There are many fun, free activities that you can do as a family. All that is required is a bit of imagination and some time set aside for fun. And the best part is that these are the kind of memories a child will remember for a lifetime.

Family game night

    Find out any of the games that are already around the house. Kids often get computer games for Christmas or birthdays, and would love to have a chance to play with their family. Or, make up some games of your own. “Charades” is a fun game to play that will challenge a child to use his/her imagination. Divide the family into teams and let each team come up with words that the other has to act out.

Family art time

    Pick some time for the family to sit down and come up with their own masterpiece. It doesn't need to be just a drawing -- take some old magazines sitting around the house, let the kids cut out pictures and paste them into their own montage. Or, use items from nature. Let them use leaves, pine cones, twigs and whatever else they can find to create something from their imaginations.

Family Picnic

    Taking the family for a picnic is a great way for some fun that doesn't cost any money. If the weather is nice, take them to a park or playground and let the kids have a day of playing. Or, if it is the middle of winter and a foot of snow is on the ground, set up a picnic in the living room.

Family Field Trip

    A family field trip doesn't have to cost a dime. Ask a nearby farm if it would be alright to bring your kids out for a tour and to see some of the animals. Or take them to a park and make a scavenger hunt where they need to find certain items from nature. Ask a local business if you could bring the family for a tour to see how things work -- you might be surprised at the number of people who would be thrilled to share what they do with others, and it could be an interesting lesson for the kids.

    Technology offers conveniences such as opening the garage door from your car or changing the television station without touching the TV.

    Now one American company is offering its employees a new convenience: a microchip implanted in their hands. Employees who have these chips can do all kinds of things just by waving their hands. Three Square Market is offering to implant microchips in all of their employees for free. Each chip costs $300 and Three Square Market will pay for the chip. Employees can volunteer to have the chips implanted in their hands. About 50 out of 80 employees have chosen to do so. The president of the company, his wife and their children are also getting chips implanted in their hands.

    The chip is about the size of a grain of rice. Implanting the chip only takes about a second and is said to hurt only very briefly. The chips go under the skin between the thumb and forefinger. With a chip in the hand, a person can enter the office building, buy food, sign into computers and more, simply by waving that hand near a scanner. The chips will be also used to identify employees. Employees who want convenience, but do not want to have a microchip implanted under their skin, can wear a wristband or a ring with a chip instead. They can perform the same tasks with a wave of their hands as if they had an implanted chip.

    Three Square Market is the first company in the United States to offer to implant chips in its employees. Epicenter, a company in Sweden, has been implanting chips in its employees for a while.

    Three Square Market says the chip cannot track the employees. The company says scanners can read the chips only when they are within a few inches of them. “The chips protect against identity theft, similar to credit cards.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the chips back in 2004, so they should be safe for humans, according to the company.

    In the future, people with the chips may be able to do more with them, even outside the office. Todd Westby is Chief Executive Officer of Three Square Market. He says, “Eventually, this technology will become standardized allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit, all purchasing opportunities, etc.”

    Why do you go to the library? For books, yes--but you like books because they tell stories. You hope to get lost in a story or be transported into someone else's life. At one type of library, you can do just that--even though there's not a single book.

    At a Human Library, instead of books, you can “borrow” people. Individuals volunteer as human “books” and participants in the event can “read” the book--meaning they would have a one-on-one conversation with the volunteer and share in a dialogue about that individual's experience. “Books” are volunteers from all walks of life who have experienced discrimination (歧视) based on race, religion, class, gender identity, age, lifestyle choices, disability and other aspects of their life

    For a certain amount of time, you can ask them questions and listen to their stories, which are as fascinating and as attractive as any you can find in a book. Many of the stories have to do with some kind of stereotype. You can speak with a refugee (难民), a soldier suffering from PTSD, a homeless person or a woman living with HIV. The Human Library encourages people to challenge their own long-held beliefs-to truly get to know, and learn from someone they might otherwise make a quick judgment about.

    According to its website, the Human Library is “a place where difficult questions are expected, appreciated and answered.” It provides the opportunity for the community to share and understand the experiences of others in their community.

    The Human Library Organization came to be in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2000. Ronni Abergel, his brother Dany, and some colleagues hosted a four-day event during a major Northern European festival, hoping to raise awareness about violence among youth. After the success of this event, Abergel founded the Human Library Organization, which has been growing ever since.

    Though there are a few permanent human libraries, most aren't places at all, but events. Though many do take place at physical libraries, you don't need a library card—anyone can come and be part of the experience. There have been human library events all over the globe, in universities and in pubs, from Chicago to Tunis to Edinburgh to San Antonio.

