In my recent article Kids Just Wanna Have Fun I offered some ideas to keep your fun hungry kids happy. But, duhhhhh. . .I forgot the FREE FUN STUFF! Well ya know thats the most important stuff. I dont know where my mind was that day!

So, now that Ive seen the error of my ways, Let me share some more great activities we sometimes forget about as we get older. These timeless activities have been around for ages. Things that we enjoyed as kids are still fun for kids today. Even in an electronic society!

If you have kids, most likely you have a box of crayons somewhere. I hate to admit it but I still love to color! Come on, give it a try no matter how old you are. I have found that it is contagious. Even if your kids think they are "too old" for coloring, you will be surprised how quickly they join in when they see you enjoying it! Go ahead, it works every time.

Silly putty is another fun activity that we tend to think e're "too old" for. But the older you get the more creative ideas you have and the more silly fun you can have. So come on, get your creative juices flowing.

Hey ladies, and maybe some of you gents too, do you remember paper dolls? I had almost forgotten they existed until one Christmas I came across a paper doll kit in a craft store. Suddenly, I remembered the hours and hours of fun I had playing with these simple toys. And, they are so much easier to dress than Barbie. Sorry Barbie.

There are literally thousands of craft ideas that can keep you busy for hours or days. Crafts come in all different levels of difficulty. So find one that suits everyone in the family and work on it together. Hmmmm, could this mean more conversation time! Take advantage of these fun times together. Get to know your kids better.

You can also choose a variety of different level crafts to suit everyone and work on different crafts all at once. Either way, you're accomplishing several things at once...

Children LEARN through creating.

You'll be keeping that FUN meter up, keeping them from getting bored.

You'll be SAVING MOMEY on outings by finding creative ways to have fun at home.

You'll have more "QUALITY TIME" to get to really know your kids!

Need some ideas? Just visit your local craft stores or do a search online. Check out FamilyFun.com for some super ideas for having creative fun with the family. Youll find arts and crafts, party and game ideas, parenting help, recipes, and even travel ideas.

If you're into quilting, sewing, knitting, crocheting........well if you are, you know the possibilities here. It's not just for "old folks"! Get the kids involved. There are kits created for these activities. Kits created specifically to get children interested and having fun doing these activities.

There are so many wonderful ideas for crafting the possibilities are mind blowing. One walk around your local craft store and Ill bet you can come up with a craft idea for each week of the year, at least, if not two or three per week! Take a pen and paper. There's so much to take in!

Crafts for painting, sewing, candle making, transfers and art supplies that personalize items (purses, shirts, bandanas, jewelry, tote bags ..etc.), drawing, knitting, quilting, doll making, puzzles, woodworking, scrap booking..well I could go on and on. But, best thing for you to do is get on down to that craft store and get some ideas.

Please, dont buy everything you see! JUST GET IDEAS. Keep a notepad of ideas and then remember to look for arts and crafts supplies in your thrift stores, consignment shops, and at yard sales.

Oh, and dont forget to recycle items you might normally trash. Keeping a good supply of these items will help keep expenses down. Things like, scraps of fabric, ribbon, paper, egg cartons, coffee cans (all sizes), Styrofoam (packing pieces or sheets) wrapping paper scraps, buttons, toilet paper and paper towel tubes. Dont throw away anything that you could possibly use in a craft project. Dont get carried away though. Never keep more than you have room to store comfortably.

Seriously people, HAVE FUN WITH YOUR KIDS! They wont be kids forever, and believe it or not.You WILL miss them when theyre all grown up and out the door!

The Winter Olympics and America seem only to be fair weather friends ...

Underwhelming television ratings for the recently completed games in Turin indicate that the USA is only inclined to watch when their athletes are winning. Specifically, they watch when they expect to see certain athletes winning. Those would be the athletes who have been heavily hyped in the run-up to the Games.

Two examples of this point are skater Nancy Kwan and skiier Bode Miller. Both are definitely capable of winning any competition they enter. Both were considered favorites to earn medals in Turin. As a result, both experienced extensive publicity campaigns that were not of their own making. Both, however, failed to meet expectations; Kwan had to withdraw from her competition due to injury and Miller's medal chase went 0-for-5 in his events.

NBC Sports, holder of the American broadcast rights, was left with a star-crossed presentation. The spectre of total failure is not 'must see' TV.

