Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Disney Cheracters

We all love the magic Disney brought into our lives when we were kids.

Who does not like Ariel or Cinderella from Disney Cartoons? I adore the characters and know many of the special names even from the latest pixar movies. The other day I was browsing the net and found very interesting site The Doll Palace. They offer cartoon dolls, but now I see a new Coloring Pages sections, and guess what, Disney Coloring Pages is one of the sections too.

I quickly scanned the page for my characters and colored one of my own. The Doll Palace provides a code for any picture you color so it is really easy to share one with friends. You can take a look at the Snow White that I made.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

The Top Five Rainy Day Activities

Try these five fun activities with your kids when it’s raining outside. From baking adventures to coloring pages, here are the ideas you need.

It’s raining outside and you’re bored today. Actually you aren’t so bored, but you are really tired of hearing how bored your kids are. They whine, they cry, they sulk, and you’re losing it. Why not turn off the television and try something a little out of the ordinary if your family has the rainy day blues?


  • Discover new toys. If your kids are like mine, they have a room bursting with toys that don’t seem to get enough play time. Perhaps they have forgotten how much fun Barbie or GI Joe can be, or just can’t get creative anymore with blocks. If you sit down with your kids and show them just how much fun it can be to combine toys or find new things to do with old toys, you’ll be the hero of the day.

    For example, try using the blocks to outline a house for Barbie on the floor. Let your imagination soar as you make rooms together and play house. When you’re tired of one arrangement, try another! Dig through the closet and find thing that haven’t seen the light of day in a few months or years. If nothing in the toy closet has great appeal, make new toys. A few blankets and a card table can make a terrific fort. A towel and a great imagination make a nice magic carpet. Be creative!

  • Play online. There are lots of things to do on the computer that don’t require constant supervision like many of the traditional games might. Pull up a website like TheDollPalace.com and let your kids explore. The coloring pages on the site can inspire creativity. Online coloring pages are made from many of the fun and fashionable dolls created on the site, so they are more interesting and exciting than traditional coloring pages.

    After trying out the coloring pages, play with doll makers on that site and try out different educational websites. There are tons of websites provided that teach various things or involve games that are educational rather than edgy and inappropriate. The best part of all is that they are free!


  • Bake up a storm. Kids love to help bake things. Dig in the pantry for some sugar cookies or cake mix and whip up a batch. Let the kids help stir, and as the cookies or cupcakes cool, bring out all the sprinkles, food coloring and candy you can find. Let the kids frost the creations and add all the decorative elements. When the masterpieces are finished, everyone can indulge!


  • Play a game together. Most people agree that board games, or even video games, are a terrific way to spend time together, but they can be a bit hard to get started. If you pull out the Monopoly or Candyland board for everyone and get the kids motivated, you’ll be on your way to a less stressful afternoon.

    Not only will your kids be having fun as they count spaces and make wise real estate investments, they will have something to do that challenges the brain a bit. Throw in a bit of popcorn and juice and you’ll have a regular party!


  • Invite friends over. Just because you can’t go outside to play doesn’t mean friends can’t come over to the house to play. Inviting friends over is one of the easiest ways to break a kid’s boredom. A friend brings exciting new prospects and makes even the most played video game exciting again.
    Let your kids pick up the phone and call a friend. A quick drive in the car to pick him up may just help you keep your sanity and give your child a chance to play with someone they haven’t seen in a while.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Dinosaur Coloring Pages - I

Dinosaurs were vertebrate animals that dominated terrestrial ecosystems for over 160 million years, first appearing approximately 230 million years ago. At the end of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 65 million years ago, a catastrophic extinction event ended dinosaurs' dominance on land. One group of dinosaurs is known to have survived to the present day: taxonomists consider modern birds to be direct descendants of theropod dinosaurs.

Iguanodon








Diplodocus











Brachiosaurus











Archaeopteryx















Apatosaurus



















Ankylosaurus











Allosaurus







































Monday, May 7, 2007

Finding Your Past

The internet can be a portal to your past. Rediscover the joy of simple things like coloring pages and Legos just for the fun of it.

There is something to be said for a bit of nostalgia. You might be cleaning out and find old love notes or the CD you burned for your now ex-girlfriend. A song comes on the radio and you find yourself singing along. Fashions you thought had come and gone are back again and you just can’t decide if you want to give them a second try. After all, the first round of the eighties wasn’t too great for you style wise.

On a rainy afternoon, when you just happen to be thinking about your old self, you might try bringing back of those few old memories just for the simple amusement of it. Certain television shows even specialize in creating shows about the 70s, 80s or 90s. You can make your own mini-show right over your computer.

Finding Your Past
Your past is all over the internet. You can look it up through the white pages or do a more complex people search to see what happened to all your old buddies. MySpace actually has divided people into high schools and colleges which means you can spend hours reading about your ex girlfriend or crush without feeling like too much of a stalker. When you get bored with that, you can go back and relive even earlier memories.

The Early Stuff
Most of the toys you loved as a child are still around. Light-Brights, Barbies, Legos and more can be bought online and enjoyed again. If you feel funny buying yourself toys and don’t have a niece or nephew to use as an excuse, consider trying something else. Coloring pages and paper dolls are online now, too, through websites like TheDollPalace.com. You can spend time carefully shading in the coloring pages as a child, make up for lost time now. Grab a hairbrush and sunglasses and jam out the way you always wanted to the tunes of Tiffany or Slayer.

