By Audrey Okaneko


As adults, when we think of scrapbooks, we immediately think of photographs. When we look online, we find albums filled with photographs. Of course many of the layouts we see are filled with embellishment but the central focus is the photographs.

Kids and teens also enjoy scrapbooking. Scrapbooks do not have to be photographs. Here are several ideas for both kids and teens:

• Lyrics to songs
• Photos from magazines
• Postcards
• Greeting cards
• Collector cards
• Classmate photos from school
• School reports
• Photos off the web of a favorite television star or musician
• CD covers

Kids and teens enjoy collecting all types of things that can be put into scrapbooks. Older kids of course can use all of your scrapbooking supplies. You might be amazed at the creativity teens show through scrapbooking.

Young children often do better with very small scrapbooks, and your scrap paper. They can glue it, cut it and add it to their treasures.

For the older kids, you may want to consider copying whatever they wish to scrapbook onto acid free and lignin free paper so that it does not turn yellow and crack.

Kids and teens both love stickers. We have always watched for sales on stickers. Over the years we have bought more than our fair share of stickers. For very young children, I don’t think it’s necessary to worry about the stickers being acid free. I have from time to time found stickers that come 1000 to a box. I’ve bought those and had the younger kids use them in their scrapbooks.

One of my daughters actually created a wonderful album of all of her stickers. It came out beautiful. The pages were nothing but stickers.

Another idea for kids making scrapbooks is to use homemade albums versus the store bought albums. Start with a piece of colored cardstock for the cover. Punch three holes in the side of the cardstock and then add pages. You can either use white cardstock as your base, or full sheets of scrapbook paper. Punch holes in each page. Use ribbon through the holes to tie it all together. Not only do the kids love these scrapbooks but they can make wonderful handmade gifts to give to others.

It really is possible to scrapbook at almost any age, and with almost anything as your focal point. Next time the kids say “I’m bored” suggest they create a scrapbook.

By Natalie Aranda


Most children have a natural passion for sweets, so a candy present is almost the first thing come to mind when selecting birthday gifts for your kids or teens. There are a countless number of candy birthday gifts to choose from - chocolate candy, candy bar, candy cane or sugar free candy. Parents, however, are often worried about bad cholesterol and saturated fats from candy. A candy birthday can actually be unique, healthy and sweet, of course.

Children always like chocolate gifts. Chocolates are available in many different flavors and shape, and are perfect gift choice for kids. In fact, chocolate candy does not raise the bad cholesterol (LDL) as other saturated fats do. It also contains healthy antioxidants - the same types found in a glass of red wine. Antioxidants improve and strengthen kids’ immune system besides tasting great. The darker and more pure forms of chocolate contain the most antioxidants. Chocolate candy does not contain as much caffeine as you might think either besides the fact that chocolate is a rich source of phosphorus and magnesium too. An average serving of chocolate candy has far less caffeine than a cup of coffee. Magnesium helps to maintain muscle and nerve function, is good for strong bones, and supports a healthy immune system and more. Phosphorus is important for bone and teeth formation in children and for works with calcium to keep bones strong and healthy for us throughout our lives. Chocolate gift delivery is convenient if you place the order online.

Sugar free candies taste like ordinary candies without saturated fats. Sugar free chocolate candy bars, in fact, have more antioxidants than red wine or even green tea. Chocolate contain flavonoids that is good for the heart. It thins the blood platelets and prevents clotting. In addition, flavonoids may be helpful in the prevention of cancer. Sugar free chocolates aren’t the kinds of chocolates popularly available in the market – high in calories. They’re low in calories since they’re sugar free.

Rock candy is easy to prepare, just dissolve sugar in water and boil stirring continuously with a wooden spoon until the solution grows clear reaching a rolling boil. Rock candy is one of ideas for candy birthday gifts for kids. Rock candies aren’t as fancy as chocolates, but they add fun and surprise to birthday celebration. Put the mixture in a jar and cover with waxed paper with a string or skewer suspended in it, and after one week you will have rock candy as the water evaporates.

A childhood isn’t really sweet without candies. Candy doesn’t have to have negative impact on children’s health if chosen properly.

