

    By sharing what we discover in our own backyards, our children will be able to experience firsthand how wildlife, climate, and geographic landscapes differ across the globe. Through this workshop we have the ability to create eye-opening explorations for our children.

    PRICE: $27.00       AGE: 4-10

    ◆◇Be a Peacemaker    June 27th-July 1st

    By practicing mindfulness we discover how to find that peaceful place within ourselves, even during the most difficult times. This online class offers families a way to explore beneficial techniques together in an effort to develop a shared language and common understanding of what it means to be fully present in our lives.

    PRICE: $27.00     AGE: 4-10

    ◆◇Poetry Makers    June 11th-July 15th

    When sharing poems with our children, we not only teach them how to appreciate the beauty of language but also that our words have the ability to affect others in deep and meaningful ways. In this four-week online workshop, we will strengthen our children's understanding of themselves, each other, and the world around them through the power of writing poetry.

    PRICE: $27.00      AGE: 6-10