If you had a pretty normal childhood and still don’t care about the memories, you just haven’t fully experienced them yet. Have you kept up with old friends? Do you have all your favorite songs from high school on your iPod yet? If not, you probably just don’t know what you’re missing!

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Anime Coloring Pages

Anime pictures are very popular. Sometimes I like to print them, sit down and color them. I found a great anime coloring tutorial recently, it is very complicated, but Istill ove to watch it over and over.



Here are some coloring pages from the anime characters that I like the best:



Sailor Pluto















Sailor Moon












Monday, April 30, 2007

Determining Your Coloring Pages Personality

Coloring pages of your childhood may have held more than just an outline. Your entire personality today can be determined by your style of coloring.

How do you color? Sure, you may not have colored a picture since you were in grade school, but even then, your style of coloring may have defined your personality today. Think back to the days of old when you saw your teacher coming around with coloring pages. Were you excited? Did you dread what was coming? What does your style of coloring tell you about yourself?

Tracer
Were you the child that received your coloring page, organized your colors, studied the picture intently to see what secret messages it might contain and then, finally, began to color? Only you didn’t color. You traced. You very carefully outlined every section of the coloring page with the right color using a bit of pressure to create a dark line. Then, you filled in the outline very carefully with a lighter stroke. Your coloring page was a work of art. It was bold, it was stylish, and it was perfectly executed.

Today you probably prefer approach life the same way as the coloring pages. You look at the task at hand. You think about it. You organize whatever tools you might need – your pens, your tablet, your computer program, and then you begin. But you work carefully around the edges first. You define parameters and then begin to fill in the details. Your outcome is correct, careful and perfectly executed. You are not one to rush a job – it must be done correctly the first time.

Scribbler
Coloring pages were the enemy to you. Who cares about the picture of the bear or president? It was such a waste to have to color the stupid thing at all, so you just slapped some color on the page to be done it with. If, heaven forbid, the teacher was going to grade it, you might make a feeble attempt to put the right basic color in the right spot, but other than that the coloring page was an obstacle to more important things such as recess, blocks, science experiments or a good book.

Today you have no patience for obstacles. Have to finish the dishes before sitting down on the computer? Thank goodness for the kind of dishwashing technology that lets you throw anything and everything into a machine and turn it on. Attention to detail is not your strong point, but you are great at focusing on what you like, when you like it. You are a dedicated soldier sure to not let any minor annoyance - dishes, bills, stop signs – stand in your way.

Elaborator
Coloring pages were a template to you. They were not just a blueprint of what to color and where, but rather an outline provided to enhance your creative genius. While those around you were carefully tracing or throwing some color on the page, you were very carefully adding missing details to the picture itself. Wouldn’t George Washington look better with a polka-dotted tie? And who left out the cherry tree? You made sure it was added to the background of the coloring page. And you can’t just have a tree – you went ahead and colored the tree, added a fence, a plantation and the sky as well.

Today you seek outlets for your creativity. You work in a creative job such as web design or as an artist. There is no stopping point for a project – there is always something new to add or an area to revisit. Perhaps you are a writer always seeking out the perfect story. Or perhaps you scrapbook , enhancing pictures that would otherwise not tell the whole story. Whatever project you take on, you can be sure it will continue to grow and become more elaborate overtime – mostly because you keep seeing new things to add or try.

If you need another shot at coloring to see if your personality has changed or simply because you are now inspired to do so, try some of the newest coloring pages virtually. TheDollPalace.com offers online coloring pages sure to make your perfectionist, apathetic, or creative juices start flowing again.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Helping with Home Schooling

Parents who make the choice to home school often take on a burden larger than they were originally anticipating. Schools and teachers have been working for years to develop routines and activities geared toward educating children and keeping them active and learning. As parents, you may know your children best, but you might be behind the curve on learning programs, games and activities.

Going Beyond the Basics
The educational basics are simple enough. Packets and workbooks offer lesson plans for teaching the required reading, writing and arithmetic. Websites help develop a few simple science experiments and social studies topics are around us all the time. But if you wanted the basics, you would have sent your child to school. You decided to home school for a reason.

While your reasons may be complex and most likely vary from anyone else’s, you have the opportunity to educate your child at home, and this is an opportunity that should not be wasted. Trips around the country to learn history first-hand are terrific, but on a day-to-day basis, there are other ways to enrich the learning process.

Foster Creativity
One of the largest complaints about traditional school systems today is the lack of creativity in the classroom. Parents, especially those who home school, are able to foster creativity in their children and should do so as often as possible. When pen and paper ideas run out, there are many websites and materials online to help.

Online coloring pages and dress up games on websites such as TheDollPalace.com offer children a chance to experiment with color and design elements while providing an enriching recreation. These coloring pages contain pictures of favorite celebrities or other doll characters sure to interest students. The material on the website itself is fodder for creativity as dolls are created who need stories and background.

Your students can read the articles with information on history, holidays and other topics of interest to school age children. They can then design their own dolls or enter writing contests based on their creations. There are other research based contests available on the website which can aide in lessons on the proper use of the internet. Best of all, the site is designed to be a safe haven for children to practice creativity on the web.

Take Advantage of Resources
When home schooling is done properly, every advantage is utilized. Resources are all around us – at museums, zoos, parks, and even online. Parents who decide to home school should take every opportunity to enrich the learning of their children and move material beyond traditional lessons. When a child can see and feel something, the impact is infinitely more powerful than by hearing it alone. Parents have a chance to use this power on a daily basis. Don’t waste it.