By Natalie Aranda


The meaning of Christmas to those that celebrate this day can be as different as the many Christmas Gift Ideas that you can find in magazines, from mouth to mouth or on the Internet if not already in your mind. Most people associate candy canes with Christmas gifts, but there are many other sweet gifts for this season including chocolate candy and the popular candy bar.

Christmas Gifts do not have to be expensive, in fact, this is the best time to use your own talents cooking and baking ahead on time from the typical shaped-ginger cookies to chocolate candy in as many ways as your imagination dictates. Candy bar presents are even easier to prepare with anticipation, either alone or as part of other seasonal recipes.

Crafting a feast for the eyes is also easy if you design your own Christmas gifts wrappers, decorating them with candy canes to make your job easier, some websites offer free pre-made Christmas wrapper templates for popular candy bars including Hershey's, Oh Henry!, M&Ms, Baby Ruth, 3 Musketeers, Milky Way, Butterfinger, Kit Kat, Snickers and even Junior Mints.

Christmas Gift Ideas based on chocolate candy may include Christmas Gift Baskets, which are typically available in varied styles and range. These baskets can be filled with a candy bar, cookies, boxed chocolates, a candy cane and other goodies to make your Christmas gifts a real delight for the eyes and of course, the taste.

From a simple candy cane, you can get countless Christmas Gifts, including ornaments, twists, and more. An easy to make gift is made by putting a candy cane in a bag and crush it with a rolling pin. Melt 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and deep spoons into chocolate to fill. Sprinkle with crushed candy and place on waxed paper covered cookie sheet to cool.

Spoons are a great present accompanied with a cup of hot cocoa and a candy bar with the attractive wrapper that you designed. Doing a little research on the web will show you many other Christmas Gift Ideas. Chocolate candy that you get from the supermarket during the season, generally include useful tips to transform this and other sweets into incredible presents.

Have you ever wondered where the candy cane comes from? Christmas Gifts rarely include the origins of legends so make an original present including a short written history or legend around a candy bar, chocolate candy or the candy cane itself. It is said that candy canes symbolize Jesus because their shape representing the letter "J" and their colors represent the purity and blood of Christ.

Although candy canes were created as treats to eat and decorate with them, there are a number of legends associated to them, including the supposedly relationship with the North Pole and Santa Claus, and a form of identification among Christians during a time of persecution. This way Christmas Gifts can be as tasty as entertaining and even educational.

By Kevin Salerno


Kids And Teens Bean Bag Chairs

Our kids used to fight over my old college bean bag chair. We had to buy each of them one of their own. That was ten years ago and they still use them now. I think their beanbags are the only gifts we've given them that they still have.

These chairs are nothing like the ones from twenty or thirty years ago. Heavy, uncomfortable, boring and ugly. The new style bean bags are lightweight, come in dozens of sizes, styles, shapes, colors, and fabrics. They work well with any home, apartment or room decor.

They are easily cleaned by just wiping them with a soapy sponge; and some covers are even machine washable. In a few years you can easily refill them, either completely or with a small amount of material just to fluff them up.

The majority of today's bean bag chairs use an expanded polystyrene foam filling, a type of Styrofoam. This material can be found on most bean bag chair websites.

You can get bean bags filled with polyurethane foam as well. This is a type of foam rubber, something like the cushions on your couch. A little harder to find than the polystyrene, but it is available. It's all a matter of personal taste. The polystyrene filling tends to have a firmer feel with extra support, whereas the polyurethane fill is a little heavier and will give you a softer more "sinking-in" type feeling.

Either product is light years ahead of the dinosaurs from the old days. The new bean bags boast beautiful style, a high comfort factor and extreme durability. You can't beat a bean bag chair as a gift. It's practical and a great value. The gift your loved ones will use and cherish every day for many years to come.

