I have been trying to earn money for as long as I can remember. Even as a child, I was always trying to start my own business or to find a job that I could do even though I was young. I remember one time when I got together with some friends and made homemade friendships bracelets and then took them around the neighborhood to try to sell them.

I wasn’t the only one in my family who earned money with my own business. My kid brother learned early on that he could purchase candy in bulk and then sell it individually to kids at school to make a profit. He and my sister also used to scout the ground at every parking lot we ever entered because they knew that they could find loads of dropped change there which would add up.

We weren’t particularly unique kids as far as this goes. In fact, I think that most kids are pretty creative and I would say that most of them want to do something that allows them to earn spending money of their own. The problem is that it’s really frustrating for kids to figure out how to earn money when they aren’t old enough to work yet.

There are definitely options for kids with all different types of skills, though. Take a look at my article on 30 ways kids can earn money to get some ideas!

Tags: businesses for kids, earn money, home business, how kids earn money, kathryn vercillo, kids, kids business, Personal Finance, work

I read a lot of books about creativity. I read a lot of memoirs by artists and writers. And I know a lot of people who make art their living, their way of life or an important hobby that they would never let go. What all of this intake of information about art has taught me is that most creative people have blocks that they have to deal with when it comes to their creativity. And like most of our issues in life, those blocks were often built during childhood.

Spend any significant amount of time with children and you will see that they are naturally imaginative. It isn’t just in the way that they play – although it’s clear there with their fantasy games and make-believe. It is in the way that they approach life, with the curiosity and wonder that we associate with being a kid. It is in the way that they solve problems and in the way that they negotiate friendships.

Adult artists know that they can learn a lot from kids about all of these things because kids don’t just ‘think outside of the box’. Kids don’t even see the box. Or they see the box but what they see is a potential fort or ship or space for drawing on.

Unfortunately, it happens all too quickly that kids are taught that the box is a box. They are limited by life and education and experience. Their imaginations begin to dwindle. This happens as a part of life. But it also happens directly as a result of the failure of parents and teachers to encourage the ‘not-just-a-box’ thinking that kids naturally have.

I’ve written an article today with 20 tips for encouraging your children’s creativity. I hope that you will read it and add to it because I think that one of the most important things that a parent can do is to encourage kids to continue to be creative. It isn’t about being artistic, although that’s a nice side benefit, but rather about being creative in life so that it always seems that problems have solutions even when they aren’t obvious to them. It’s about celebrating life and the wonder that it holds. These are things we all need more of and things that we shouldn’t take from our kids earlier than life gives it to them.

Tags: arts, creative home, creativity, expression, hubpages, kathryn vercillo, kids, Parenting

I don’t have children of my own but I spent several years working as a foster parent, taking kids into my home. One of the things that I always tried to do was to make sure that the bedrooms that I offered to them were nice. Not fancy nice or filled with nice things – just pleasant places to be, places where they could feel safe and comfortable and maybe even happy.

There were a lot of ways that I did this including trying to personalize their rooms with photos and making sure that the beds were comfortable. But one of the easiest ways that I did this was with paint. I love painting rooms different colors and believe that a kid’s room should be painted to express his or her personality.

For one foster child, we did the room in blue and red because he was a big fan of the University of Arizona Wildcats and that was his favorite color. I also had a smaller bedroom where kids who weren’t going to be with me long stayed. That room was very small but I tried to make it seem bigger and brighter by painting the walls a sunny yellow and doing cloud-like blue-and-white paint on the ceiling.

I think that decorating any kids’ room should be fun. And it should be something that kids get to help with. And it should be something that you do again and again. Check out my recent article on The Best Colors for Decorating a Kids’ Room to get some more inspiration!

Tags: bedroom, children, decor, decorating, design, kids