Spa Treatments at for Kids

The International Spa Association has revealed that more than half of the over 20,000 spas in the US now offer packages for families, teenagers and kids also. The health benefits of a spa massage are well known. Parents now believe that early exposure to health and beauty practices especially spa treatments will help their children develop hygiene habits.

Also, spa treatments help with stress management and reduction which is a growing cause of worry among teenagers today. For instance, a spa visit can help a teenager deal with issues of his or her image, self-esteem and peer pressure apart from being "fun".

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You can choose from special massages, pedicures, manicures or facial packages for your kids at the spa. There are spas which let the children choose their own scrubs or even create their own packages. Spa treatment for kids can range in price depending on the luxurious locations to affordable spa treatments.

Recent Spa Trends

It appears that Gen Y has been hitting the spa in record numbers, often visiting the spas in packs. They seem to be extremely comfortable with the spa procedures and seem to be increasingly adopting them for the sake of prevention of signs of aging. They are enjoying a great diversity of treatments with great emphasis on skin care and health choices also. Researchers believe that as long as the focus remains on health, a spa experience is a good option for kids. Spas also insist that they aim to encourage health and fun among kids with some even organizing preteen workshops which cover most of the issues faced by kids today including proper nutrition and exercise and arts and crafts workshops.

Spa Treatments at for Kids

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Something From Santa's Workshop - Sock Monkeys

Looking for a unique and meaningful toy for your children's Christmas stockings? Something that isn't plastic and serves to market the latest movie and requires numerous batteries! They are actually hard to find, so it's great when you find something that has character and personality and isn't mass produced.

In the age of lights, noise and plastic fantastic, a traditional toy with a long history is making a comeback in Australia. The iconic American Sock Monkey - stuffed toys made from socks fashioned in the likeness of a monkey.

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I first discovered Sock Monkeys while looking for a unique and meaningful toy for my children's Christmas stockings. I was fed up with the flood of poor quality plastic toys that served to market the latest movie, required numerous batteries, and lasted less than a month both in terms of working capacity and kids' interest.

I am a bit traditional and love Christmas, so the Christmas spirit is very important in our house, I wanted something that looked like it came from Santa's workshop, so it had to be made from natural materials, and look hand, or elf made! I wasn't looking for a soft toy in particular but found the Sock Monkeys and they were just what I was thinking - none of that plastic, battery-powered, commercial boxed and wrapped stuff that the kids see at the shops. I felt they were something special that they would remember, a little unique and they could keep them for their own children.

Something Santa could have made!

Something From Santa's Workshop - Sock Monkeys

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Fall Weddings - Autumn Theme Wedding Ideas For Brides and Grooms - Revised

Autumn, what a romantic, wonderful time to get married! Whether you want your autumn wedding to be very formal, most casual or somewhere in between, you have an enormous variety of possibilities. It is harvest time. The summer heat is gone. Yet the days are still warm and sunny. The leaves are turning into an incredible array of colors and as they fall off the trees, create a soft, lush colorful carpet. Halloween and Thanksgiving are here and can serve as wedding themes or be incorporated for a most unique personalized fall theme wedding. Can you see the possibilities? So, put on your thinking cap and get creative.

Following are ideas to help you plan a fall wedding.

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WEDDING LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

ATTIRE

Bride and her attendants

Fall weather is unpredictable. It may get chilly so, consider heavier fabrics and at least some sleeve for the gown and dresses or top them with matching boleros, stoles or shawls that can, but do not have to be worn. The wedding gown can be white, ivory, champagne or gold. The gown and or veil may show embroidered leaf motif or dainty gold embroidery.

Bridesmaids may wear either the same color or to really represent the autumn theme, have each bridesmaid represent a different fall color. See Fall Colors List. The bride may wish to wear a fall theme garter and carry a matching hankie.
Bridesmaids and flower girl will look great adorning garlands of fall flowers and leaves.

The groom and his attendants

To reflect the season, the men and boys could wear tan, beige and brown attire instead of the white, black or dark blue. Their ties should be of fall colors matching the bridesmaids dresses and their boutonnière should be a fall flower.

FALL COLORS

white, ivory, champagne, muted gold, tan, beige, various browns, hunter green, burnt orange, rust red, deep red, burgundy, cranberry, wine, navy blue, sky blue, eggplant purple, pewter, silver, pale yellow, pumpkin and orange.

INVITATIONS AND STATIONERY

Accent your invitations and wedding stationery with your chosen fall color. If you print your own, you may add fall graphics such as leaves, acorns, fall flowers, seasonal fruit, or a horn of plenty. If you purchase fall theme print your own invitations, fall theme is available. Cut the place cards to look like a fall theme item leaves, pumpkin, turkey siluettes etc...

