Learning to set goals plays an important role as your child starts to gain independence. However, setting goals doesn't come naturally to your child, so helping him to learn the process should probably be one of your goals.

    Explain the word “goal”. Your child may know what a goal is when it comes to soccer, but he may not understand what it means in everyday life. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Listen to your child. Ideally, you want your child to be able to decide for himself what his goals are. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Let him talk about what he thinks he does well and what he thinks needs to improve. If he's stuck, you can provide some examples of your own personal goals.

    Help keep goals achievable. Don't throw cold water on your child. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} For example, if your child wants to be a champion swimmer, but can't swim an entire lap of the pool yet, you can suggest he start by making that his first goal.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Help your child write down his goals in an easy-to-follow form. Being able to see and check off the steps on the way to his goal is the key in keeping him motivated. A really simple way is to have your child draw a ladder on a piece of paper, writing his goal at the top and each step to that goal on the rungs (横木). {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Change goals every so often.

B. Make a visual goal reminder.

C. Don't always tell him what you think.

D. He's climbing to the top as he gets closer to his goal.

E. You can take sports as example to help explain it to him.

F. Once he has set up a goal, he may find it very difficult to achieve it.

G. When a goal is beyond his reach, help him break it down into smaller pieces.

     My husband and I had been married nearly twenty-two years when I acquired Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a disorder where my immune（免疫的）system responded to a virus by producing painful blisters. Although my long-term evaluation was good, I, who had been so fiercely independent, rapidly became absolutely helpless.

My husband, Scott, stepped up to the plate, taking care of kids and cooking dinners. He also became my personal caretaker, applying the medicine to all of my blisters because my hands couldn't do the job. Needless to say, I had negative emotions, bouncing from embarrassment to shame caused by total reliance on someone other than myself.

I recovered from my illness, but I couldn't seem to recover from the thought that I loved my husband less than he loved me. This seeming distinction in our love continued to annoy me for the year following my illness.

Then recently Scott and I went on a long bike ride. He's an experienced cyclist; I'm quite the green hand. At one point with a strong headwind and sharp pain building in my tired legs, I really thought I couldn't go any further. Seeing me struggle, Scott pulled in front of me and yelled over his shoulder, “Stay close behind me.” As I followed his steps, I discovered that my legs quit burning and I was able to catch my breath. My husband was pulling me along-again.

     I pray my husband will always be strong and healthy. But if he should ever become the struggling one, whether on a bike ride or with an illness, I trust Ill be ready to call out to him, Stay close behind me--my turn to pull you along.

    Japan is very serious about robotics (机器人技术). If robots are going to fit in, they probably need to learn the Japanese custom of serving tea. Fortunately, researchers at the University of Tokyo are just exploring that. In a show this week, a humanoid(人形机器人)with camera eyes made by Kawada Industries Inc. poured tea from a bottle into a cup. Then another robot on wheels delivered the cup of tea in an experimental room that has sensors embedded in the floor and sofa as well as cameras on the ceiling, to simulate(模仿)life with robot technology.

    "A human being may be faster, but you'd have to say ‘Thank you'," said Professor Tomomasa Sato from the University of Tokyo. "That's the best part about a robot. You don't have to feel bad about asking it to do things."

    Sato believes Japan, a rapidly aging society where more than a fifth of the population is 65 or older, will lead the world in designing robots to care for the elderly, sick and bedridden(长期卧床的).

    Already, monitoring technologies, such as sensors that automatically turn on lights when people enter a room, are becoming widespread in Japan.

    The walking, child-size Asimo from Honda Motor Co. greets people at show-rooms. NEC Corp. has developed a smaller robot-on-wheels companion called Papero. A seal robot available since 2004 can entertain the elderly and others in need of fuzzy companionship.

    Sato says his experimental room is raising awareness about privacy questions that may arise when electronic devices(设备)monitor a person's movements down to the smallest detail.

    On the bright side, the tea-pouring humanoid has been programmed to do the dishes.

    Although his 1-year-old smart-phone still works perfectly, Li Jijia already feels the need to replace it.

    "There are many better ones available now. It's time to upgrade(更新）my phone."

