My daughter is finally at the age where we are starting to allow her to make her own decisions.  From what to wear, to what movie to watch, we are testing out the waters as she grows up.

We recently allowed her to make a really big decision regarding getting her first ear piercing.  Unlike other parents, we did not choose for her to have a piercing at an early age, but rather waited to the point where she could make her own decisions.

After getting her ears pierced, we made sure to go over the piercing care instructions with her thoroughly.  But, she is pretty mature for her age, so I don’t see any problems with out choices.

What really scares me though is that we are getting close to the day where she will want a boyfriend - I just worry that the moment she does, our lives will get very interesting.

I am looking for some good Halloween costume ideas for my children. I always make their costumes and I find that I am running low on ideas. I like to make costumes that are not too terribly complicated. Usually I only make costumes that take me one evening to create, so they are nothing fantastic, but the kids always look unique and they seem to love the costumes.

I think that the generic kids Halloween costumes that can be purchased are poorly made and are rather boring. I prefer my kids to be a little bit different. I do take their input to heart as to what they want to be, but I have also vetoed their choices, based on the fact that the costume would be just too hard to create.

I must admit that I am tiring of coming up with ideas on my own and am hoping to find some new, and yet simple ideas from other people. I am especially interested in ideas on making a simple robot costume. The kicker with this one is that it must fit into a booster seat. I am sure I will come up with something.

There are always those people we think of in life that seem like we could meet and grow rich just by touching them. In reality, we know that this is not possible, but what is possible is to learn to think like these people.

In my opinion, all rich people have one thing in common; that is being able to think outside the box. If they thought like everyone else, they would not have gotten to be where they are today.

One thing that really flabbergasts me is the lack of education that kids have available to them today about money. Sure, we all learned about currency in elementary school, but we were never really taught about money. Anything I know about money, I learned from my parents, but I really think it should be part of a regular school curriculum.

When we are uninformed about money and money decisions, we are left with no choices. Most of us leave college, in debt, and still misinformed about money. This has got to change, as people are left with no choices. I don’t know about you, but my choice is to fight for the rights of our children to be informed. What is your next choice?

It seems like just a short time ago, organic food became popular.  Many benefits such as vitamin content and taste were promoted to us in an effort to help us justify the higher price of these foods.  I know I tried organic fruit and I was hooked - in fact, I never bought "normal" fruit again.

Now it seems there is something else on the market I need to try: organic baby clothing.  For some of you this won’t be new, but it is new to me.  I had never considered that store bought baby clothes had come in contact with hazardous chemicals during their production.  It is sad to think that I would be in fact poisoning my baby each time I got them dressed - how could I do that?

Looking online, I found many sites that sold organic baby clothes.  The styles were no different than regular baby clothes, and from the testimonials I read, people were very happy with them.  I also noticed that they sold organic baby bedding - another place they spend a lot of time.  I placed an order and expect it in a few weeks.  I will feel better once they arrive - I didn’t realize that I was poisoning my baby.

I think this is the first year that someone has asked me to help them with Christmas shopping.  You see, my nephews have asked my grandmother to buy them a video game system.  She asked if I could help her find a good one for her great grand children - and I couldn’t turn her down.

Now, I am not the most up to date with the video games systems on the market - but I know where to look.  I sat at my computer and did a search for Xbox game reviews and reviews of Wii games - to see if the two systems they asked for were reasonable for presents.

Well, what I found is that the Xbox and the Xbox 360 didn’t really have any games for their age.  They are only six and eight, too young for the violent games found on that game system.

So, I am taking grandma out tomorrow to buy a Wii.  With their family friendly games, and all age appeal, I think that it will be the right system for them.  I sure hope they invite me over to play - it looks fun.

Today I had the opportunity to babysit my nieces.  Now, one of them is one, the other is five.  The five year old, Claire is a genius and each time she comes over, I try to play some fun games with her.  Today though, I have been feeling sick, so I thought I could find something on the computer for her to do.

I started her off with some fun puzzle games.  I let her try some games that involved spelling and matching colors together as she is working on that in school.  She sat there and played for about half an hour before she was bored. 

We then tried out some fun action games - we found a few that let her build things as well as matching games such as Mah Jong.  Now, she instantly became a Mah Jong expert - she has always been good at matching card games when I played with her in the past.

So, thankfully the Internet was there to entertain my niece - I probably wouldn’t have made it through the day with my headache.

If you are a parent, I am sure that you know the one thing your child didn’t come included with: an instruction book.  Now, that can make it kind of tricky to figure out what to do or how to do it.  If you were to read many parenting books, you would come across the one most important nugget of advice: parent involvement is key in your success as a parent and the success of your child in life.

The easiest place to start is to help them with their learning.  Parent involvement in education starts at an early age when you teach them language and the meaning of things.  This carries through their life: whether it is helping them to learn shapes as a child, reading a book to them, or helping them with a school project.

Speaking of school, parent involvement in schools can help children understand the value of learning - not only will your involvement help your child, but it will help the other children in the class.  Most parents help out in elementary school, but there are plenty of opportunities in high school to help as well.

What is the real return on your involvement?

A better relationship with your child, a well adjusted child, and plenty of memories of good times with their parents - that alone is priceless.

If you are looking for a good site that your child can play on and not be bombarded by advertisements, I have found the site for you.  The Doll Palace is a new site that offers some activities that are great for children of any age.

For the younger children, you can find the cartoon dolls to be a useful passtime.  You can pick a doll (boy or girl) and spend time with dress up games - you can change their clothes, their hair, and even give them accessories.  The interface is very much reminiscent of the old paper cut-out dolls without having to cut out all their clothing.  You can use the dolls you created as avatars on myspace pages, for you messaging program, or just a picture to put on your website.

You can also find coloring pages on the site as well.  There are many different categories that are sure to spark any child’s interest.  You can color cartoons, Pooh bear, animals, trains and more.  What sets the site apart from other coloring sites is that you can color the pages online - no printing required.  This results in cheap fun for your kids no matter what your financial situation.

All in all this is a site I would recommend to all parents if they need some activities to entertain their children.