FLOWERS

Chrysanthemums, roses, daisies, dahlias, lilies, yarrow, orchids, hydrangeas, sunflowers, baby breath, fall leaves, tallow berries, natural or dried wheat.

CEREMONY

Decorate the ceremony site with fall flowers.

Instead of aisle runners spread fall color real or fake leaves, in the center aisle. If your ceremony location does not allow spreading petals or leaves directly on the floor, glue leaves on aisle runners. This is a great activity for kids as the love to glue and can be creative. So, if you can engage kids, whether they are yours or not, they will be proud to help with your wedding.

Instead of rose petals, fill the flower basket with colorful fall leaves.

Make pew bows from ribbons in your wedding colors and embellish them with fall silk flowers, leaves, fruit, wheat, Indian corn etc...

RECEPTION

General

Use mini pumpkins, gourds, berrirs, Indian corn, apples, grapes, wheat , bales of hay and leaves foe centerpieces, favors and decorations.

Tables

Instead of numbering your tables, name them. For example:
Fall, Autumn, Acorn, Horn of plenty, Cornucopia, Maple, Oak, Apple, Pear, Pumpkin, Cranberry etc...

To add more interest and make it easier to remember give your table addresses. Just add Circle or Square depending on the shape of your tables and you send your guests to Fall Circle or Autumn Square etc...

Use fall color linens.

Ideas for Centerpieces

Before placing a centerpiece, you may strew fall leaves and or wheat on the reception tables and on the cake tale.

Favors

Reception Decorations

Fall theme ribbons and bows, garlands, paper lanterns or luminaries with amber light bulbs, balloons, chains of stringed popcorn, cranberries, candies, paper chains, bales of hay, ivy, garlands etc...

Accent the doorways and tables with tulle and ribbons in your wedding colors. Adhere leaves and silk flowers for inexpensive, elegant displays.

Cake

Decorate your cake with leaves, fall flowers, mini pumpkins, mini apples, marzipan fruit etc...

Flavors: Spice cake, pumpkin cake, dark chocolate cake, nut cake.

Food items you may wish to consider

HALLOWEEN WEDDINGS

DO NOT display ghosts at your wedding. You do not want to start your life together with "ghosts in your closet".

FUN IDEAS

Hay rides, Horse and Buggy rides, blowing soap bubbles, Harvest the rewards of your Autumn Theme Wedding planning and have a super event.

Fall Weddings - Autumn Theme Wedding Ideas For Brides and Grooms - Revised

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Kids Picnic Table - Quit Procrastinating, Build it Today!

Often at the end of summer I look at my chore list of things I wanted to get done. It is usually a long list! I take that list and try to pick out the ones to leave until next spring, and the ones I'd like to tackle before winter starts. Last year I had made a promise to my kids that I would build them a picnic table, so I added it to the list and looked for my kids picnic table plans.

The family tends to be outside a lot during the summer. I knew that a kids picnic table would be pretty useful. The kids would think it's cool to have their own area away from mom and dad, and mom and dad would have a nice quiet meal away from the kids.

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So I dusted off the unused plans that had been in my toolbox and decided that there was still enough time and nice weather that I could probably bang it off the kids picnic table over the next few weekends. I priced out the materials and made a quick list of all the things I would need to finish and I quickly realized that this would be totally worth it.

After a quick trip to Home Depot I was ready to start my project. It quickly occurred to me that, although this was a fairly easy build, there was no way I would have done this on my own without the table plans. I was pretty glad that I had got them.

Both the wife and the kids were surprised to see that the table was ready the next day, but even more relieved that the table was safe and sturdy. I had an impromptu hot-dog lunch. I'll say this, if you want to do something for your kids that they will really appreciate, consider taking a weekend and build them their very own kids picnic table.

Kids Picnic Table - Quit Procrastinating, Build it Today!

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Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops by Children's Writers - Part Three

No examination of author visits to schools and libraries would be complete without some mention of fees and honorariums. In Canada, fees naturally vary from one author to another and while writing organizations have recommended rates, usually calculated by the hour, its still wise to do your own research. Are other authors in your area charging by the hour, by the day, half-day or even per head? Prices also vary greatly from one province to another. What may be considered a fair rate for your time and services in Toronto or elsewhere in Ontario may appear expensive to a school in Alberta or British Columbia, or even in Calgary, Edmonton or Vancouver. It may also be completely out of the range of a school in the Atlantic provinces, Manitoba or Saskatchewan. The same differences in pricing and affordability apply to the United States, the UK and other countries where there are always going to be significant regional variations, between both urban and rural areas or simply when comparing different areas of the same country.