This is one of the primary differences between how the Olympics are perceived in the USA as opposed to the rest of the world. Perhaps it's a holdover from the Cold War, when the Soviets and Americans actually believed a superior medal count proved a superior socio-economic system. Even though the Soviet lie was ultimately proved via populism, it's possible the Americans never did change their mindset.

Winning has an important place in life, not just in the USA, but everywhere. So does coping with loss. That is not the key here. Neither is the fact that the American way is littered with overzealous win-at-all-cost Little League coaches, sports-meddling dads and stage moms.

The important delineation of note is that, in the USA, it's vital as to who wins. Star power is amplified by the American media. This factor, for example, is what took the National Basketball Association from a sporting afterthought whose championship series was broadcast on a late-night tape-delay basis as recently as the late 1970s to a media spectacle in the early 1980s. That's when the league decided to focus on two new talents, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, promoting them instead of their teams.

It worked.

It worked even better when Michael Jordan followed them.

Still, these are exceptional athletes who don't come around that often. When their careers are over, it's rare when another exceptional athlete is there to replace them. There is usually a cotillion of pretenders, but they prove to be just that.

Ask the NBA.

They've attempted to promote others, but the general public is wise enough to discern the difference between 'exceptional' and 'talented enough to be a professional.' So, the focus on star power now has NBA ratings in decline. They've been hoisted on their own petard, so to speak.

In the duration, though, other sports in the USA noted the NBA's initial success and attempted to emulate it by promoting star power of their own. The practice of putting a name forward became a foundation of almost every national publicity campaign for sporting endeavors. Logically, it was something to which the American sporting public became accustomed.

In events such as the Olympics, where not every sport listed is a household thought in the USA, it's clear that NBC felt a strong need to insert star power. Their secondary tactic was similar and successful to an extent in previous years, namely, focus on a human interest story to emotionally attach the viewer to a participant. Ultimately, though, there will be more regular-life athletes getting medals than those who overcame obstacles in their lives.

Other countries --- even 'winter' nations such as Canada, Russia and the Scandinavians --- emphasize the competition over the competitors. They appreciate the skill of the sport. Television ratings throughout Europe were excellent, with only the Germans amassing a large medal haul (they were the overall winners in that category, incidentally). They took note of stars, of course, but it mattered little that those stars were from other countries. They took serious pride in their own stars, of course, but recognized them as a part of a bigger picture rather than that picture serving as a backdrop for them.

It's not only a refreshing difference, but a logical one. Especially when a network needs to cover the rights fees being charged by the Olympic movement.

NBC Sports has announced it will show a profit on its Turin package, most probably because much of the advertising was pre-sold with little provision for ratings-influenced price fluctuations. That tactic worked because of the American success in the previous Winter Games; coincidentally, they were held in Salt Lake City. It may not be so effective for their 2010 Winter Games package when the current ratings are pushed back in their face.

The NBC coverage in Turin excellent from a presentation standpoint. They used the cable networks in their stable --- CNBC, MSNBC and USA --- to great extent, so if one wanted to watch a particular event, odds were that it was being shown somewhere. The only drawback was, these events were not promoted nearly as well as the perceived 'star power' attractions. Only a devotee would seek the coverage. That is not a strategy that optimizes strong viewership.

The American media has conditioned its public to expecting charasmatic competition. The Olympic movement expects spirited competition. The American networks groan when smaller-market teams advance to a championship series; they'd prefer a New York - Los Angeles meeting any day. The Olympic movement rejoices when smaller-country teams achieve such a standing; Sweden-vs-Finland in the men's hockey final sent ratings through the roof in those countries, but it did well in most other nations, too, as the game itself was nothing short of spectacular in both drama and skill.

It's already clear that this era will be known in history as the CyberCentury. The world is more accessible to everyone more than ever before. It only makes sense that viewer interest can expand beyond the parameters of star power to the entire experience of a competition. Other countries' media have always known this. Manchester United, for example, is still a major draw without David Beckham, and when he ultimately moves from Real Madrid, the same will be said again.

When the American media re-discovers that it's the competition --- not just the star competitors --- that make sports attractive to viewers, the Winter Olympics will once again enjoy a resurgence of ratings popularity in the USA. Such a realization would be a welcome breath of fresh air, even during those winter days when you can see it.

