Business Ideas for the Holidays

Do you have an entrepreneurial spirit?

Are you a teen looking for ideas to make money?

Do you already have a business idea and want to get started on your way to success?

Well, this would be the ideal time to work on it, given the long period of break your having!

Dog Walking Service
Are you a family that likes animals? Dog walking may be the perfect business for you- the young entrepreneur. The benefits include plenty of fresh, clean air, exercise with man's best friend, and cash to boot!

Start a Blog!
A good way to monetize this blog would be to include affiliate links to horsing supply stores. Just about every large store has an affiliate program, you sign up for a related program, place a link on your blog and every time someone purchases something through your affiliate link you will earn a commission.

Make money selling your own crafts!
This is one of the best ways to combine something you love doing and would do anyway with a way to make a profit. There are so many people out there who love to buy things handmade.
Well, this can be almost anything you're crafty at!

• Soaps
• Candles
• Dolls and doll clothing
• Decorations
• Holiday items
• Knitted or crocheted items
• Wedding or party favors
• Cards
• Journals or scrapbooks

Any other ideas you'd like to add in? We'd love to hear more!

Great Art Sites for Kids

Kea Coloring Book "All the fun. None of the mess!" This free program lets kids color, save and print. It's like a coloring book on your computer. At least 250 more pictures can be downloaded from the site and added to the coloring books. You can download the program at various download sites (the Kea site links to C/NET's Download, which works fine). We used Educational Freeware as a personal preference.

Kid Cartoonists This site (blog?) lets kids post their art for all to see. Even has a manga section. Also has various puzzles for kids. "Under each drawing I post encouraging comments. The response from kids, parents and teachers has been terrific."

KinderArt "is the largest collection of free art lessons on the Internet. What began in 1997 as a few helpful ideas for teachers and parents, has since grown into an enormous collection of resources featuring thousands of free lesson plans, ideas and resources.” Good help for busy art teachers.

Living Colour from The Australian Museum Online. This is a good explanation of colors and how we see them, with interactive activities online for kids.

PBS Kids Art The art section of the huge PBS Kids site. Mainly lets kids color characters from PBS Kids TV shows.

Virtual Lite Brite is one name for this animated site. Fun and artistic.

Drawing for Children is a great, very cool, free download (Windows only) from the Netherlands. It says "drawing" but it has been used in computer labs for language arts, too! You can enter text and load .bmp files from Windows Paint. "Drawing for Children is a free drawing program for children with many nice options. The best way to learn to use it is simply to use it. There is though a document describing the use of the program. For more information, see the readme file."

Free Coloring Many more coloring pages to print out; dental, flowers, etc.

Ivy's Coloring Pages features pages to print and color, online coloring, links to other sites.

Coloring for kids Free, printable coloring book pages ! You can choose from 1000's of printable coloring pages. Coloring pages for children of all ages with drawings to print and color. A large selection of colorings so your children can find their favorite cartoons . More than 10,000 printable coloring sheets.

Coloringcastle is an awesome, awesome page. It has coloring sheets for every holiday, alphabet, numbers, military, space, animals, food guide pyramid etc...etc... Needless to say there are many good coloring sheets for you all so please check this site out and enjoy! This site uses PDF files so be prepared for that.

Crayola Yes! The crayon people! The site has "Coloring and Crafts" with printable coloring projects, "Games and Fun" with some good color-related online games, "For Educators" with lesson plans and more, and "For Parents" with various activities. A well-made site.

DLTK Kids Coloring Dozens of coloring pages to print out. You may also make calendars from here.

Design Your Own Bill from US Bureau of Engraving & Printing. Lets kids design and color their own paper currency, with funny faces, etc. Computer kids had fun doing this.

Activity TV This truly excellent site has at least a couple of hundred good instructional videos on subjects like paper airplanes, science projects, magic, making jewelry, crafts, origami, juggling, cheerleading, cooking (!), and more! It also has Legos action videos and several good games! The videos are really world-class, with adult instruction and printable parts lists. Projects on the videos can be accessed by skill levels, categories, most viewed, etc. You need to look at Activity TV!