By Kim Patrick


How can we parent our kids and teens better? I think the answer lies in allowing our kids to have more choices, not fewer. We want to empower our kids and teens to make better choices for themselves, and this does not happen by wrapping them up in a cocoon. Here's an example of something that hopefully will cause you to rethink some of your parenting strategies:

My mother and her sister were both given cigarettes at age six and eleven. Mum will not smoke now but her sister became a chain smoker from that experience. I think their father made a huge mistake, nevertheless he was trying to put them off smoking and knew no other way. Imagine if he had done what I have done with my teenagers:

I have always said to my kids, if you ever want to try out smoking, just let me know and we will sit down together so you can try one. Now, hear me out. This is my logic. The child who wants to try a cigarette will try one regardless of whether you agree or not. If you say no they will simply do it behind your back. That's what kids do.

What if you were to let your child know that it is OK to want to try it out, but that you would prefer them to try it out in your presence? Doing this takes away the peer pressure that most kids face nowadays, leaving your child to make an educated choice without any pressure from anyone. Don't you see the value in that?

The goal of parenting is to help your children learn to make great choices in life and when their friends are not pressuring them, they have the best chance to do this. Parents, you need to let your child know that it is OK to want to have a cigarette, but that they should bring their request to you. Believe me, this will save you from heart ache.

Parents need to control the environment as much as possible. I have three teenage boys and I have asked them to come to me should they ever wish to smoke a cigarette. I would then go out and buy the strongest available cigarette and watch them try smoking one.

I know it sounds weird but the safest place to try something like this is definitely with mum or dad. When you show your child or teenager that it is OK to want to try it, they will be less likely to go ahead with it. None of my boys have asked me to smoke with them yet and I have a funny feeling they won't want to because I have empowered them in this area. It is no longer a big deal to them because I said they can try it out if they are curious.

The moral of the story? Try real hard not to forbid things that your child wants to do, rather channel them to do it in front of you so that you can supervise. Now that is great parenting of kids and teens.

By Regan Lee


People these days are rapidly starting to get cell phones at an earlier an earlier age. Particularly Smart Phones. These cell phones go anywhere from the Apple iPhone to the Blackberry. Although, the question is which one is the best for your child or teen?

The Blackberry was originally based as a business phone mostly for adults. With the Blackberry you get easy to retrieve e-mails, texts, and internet access. Plus their hit game Brick Breaker. Along with these features most of their models like the Blackberry Curve have a full accessible keyboard as for their one model the Blackberry Pearl and the Blackberry Pearl Flip come with a half keyboard with around two letters per key.

Although, don't get this wrong the Blackberry Pearl's keyboard does have a feature where it tries to predict what you are going to type and works very effectively and mostly helps you type fast with the smaller size phone. The Blackberry also includes a camera with a very nice zoom option. Along with these Blackberry's there is one touch screen called the Blackberry Storm which is hard to maneuver and does not have a slide out keyboard but a slim touch screen one.

The Apple iPhone was originally structured from the Apple iPod Touch. If you know what the Apple iPod Touch is than you should know that the Apple iPhone is the same thing just basically adding a phone, camera, and 3G AT&T network so you get internet access from anywhere there is AT&T cell phone service. This phone has thousands of applications for you to use and download onto your phone. A lot of these applications are free to download with a few that cost around a dollar or two.

Even you can download the Sims 3 onto your iPhone. Along with these applications you start out with a very fast Safari internet browser, Youtube, and many more. As you can assume this phone seems to attract kids and teens a lot with their games but the Apple iPhone also attracts adults, and business men. The reason for this is because along with the Apple Store's games they include Google Earth, Microsoft Word, and many more. Ideally the Apple iPhone is a very easy accessible phone. You have everything all together the way you want it. The only downside of there camera is the fact that there isn't a zoom in option.

Apple had recently come out with a new model called the iPhone 3G S. Which is really the same base except adding a few more features like Voice Control, Video, Search, and a few more. One of the few nicely designed downsides of this spectacular phone is the fact where you must use a touch screen keyboard on the phone but is surprisingly easy to type with. On all places on the Apple iPhone 3G S you can turn the keyboard sideways for a good long touch screen keyboard. As for the Apple iPhone you can only turn the keyboard in a few places. Really though one of the best features is that you can have your phone, computer, and ipod all on the go in one place.