Self-effacing humor, or making fun of yourself is quite a contrast. It is a very powerful form of humor that gets its strength from highlighting your weaknesses. It seems that people who have the ability to laugh at themselves in just the right amount during a public speaking engagement are perceived as secure, confident, strong, and likeable.

With this type of humor, a little goes a long way. If you overdo it during a public speaking engagement, you will look like a doomsayer who is always putting yourself down. If you can't bring yourself to use any self-effacing humor, you should learn. I must be candid here. Most people hate to deal with a stuffed shirt. Unfortunately, if you can't poke a little fun at yourself, that is the way you are perceived.

I think the reason self-effacing humor works so well is that weak people feel the need to inflate themselves and powerful people don't. If you have the confidence to tease yourself, you are indirectly sending the message to the audience that you are secure and powerful. Most audiences can see right through speakers who are trying to puff themselves up. It turns them off quickly.

The person who is not afraid to tease him or herself is the one who makes the greatest connection with the audience because everyone in the audience has embarrassed themselves or failed at something at one time or the other. If you use self-effacing humor, the audience knows that you, as the presenter, know how it feels to fail. That is a very powerful magnet.

Katharine Rolfe, President of The Lighten Up Club, takes self-effacing humor one step further. She says, 'I call it self-appreciating humor because it conveys a positive appreciation of ourselves as humans who are simply out there doing our best and bumbling along as we go.' Katharine's organization believes the key to a happy life is the ability to laugh at yourself, for then you are never without a source of amusement.

Unless you are a Don Rickles type presenter (known for his hockey puck teasing style of humor), you should never set yourself up as superior to the audience either socially, financially, or intellectually. You want the audience to accept you as one of them. Let them feel superior to you in some way. Your audience would rather hear about the time you fell on your face, rather than the time you won the race.

That is why self-effacing humor is great during speaking engagements. The audience likes the fact that you openly admit your weaknesses. They laugh, but they still respect you because you are self-confident enough to joke about yourself.

There are any number of things you can tease yourself about. Your physical appearance is good if you are especially tall, or short or fat or bald. Just make sure that the physical appearance is obvious to the audience. If you are disorganized, you could tease yourself about that. If you can't parallel park, you could tease yourself about that. Just about anything will work as long as you are the target.

What you want to avoid teasing about is any subject that has a direct tie to your credibility. For instance, if you were a nuclear control room technician, you would not want to joke about the time you pushed the wrong button. But, if you got fired from your job as a nuclear control room technician for almost pushing the wrong button, then this fact might be a good topic for humor. It could turn into a great topic if you now own a landscaping company or are in some other non-threatening position.

To use self-effacing humor, you don't necessarily have to joke about yourself. You can make fun of your family background, your profession, or anything else that directly relates to you. I tell a story in my presentations about the time my mom came from our very small hometown to visit me in the big city of Washington, D.C. The audience hears about how small Claysville is and that my mom's house is way out in the sticks. We didn't have city water, or city sewerage, or cable TV. I then go on to tell how we took a trip on the Spirit of Washington for a dinner cruise and went sightseeing all over the capital. Here's how the end of the story goes:

"When we got home that evening I was exhausted, so I told mom I was going to bed and that I would see her in the morning. She said, "OK. I'm just going to watch the news and then I'll go to bed." I got up at about 2:00 a.m. and there was mom sitting in front of the TV. Her head was nodding and drooping. I said, "Mom. What are you doing?" She said, "I'm just waiting for the news to be over." Well she would have waited a long time because she was watching . . .CNN 24 hour headline news."

In this story I was not directly teasing myself. I was teasing about my small town background and about the innocent and funny boner my mom pulled when she came to visit.

Former president Ronald Reagan was a master at using self-effacing humor. In his bid for the Presidency in 1980 his age appeared to be his biggest obstacle. He attacked the problem with self-effacing humor. He would joke about his age all the time which turned age into a non-issue. He told a group of reporters once, 'Thomas Jefferson once said, 'One should not worry about chronological age compared to the ability to perform the task.' . . . Ever since Thomas Jefferson told me that I stopped worrying about my age.'

Look for opportunities to tease yourself. This will be one of your most powerful tools to connect with the audience and a subtle way to show your strength.