Make sure you always check that the school is in agreement about all financial matters well in advance. This is particularity true of mileage, which may not be possible to calculate until you arrive at the school. Yet you should attempt to give the school at least a rough estimate, since this will be an additional charge on top of your agreed fee. Should meals and accommodation be required and the school is expected to foot the bill, make sure this is all discussed beforehand as well. Some schools require invoices before they can release a cheque for anything, while others don't. It's important to remember too that not only do provinces vary in their policies and procedures, often school boards within the same province have different regulations about paying authors. Some require forms to be filled out for the payroll department, others require social insurance information. Authors fees are most likely to be paid from casino funds, parent associations, bank accounts used for school fields trips and so on, but it's still advisable to determine exactly what information the school may require to pay you at the end of your visit. Just as you need to be fully prepared for your audiences before arriving at a school, with the financial aspects of an author visit, planning and preparation in advance is always advisable.

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Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops by Children's Writers - Part Three

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Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops by Children's Writers - Part One

Unlike those writing for an adult audience, children's authors have far more opportunities to secure speaking engagements. Many teachers and librarians at elementary, junior high and, depending on the age range of your books, senior high schools, like to host artists every school year. They know that an author visit can be inspirational, boosting student creativity and encouraging them in their own writing. And from your own point of view, meeting your readers can be one of the most enjoyable elements of a school visit. Younger students especially are almost always thrilled to meet a published author, especially if they have read your books.

I am always pleased to receive e mails from children who enjoyed my visit to their school and here are just a few examples.

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"Thank you for coming to our school. I really enjoyed your presentation and your books are FANTASTIC! You're the greatest author ever!"

"Thank you for coming to our school to share your ideas for your books. I learned that being an author is really hard work. I think you are a great author and hope you finish all your books"

"It was an honour to see you at our school. You are very nice and funny. I think I might try to become an author like you because it sounds challenging and very much fun"

"I really enjoyed your presentation. I learned a lot about how fun it can be to write a story"

"Thank you for coming to visit our school. Most authors just come in and talk about their book, but you told us how many drafts you had and we made characters together."

"I thought it was really neat to meet a real author because someday I want to be an author as well. Thank you for coming to my school. I will never forget it."

"I enjoyed your performance very much. You have a very interesting imagination. You are the best author that has come to our school."

School and library visits offer a invaluable opportunity to connect with your readers on a personal level and in some cases you can make a real difference in children's lives, stimulating their imagination or simply getting them more interested in books and reading.

Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops by Children's Writers - Part One

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Storage Shed Kits

To set up a storage shed or warehouse to store valuable equipment, a wide range of storage shed kits are available. Storage shed kits offer a fantastic solution for storage expansion needs. Storage shed kits are designed to make the task of building a storage shed simple and hassle-free.

Storage shed kits are best suited for the do-it-yourselfer and can be treated as an alternative to frame, brick or block construction. They are available for every budget and can be purchased online. Storage shed kits save the time spent for building storage sheds from a set of storage shed plans. Most of the storage shed kits are engineered to handle the worst weather conditions.

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Storage shed kits include lumber and other building materials precut to exact sizes. Precut materials include floor joists, floor deck, floor plates, roof panels, wall studs, wall plates, angle brackets, stud brackets, prefabricated siding, prefabricated door stock, prefabricated rafters, and more. In addition there are doors, windows, and detailed assembly instructions. To build a storage shed, all one has to do is to assemble the pieces according to the instructions given.

Metal building kits are ideal for the home, farm, and industry. Steel storage shed kits are suitable for garages, workshops, and boat or RV storage. Steel storage shed kits contain steel building package that can be assembled easily. Lowes and Home Depot, Duro Shed of Virginia, Inc., and SteelMaster are some of the places where you find storage shed kits. Many storage shed kits also come with an optional warranty that many may wish to take advantage of, as well.

Storage Shed Kits

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Audition Workshop - Teaching Kids to Present Themselves

When I think about how kids learn to present themselves, one picture in particular comes to mind. I remember 12 years ago, when I was auditioning kids for a youth production of "The Wizard of Oz". There was a small, fragile and lovely little girl with a teeny tiny little voice who would only look at her shoes. Despite her shyness, her voice held immense promise. It was high pitched and as clear as a bell. She landed the part of the good witch, had her first solo, and by performance time, had stopped looking at her shoes. That same young lady is now a popular local country singer with her own CD. I realized during that audition process that most young people, unless trained, do not really have a clue as to how to audition. The very next youth production I held auditions for was preceded by an auditon workshop.

