Yep, it's time to really start planning alright!  Or maybe you've already got a good start, but there's always little gaps and holes that need filling in.

One of my most successful gifts to families with children was to get some pretty boxes, or else decoupage some boxes with pretty paper, and start filling them with all kinds of crafty items that I pick up little by little.  From mark-down tables, dollar store items, things I've found in my own house, scraps of fabric, ric-rak trim, ribbon, construction paper, scissors (various types depending on the ages, giving kids their own saves their mom's good scissors!), hole punches, washable glue, selected paints, activity books, puzzles, some craft kits I got on sale, etc etc etc.

By Christmas, there was a LOT in there, and the kids had a blast.  One mom said they couldn't get the kids to finish opening their presents, they started having so much fun immediately.  I tried to make the boxes suitable for storing a lot of crafty stuff so they could use them for storage too.  It was all part of the package and these were a big hit.

This could possibly be expanded to some other focus rather than crafts.  Baking things including a cookbook for kids maybe for a child who likes that… Sewing things maybe? 

OH!  I found a free crochet pattern for a 'frisbee'  I'll go look for it.  Fast, easy, fun!

Here's the link, they call it a 'coozie' to avoid using the tradmark name of frisbee no doubt.

http://www.lionbrand.com/patte…..l?noImages=

if that doesn't work, search the Lion brand site for free pattern number L0577

Those are some great ideas laur.  I like the personal care bag ideas for them.  I know at the retreat one of the things that came up fairly often was talk about what scents that were "manly" mostly for husbands or boyfriends possibly, but why not for teens/pre-teens too? 

There's a whole topic devoted to Pinterest in the "living the country dream" section!  I have a cinderblock checkerboard on my pinterest page, the paverstone on was Pre-Pinterest so it's lost on the interwebz somewhere.

As far as teaching knitting laur, NO WAY do you want me to teach knitting.  I'm marginally better at crochet, because I learned that as a child, and have been re-learning it more and more.  If you don't have friends who knit or crochet, (or even if you do!) go to You Tube either before or after someone helps you get started, to watch and re-watch, and watch watch watch again!

My mother was a pretty patient person, but she still got that tiny little tight edge in her voice when I somehow lost the way to do something she'd shown me already about 200 times.  She didn't mean it, I even knew back then that she didn't mean to say "WHY DON'T YOU GET THIS ALREADY YOU IDIOT!!!" without saying it. For one thing, she never ever called me an idiot, except possibly when we were both already laughing about some goofy thing that had happened and it was said with much affection while laughing, which only made us laugh harder.

You Tube knitting and crochet tutorials will save your friendships and family life, because you can hit that replay over and over and the person doing the demo will never imply you are hopeless and should put the yarn away… which is what I did for years.

Thanks to You Tube, I'm crocheting again, and I learned to knit, (knit badly, but still!).  My mom didn't like to knit that much and probably based on my performance with a crochet hook, figured putting TWO pointy things in my hands plus some yarn would NOT turn out well for either of us! Now thanks to it, (U-Tube) I'm having great fun crocheting fun things, and knitting badly, but still having fun with it.