    Li's impatience is shared by many. Shortly after the season when new products are released（发布，发售）, many consumers feel the urge to upgrade their electronic equipment, even though the ones they have still work just fine.

    As consumers' minds are occupied by Apple's newly released products and debate whether the Google tablet is better than the new Amazon Kindle, it might be time to take a step back and ask: "Do we really need the latest upgrades?"

    According to Donald Norman, an American author, "planned obsolescence (淘汰）" is the trick behind the upgrading culture of today's consumer electronics industry.

    Electronics producers strategically release new upgrades periodically, both for hardware and software, so that customers on every level feel the need to buy the newest version.

"This is an old-time trick—they're not inventing anything new," Norman said. "This is a wasteful system through which companies--many of them producing personal electronics—— release poor-quality products simply because they know that, in six months or a year, they'll put out a new one."

    But the new psychology of consumers is part of this system, as Norman admitted, "We now want something new, something pretty, the next shiny thing." In its most recent year, Apple's profit margin(利润) was more than 21 percent. At Hewlett-Packard, the world's biggest PC maker, it was only 7 percent.

    Apple's annual upgrades of its products create sales of millions of units as owners of one year's MacBook or iPhone line up to buy the newest version, even when the changes are slight.

    As to Li Jijia, the need for upgrading his smart-phone comes mainly from friends and classmates. When they are switching to the latest equipment, he worries about feeling left out.

    "Some games require better hardware to run," said Li. "If you don't join in, you lose part of the connection to your friends."

    People always think men are more skilled than women in driving. Nowadays women appear to have a positive image of themselves as safer drivers than men.

    In a survey done by insurer MetLife, 51% of women said they drive more safely. The evidence is on their side: Men are 3.4 times more likely than women to get a ticket for careless driving and 3.1 times as likely to be punished for drunk driving. “Women are on average less aggressive and more law abiding(手法的) drivers, which leads to fewer accidents,” the report says. However, not all male drivers share the same opinion. Of the men surveyed by MetLife, 39% claimed male drivers were safer. The findings did back them up on one point: automotive knowledge. The report showed that more men are familiar with current safety equipment such as electronic stability control, which helps prevent rollover accidents.

    Auto safety unavoidably matters to money. Insurance companies focus on what classes of drivers have the lowest dollar amounts of claims, and for now, that mainly includes women. In general, women pay about 9% less for auto insurance than men. A study by the website Insweb also showed that auto insurance rates are lower for women in most states. Among individual states, women get the greatest advantage in Wyoming(where they pay 20% less), South Dakota and Washington, D.C., where their insurance costs are 16% lower.

    “More than 11,9000 male drivers died in U.S. traffic accident in 2009, compared with just under 4,900 women drivers,” according to the study. “Based on miles traveled, men died at a rate of 2.5 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, vs. 1.7 deaths for women.”

    Let's catch a glimpse of the latest inventions this year.

    Parallels lets you use desktop apps on your phone

    You'd think most applications would have created a mobile app by now — but many companies still use desktop apps exclusively. Now Parallels Access lets you access them on your smartphone. All you need to do is download the app, then connect Parallels' Applification™ to your computer, so you can access important files and other apps with a single click. You can easily use your apps in full-screen mode, using intuitive(直观的) touch controls to work faster than before.

    Usually, Parallels Access is $19.99, but you can get it now for $9.99.

    Take your lighting to the next level with this smart switch

    You probably don't spend a lot of time thinking about your home's lighting, but it's important: the way that you control your lighting affects the environment (and your electric bill).

    This WiFi wall switch is controlled via a companion app on your smartphone, so you can control connected lights or ceiling fans from anywhere.

    Usually, the Meross WiFi Wall Light Switch costs $45.99, but right now it's on sale for $39.99 .

    Shoot beautifully clear videos with this smartphone gimbal

    If you're interested in shooting professional-quality videos and photos, you don't have to spend a fortune to take a beautifully composed shot: just use this Rigiet Smartphone Gimbal instead.

    A gimbal is a support for your camera (in this case, your smartphone) that allows it to pivot（移动）, and automatically detect and adjust to the position that you want to film in. Unlike any other camera hardware you might own, this one comes with its own accompanying app.

    Usually, this Rigiet Smartphone Gimbal is $269, but you can get it now for $109.99.