With all things said the Apple iPhone wins for have the all around kids and teens vote for the gaming, music, and internet. Although, the Blackberry does seem to attract more business people mostly due to the fact that its strictly a no game phone with a base of your main needs for business work. Including that the Apple iPhone is more of an all around phone where the Blackberry tries to put its main focus on business.

By Andrea Saunders


We all know what healthy food is about: carbohydrates, lots of fruit, vegetables, whole-grain bread, and dairy products like yogurt, eggs, and milk. If you're wondering how to teach your kids and teens the importance of healthy food, there are cooking classes for kids that teach them just that. You can also invite them into your own kitchen and show them that they can use their imagination to make up recipes with vegetables of different colors, lean meat, eggs, and, at the same time, share some good quality time together.

Good Nutrition: a Family Affair

These recipes were especially created to teach your kids and teens that healthy food can be absolutely delicious: Chicken Nuggets Toss the chicken in a bag with Parmesan cheese and seasoned stuffing mix, and then bake it in the oven. These chicken nuggets are crispy, but they don´t have the extra fat you get from frying. If you think that pizza is not a nutritious food, take a look at this:

Yummy Pizza

1- Preheat the oven

2- Peel and chop some onion

3- Cut whole-grain pita bread in circles

4- Place the bread on a baking pan and sprinkle with onion, Italian seasoning, and mozzarella cheese.

5. Bake for 15 minutes until the cheese melts.

6. Serve hot And remember to wear oven mitts. Easy and Healthy Snacks Kids and teens can make fun snacks and healthy meals on their own.

Leave fruit and vegetables on hand and let them use their imagination.

Your Healthy Food Guide

-Choose green and orange vegetables

-Choose fresh fruit as often as you can

-Choose full-grained food (cereal, rice, whole-grain bread)

-Use olive oil, if possible What about Sugar, Sweets and Desserts? Cookies, cakes, ice-cream, and muffins contain a lot of fat and sugar. Let your kids have a small amount at the end of a healthy meal.

If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to post it to your site or blog and forward this link to your friends. Have a great day! Don't forget to visit our blog.

By Denson Kelley


The sluggish economy is affecting just about everyone, especially kids. These days kids want and need everything from fashionable clothes to iPods to evenings at the movies.

As any parent will tell you, none of this stuff is cheap. And with adult paychecks having to stretch further and further, any income kids and teens can bring in is much appreciated.

But the days of lemonade stands and mowing the occasional lawn may be in the past. Today kids of all ages are pulling in sizeable incomes working in the small businesses they own.

Thirteen year-old business owners? You bet. Kids, teens, and "tweens" are running everything from service businesses, to ingenious product retail operations, to online mail order extravaganzas.

Most of these businesses are cheap to start. Kids and/or their parents don't have to shuck out a small bank account to get the new business started.

Keller was just a fourth grader, but he quickly found a way to earn $50 or more per week. His mother took him to a store where he could purchased candy wholesale. Then Keller resold the candy to other kids after school.

School administrators were fine with the little guy's entrepreneurial spirit and the kids absolutely loved the opportunity to purchase their favorite sweets, often at a discount over local stores. After expenses, the 4th grader cleared $15 to $20 per day.

Nelda, a high school junior, knew she had a smart business idea when she overheard a restaurant owner complaining about all the customers who wanted home delivery. "The owner didn't have the time to deliver orders to people, so I offered to do it for her. Now I deliver meals to people all over town. My delivery business takes just two hours each afternoon and earns me several hundred dollars each week," she said.

Meanwhile, Markus, a 13 year-old 7th grader, is earning an impressive income offering closeout items on eBay. Markus gets the items from his uncle's store, then sells them on eBay and keeps a large percentage of the profit for himself. The store owner is happy to see items move and Markus is able to save about $700 per month for college.

These are just a few examples of the many solid, doable business ideas for kids. There are literally dozens of proven ideas that are being used by kids of all ages to earn anywhere from pocket change to an adult-sized income.

And this is perhaps the most important time in decades for kids to learn how to run their own businesses. Even a very small part-time venture can teach a child the vitally important aspects of being an entrepreneur.