Activity Village Here's a site from the UK that will help out parents and teachers. "Welcome to Activity Village, where you will find coloring pages, home school resources, educational resources, kids crafts, puzzles, printables, Sudoku for kids and much, much more ... Click on the menu bars above to explore over 3000 pages of activities to help you keep your kids busy!" Tons of coloring pages! The site has a popup to start, x it out or just subscribe.

Art Just For Kids Humongous portal to dozens of other sites. Has to be seen to be believed. Go there and check it out!

Art Zone Interactive art that you can make online. From the National Gallery of Art. There are 18 interactive projects. You will need Shockwave to make these work.

How about something back for your community?

• ACRES
  Animal Concerns Resarch & Education Society - As animals cannot speak up for themselves, it is up to humans to give them a voice, speak up their behalf and end their abuse.

• Autism Resource Centre
  ARC(S) is a non-profit organisation started by volunteers, dedicated to serve children and adults with ASD to help them lead meaningful lives in society. ARC(S) offers a range of services, Assessment and Diagnosis, Information, Direct Therapy and Education Support, and Training of Professionals and Caregivers. It started the first autism school, Pathlight School, which offers not just life skills but also mainstream academics for pupils who can make it. Its training arm, WeCAN, is also the biggest autism training provider in Singapore and Asia.

• Caring for Cambodia
  Caring for Cambodia is an accredited, non-governmental charitible organziation. Our mission is to secure a better, brighter future fo the children of Cambodia by providing them with educational opportunities. Through the schools we have established and our various programs and inititives , we now support over 3,000 Cambodian children.

• Children's Cancer Foundation
  To improve the quality of life of children with cancer and their families through enhancing their emotional, social and medical well-being. This is achieved by providing counselling, employing therapeutic play, conducting support groups, organising children and family outings, offering financial assistance, educating the families, supporting training and research, and promoting public awareness.

• Children's Society
  Singapore Children's Society is dedicated toward helping children, youth and families in need.

• Family & Community Developement
  Provides a short-list of various opportunities to voluteer through.

• Help Family Service Centre
  HELP Family Service Centre is a voluntary welfare organization, set up to help single-parent families. We are an affiliated member of the National Council of Social Service (NCSS), and we are supported by the Community Chest of Singapore.

• The Hunger Site
  The more people who visit The Hunger Site each day, the more food that is given to the hungry, provided by the sponsors of the site.

• Kids For Life
  Raising money and awareness for the Children's Cancer Foundation (CCF) in Singapore.

• Light a Milion Candles
  The innocent victims of Internet child abuse cannot speak for themselves. But you can. With your help, we can eradicate this evil trade. We do not need your money. We need you to light a candle of support.

• National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre
  Bringing out the volunteer in you in Singapore. NVPC's mission is to promote and develop volunteerism and philanthropy across all sectors and at all levels of society, furthering the Singapore 21 vision of an active citizenry. We promote giving across different sectors including arts, community, education, health, social service, sports and youth.

• Singapore General Hospital
  The objective of the Friends of SGH Hospital's volunteer programme is to provide a channel for the community to contribute and bring a personal touch and compassion to our patients. In doing so, we hope that our volunteers will find personal enrichment in learning and making new friends, while contributing your skills and time in helping patients on their road to recovery.

• SPCA
  One of the animals in the adoption shelter could be your best friend. Each of them is looking for a home. You can help. When you decide to bring a pet into your life, give an SPCA animal a home. Don't go to a pet store. Don't go to a breeder. Choose to save a life. Take home a friend who will love you for life!

• World Vision
  The problems children face in the developing world differ, but the cause is always the same - poverty. It's easy to feel hopeless, but through child sponsorship, you truly can do something about it, something extraordinary.