The stories these "books" tell range from fascinating to heartbreaking and everything in between. And that's the very point of the organization--to prove that no person can be summed up in just one word. It seeks to show people that you truly can't judge a book by its cover—or by its title or label.

Kids' health: Four steps for fighting stress

    Everybody gets stressed from time to time. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Some ways of dealing with stress — like screaming or hitting someone — don't solve (解决) much. But other ways, like talking to someone you trust, can lead you to solving your problem or at least feeling better.

    Try taking these four steps the next time you are stressed：

    ⑴Get support. When you need help, reach out to the people who care about you. Talk to a trusted adult，such as a parent or other relatives. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} They might have had similar problems，such as dealing with a test, or the death of a beloved pet.

    ⑵Don't take it out on yourself. Sometimes when kids are stressed and upset they take it out on themselves. Oh, dear，that's not a good idea. Remember that there are always people to help you. Don't take it out on yourself. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    ⑶Try to solve the problem. After you're calm and you have support from adults and friends，it's time to get down to business. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Even if you can't solve all of it，you can solve a piece of it.

    ⑷Be positive. Most stress is temporary (暂时的). Remember stress does go away, especially when you figure out the problem and start working on solving it.

    These steps aren't magic，but they do work. And if you can stay positive as you make your way through a tough time，you'll help yourself feel better even faster. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Ask for a helping hand to get you through the tough situation.

B. Notice your friends' feelings and find a way to help them.

C. Different people feel stress in different ways.

D. Ah, it feels so good when the stress is gone.

E. You need to figure out what the problem is.

F. And don't forget about your friends.

G. Then, find a way to calm down.

    Do you enjoy your work? Maybe you do or maybe you don't. Chances are that you fall somewhere in the middle: you have good days and bad days, and you could definitely be happier than you currently are.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

    Be Friendly to Your Colleagues

    In some big offices, people might not even say "good morning" to one another. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. You might think that you have nothing in common with them, but if you strike up a conversation, you may well find that they share some of your interests, hopes or ambitions.

    Focus on How You're Helping Clients

    Some jobs are pretty tiresome — there's no way round that. Whatever you're doing, though, you're helping someone.

    Perhaps you work in McDonalds, helping customers who want a cheap, quick meal. Perhaps you do data entry, helping a big company to get their records organized so that they can take better care of their clients. In most jobs, you've got the potential to make someone else's day that bit better.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    Do Your Hardest Task First

    Have you ever put off a difficult phone call or a high­pressure task for days and days, only to find it appears larger and larger in your mind? I've read a lot of productivity advice over the past few years, and something that almost all experts seem to agree on is that it's a good idea to get tough tasks out of the way as quickly as possible.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. Plus, you'll constantly have that task hanging over you and dragging your mood down.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Try eating at regular intervals — and go for healthy, tasty foods which make you feel energized rather than sluggish. Fresh fruit is a great snack option, or you can have dried fruit, nuts and/or seeds. Don't forget to drink enough water, too.

    These are all little, but significant, ways to be happier at work today. Put them into practice and you will feel inspired!

A.Eat Sensibly and Regularly

B.Eat Outside during Your Lunch Break

C.Here are several ways to be happier at work

D.The longer you wait, the more resistant you will feel

E.Doing that will almost certainly put a smile on your face

F.It costs nothing to be polite and friendly to your colleagues

G.Look for some small items to bring a bit of happiness into your day

A study of 500,000 songs released in the UK between 1985 and 2015 showed that pop music had decreased in happiness and increased in sadness.

In a report published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, researchers at the University of California examined hundreds of thousands of songs and classified them by their mood. "‘Happiness' is going down, 'sadness' is going up, and at the same time, the songs are becoming more 'danceable' and more 'party-like'," co-author Natalia L. Komarova told The Associated Press.

The study found songs in 2014 like Stay With Me by Sam Smith, Whispers by Passenger and Unmissable by Gorgon City have a "low happiness" trend. However, tracks from 1984 like Glory Days by Bruce Springsteen, "Would I Lie To You?" by Eurythmics and "Freedom" by Wham had a "high happiness" trend. "The public seems to prefer happier songs, even though more and more unhappy songs are being released each year," the researchers wrote.

Apart from the emotional trends, researchers discovered that dances and pop were the most successful styles of music and that there was a "clear downward" trend, with the popularity of rock beginning in the early 2000s. "So it looks like, while the overall mood is becoming less happy, people seem to want to forget it all and dance," Komarova wrote in an email.

It was also found that the "maleness" of songs—the frequency of male singers in popular music-had decreased during the last 30 years. "Successful songs are characterised by a larger percentage of female artists compared to all songs," they wrote.

This discovery appears at a time when the conversation around sex equality in the music industry is at its height, with more male artists and songwriters.