In this day and age when jobs are getting harder and harder to come by, knowing how to start and operate your own business that makes good money is a skill to last a lifetime.

Of course, kid-approved businesses can be run part-time, leaving youth plenty of time to be kids. When a young person's idle time is filled with an interesting business that gives them the money they need, tasks like homework and household chores are easier to schedule in a disciplined way.

Also, most families simply need more income. If a child can bring home the cash they need to pay for items they want, then everyone in the family benefits from the additional cash flow.

It's an old-fashioned value that is suddenly more vital today than ever.

By Dino Entrails


1. Sell something that has a large demand. Usually, find something that people can not get at a certain place, but they want. For example, at a school, lets say everyone wants gum. It has a very high demand, but people can not leave school to get it. Sometime before school, go up to a local store and buy some gum, then try selling it for a little higher than what you got it for. You can also try buying them in bulk, then selling them separately.

2.Make a lemonade stand. Yes, it is as old as ways to make money are, but it still makes some money. Bring a nice cooler of lemonade and a sign advertising yourself. It does not have to be lemonade. If Cool-Aid would sell better, try selling it. Also, try selling something else. A cookie would go with that lemonade very nicely, don't you think?

3. Use your hobbies! Are you really good at crafts? Try selling them at a local store or a craft show. You could even try selling them online. Are you good at typing? Try typing essays or letters for elderly or people who are poor typers. Fix peoples' computers if you are good with computers. There are ways to make money for most hobbies and talents, if you look hard enough.

4. Start a blog. Lots of kids and teens are making money online every day. Find a good keyword, something that people are searching for and need information. Then, start a free Blogger blog and write posts about your keyword. Build traffic by writing articles and social bookmarking.

5. Complete paid online surveys. A good survey site is free and will pay 1-5 dollars for every survey, but some may be even higher. Surveys usually take 10-30 minutes, but higher paid surveys may take longer.

By Shelby Strong


We all want to be happy. As parents we want our kids to be happy, but what happens when we have a child that has a hard time getting through hard times, or is ultra-sensitive? Sometimes this can be hard, but there are some things we can do as parents to encourage positive behavior in our children which can in turn make them much more happy.

Adults and especially parents are kids most powerful role models, so it is important that we not act negatively around our children. Not that we have to pretend, but if we have a positive outlook, chances are they will too. They look up to adults and parents and want to be like them, so try for a day to say only positive things to your child, make them feel important, needed and special, and see if it doesn't make a little difference. Children just want to know they are valued and important to their parents. Make sure they never doubt how good they are.

Next, whether you work or you are a stay at home parent, spend organized, quality time with your child frequently. We can get busy an involved with projects or other important things and put our children last sometimes to deal with when we are tired and at the end of our rope. On occasion, this is to be expected, but make sure that you have 10-30 minutes every day when you can spend one on one time with your child. You can take this time to talk while playing about issues he or she may be having in their life that would cause them to be unhappy. You'd be surprised by how much they open up when you take the time to get on their level and ask.

A rewards system like tickets or marbles is a great way to reinforce positive behavior. When your child is happy and not fighting or being negative, he gets a marble in his jar. When it is filled, he gets a special prize or a date with Mom or Dad to a favorite restaurant or skating rink. This is a great way to let your child visualize how much good he has done in a short amount of time. This works well for any age of children and can be adapted with bigger prizes for older children.

Last, get involved with what your children are doing. If they love soccer, volunteer to be a coach or assistant coach. You could volunteer in their classroom once a week, which would be a big help to the teacher and would help you learn about the dynamics in the classroom with the other kids, and what your child is learning. Another way to get involved is to immerse yourself in what they like to play with. If they love the Disney princesses, then play "Royal Ball" with them, or play online princess dress up with them. It doesn't have to be expensive; the most fun is usually when you do something together that's free. Most importantly just spend the time together and let her know you also enjoy what she is interested in.

Never let your child question your love for him. No matter what he does or says, you will always be there to talk to him and comfort him in times of need. Doing a few simple things should make a big difference in how happy your kids are, and as a result, it will make you a lot happier too!