As a producer of community-based youth musicals, I realized early on that what I did know multiplied by 100 was equal to what I did not know. I use this law as a constant reminder to learn from observation. My observation of that little girl made me realize the importance of preparing a child for the audition process. Sure, she came to the audition with potential, but I realized that I really could have provided her with a kick-start via a workshop on auditioning. From that point on, all of the shows that I have produced have some level of audition-preparedness built in on the front-end.

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Taking the approach that children learn by example, I start my audition workshops by performing a faux audition as a confident, experienced actor, with myself as the person auditioning. I also perform a contrasting audition as an inexperienced person stricken with stage fright. This provides them with a concept of what they can do, given the proper tools.

I then take each step of the audition process, and break it down. I focus on the following points:

1. Where to look. When a young person is feeling the first anxiety of stage fright, they tend to freeze up and either stare at the floor or their eyes flicker around like a firefly. Although actors can be required to focus visually based on the direction and scenario, for audition purposes I encourage the visual focus to be just over the heads of the audience, with the chin slightly lifted. Sometimes there may be a clock or other fixture on the wall for them to fix on.

2. Vocal projection. Most children by nature have small natural voices (barring when they are yelling). As a primer to vocal exercise, I encourage them to take a breath prior to each phrase. I ask them to visualize sending their voice to the back of the room without yelling.

3. Vocal dynamics, anunciation, and timing. Using a sentence or two from the script, I deliver it in a variety of ways, and then ask them to identify what was different. This helps them become sensitive to how volume, pace, and clarity relate to the effect of the words upon the audience.

4. Posture and stance. I suggest to the young people that unless the director has requested them to take on the appearance of a specific character, that they practice good, common sense posture. I also identify common traits associated with stage fright, such as fidgeting, and touching the face and hair. Once mindful of these traits, they are less prone to do them.

5. Entry and exit. I describe the importance of making a confident entrance, properly introducing yourself, greeting the judges, and exiting gracefully with a "thank you" at the end.

The final portion of the workshop is used to allow each person to perform two or more faux auditions. After the first one, I identify reasonable areas of improvement for that child, after which they perform their next (and almost always significantly better) second audition.

The audition workshop has an immense impact on the kids who audition for our productions. I hope that you will consider this concept when it's time to produce your next performing arts experience for young people.

Copyright Mary Hanawalt 2007

Audition Workshop - Teaching Kids to Present Themselves

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Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops by Children's Writers - Part Four

Author visits can be a lucrative source of book sales, but it's wise to ask if such activity is even allowed at the school ahead of time. Most schools are delighted that you will be bringing books to sell and sign for the children while you are there. If you send order forms or other paperwork prior to your arrival, teachers often collect the money for you and everything can be extremely well organized. However, some schools do have very strict policies about selling anything to the students and prohibit promotion for commercial purposes. Make sure you always ask in advance to avoid any uncomfortable situations when you are at the school.

Once a visit is confirmed, I send out order forms for the books, which most schools send home with the students just prior to my arrival. Consequently, parents can see what sort of books are available, even visit my my website, so that those children interested in getting signed copies remember to bring the correct payment while I am at the school and so avoid disappointment. However, I make it very clear that this is entirely at the discretion of the school. I do not expect to have a firm number of orders for books before I travel and always take a good supply of each title with me.

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At the time of writing, I have five titles in print, but there are still no guarantees in terms of book sales during school visits. Sometimes your sales may be in the hundreds and on other occasions you may only sell ten copies or less. As a result, book sales during author visits should often be considered a nice bonus, rather than expecting them to be highly successful every time.

Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops by Children's Writers - Part Four

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Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops by Children's Writers - Part Five

While its very important to do your own homework in terms of discussing schedules with the teachers, organizing your presentations, planning your topics to fill a week or more as an author in residence, selecting subject matter appropriate to each audience, ensuring that all financial matters are in order and so on, before embarking on a school visit, the experience is usually very rewarding for children's authors. School visits allow you to talk about your own work, your inspiration, your future projects, answer questions, sell some autographed copies of your books, and present yourself to a entirely new audience or geographic area. Writing in any discipline can be a solitary, even lonely profession, but children's authors do have the opportunity to visit to schools and libraries, allowing you to connect with your readers on a personal level. Children are also thrilled to meet an author, especially if they are familiar with your work, and if they are not, you will most likely gain a whole new set of readers as a result of your visit to the school.

An author visit can also be very beneficial to the school, inspiring the students and encouraging them in their own writing or just getting them excited about books and reading. You may also help them to explore their own artistic creativity, whether this involves writing, illustration, painting, poetry, sculpture, photography, film or another discipline altogether and ultimately, you may even make a real difference in the lives of some of your readers.

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Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops by Children's Writers - Part Five

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