Make A Glasses Case: mother's day

Here is a simple craft idea that kids can make for parents, teachers, grandparents - perfect for a pair of beside reading spectacles!

You will need:

Craft foam
Yarn (wool)
Foam stickers, fabric paint, other embellishments
Darning needle or single hole punch


Cut out a rectangle of craft foam about 6 inches by 8 inches. Fold the rectangle in half so you have a rectangle about 6 inches by 4 inches.

Sew up the long side and one of the short sides either directly, with a darning needle, or first punching holes for younger children so they can lace the sides up. Secure with a knot at either end.

Leadership Skills

Tips For Leadership Skills:

The pillars of a modern management culture and topics covered on leadership training programmes are self-discipline, support, trust and empowerment.

All the pleasant sounding names for reorganisation measures such as "Lean Management", of "Business Re-engineering" have one thing in common: they are frequently linked with personnel policy decisions. Staff are cut back, hierarchies are flattened, responsibilities are redefined, abilities are evaluated.

For some people feeling they have been unfairly treated and not understanding the situation results from these measures.

Leadership skills are required for your team to understand and tolerate changes. Any managerial structure that remains intact not only during difficult times rests on four things:

Self Discipline: In conventionally managed companies, employees are managed by means of defined hierarchies and command structures. Superiors give orders, and staff carry them out. This authoritarian form of management creates obedience, but not self discipline. If management pressure is taken away, any discipline in lost (as in the old saying when the cat is away the mice will play).

An organisation must develop self discipline from within. It will be reflected in all aspects of daily life within the company: employees do more than just follow instructions and meet requirements. They are friendlier to customers, visit more customers than asked to and do not grumble about decisions which, officially, they appear happy with.

Climates of this kind are created through the target orientation which management exhibit, this is an important leadership skill which is covered on good leadership training courses:

· Set your people long term goals and discuss with them how these can be achieved. · Do not require permission to be given for every little thing, work with budgets which staff themselves determine.

Support: If authoritarian management systems operate in an organisation, the relationship between superiors and subordinates is governed by clear, formal rules. Communication is limited to the employee reporting to the superior and therefore is very one sided. Modern management systems rest on two way communication and mutual support.

Assign an adviser, in the form of an older, more experienced colleague to new staff. By doing this you will create a system of parallel relationships within your team, which gradually will breakdown the hierarchy.

Organise work in teams. Teams orientated reward is important. Insisting on team work while only recognising individual achievement is a contradiction.

Trust: The relationship between your staff and your company is regulated by employment contracts in the first instance. Both parties have agreed on a set of rights and obligations. In well managed teams there is also a sense of family, an emotional relationship between the person and the company. This kind of familiar, trusting climate arises through transparency, openness and honour.

Access to important information should be freely available to your staff. This includes supposed confidential data, such as rebates given to major customers, which you, as team leader authorise and are responsible for.

Make fairness towards your staff a priority in all your decisions. This is particularly important for all critical decisions. Justify your decisions and make the basis of your decisions transparent for your staff. Above all do not take any decisions on a whim, which you cannot reasonably justify later.

Far-sightedness and liberalism: Companies and their teams which only think in terms of 3 month plans, annual budgets and objectives etc, will run out of motivation.

Any body who thinks ahead, will not respond well to those who constantly talk to their team about past events, restrictions and regulations. Talking instead about new opportunities and perspectives will get the desired result.

Encourage your staff to express unconventional ideas. Allow them (limited) finances, even when the outcome of an experiment is uncertain.

Have regular discussions with your staff, without any taboos. You can only be creative in finding new solutions if you can question everything.

Consider these words by Kenneth Goode - "Stop for a moment and compare your keen interest in your own affairs with the little sympathy you have for the affairs of others, and recognise that every man on this earth feels exactly as you do. This will create the one, solid basis required for human interaction. In other words: success in dealing with people rests on your understanding of the other person's point of view."

Effective implementation of these in the work place will enhance the performance of your team and will also develop your management skills. For further ways to develop your management skills attend a good leadership course.

7 Tips To Manage Your Time & Goals and be a Leader

Effective leadership skills are gleaned through various practices, including learning how to manage your time. If you can't manage your own time, then being an effective leader is all the more troublesome.

Start As simple as it sounds, the first thing you need to do is start. If you have something you need to write, sit down and write the first paragraph. Everything will flow more smoothly towards completion once the project has started. Effective leadership skills can only get going if you put them in action.

Bonus Tip:    Schedule 5 – 10 minutes of time with yourself to simply start your tasks. Measure the time and make sure that you stick to it.

"What gets measured gets treasured." – Brian Lee, CSP

Set clear goals & objectives. Keep a to-do list, in combination with a day planner if you like. Be sure to go into eachday with a clear idea of what you need to do. If you want to have effective leadership then you need a plan.

Bonus Tip:     Plan your next week's goals, and then plan your to-do list as a result of your goals (not the opposite). Plan what you are going to do for the next day at the end of your current day, in case you have changing priorities from plans that you made last week.

"You can't hit a target you don't set; in fact, you may just end up hitting everything else – are you being hired to hit everything else?"
Know Your "Sweet Spot" of the Day. What is your most productive period of time; what is your least productive time, did you achieve your goals, and how could you have done what you were doing more effectively? Get to know the times of day that work for you in terms of specific tasks.

Bonus Tip:     Even though some people say they are not morning people, try segmenting first thing in the morning to complete an important task or activity. There is a lot to be said for "getting it out of the way".

"For every disciplined effort, there is a multiple reward." – Jim Rohn
Handle e-mail and Phone Calls in Batches. If you are like most people, you get phone calls and e-mail messages throughout the day. However, if you respond to them as they come in, your day will be too fragmented to do anything effectively. Try "chunking" e-mail and telephone calls together and return them all at once. Do your best to utilize the tools that the phone and e-mail systems offer you for management of these contacts. Keeping distractions away from your effective leadership skills is essential to success.

Bonus Tip:     Do your most important activity in your "sweet spot" time first; then take a short reward stretch break, or have something you can look forward to, such as a fresh cup of coffee.

"Everyone wants the gold medal, but not everyone is willing to run the race."
Divide Larger Tasks into Groups of Smaller Ones. Break a job into bite-sized pieces for easier consumption. Look at it like cleaning a room. You may not have time to clean the whole room, but you should pick a task to match the amount of time available. If you've got 20 minutes, you can do a drawer, with 40 minutes, you can clean a closet. With an hour, maybe you can clean the whole room.

Bonus Tip:      Deciding on the amount of time needed for a task is key. Always allow more time for planning.

"Measure twice, cut once. Don't bite off more than you can chew."
Prioritize Tasks. Try to understand the difference between urgent and important. Also try to create lists of what mustbe done by the end of the day, what should be done by the end of the day and what you would like done by the end of the day. Don't penalize your leadership skills by not being effective in your efficiency to get important tasks completed.

Bonus Tip:     What are your top three goals each day? Tell others for accountability.

"If you have to swallow two frogs, swallow the biggest one first." – Brian Tracy
Learn When to Say No. Many people are afraid to let their managers know how busy they are, however, if you are overextended, it is important that you speak up for yourself. The primary effective leadership skills is communication, but knowing when to say "no" will help keep you from overextending yourself.

Bonus Tip:    Let your boss know, based on company goals, what is on your to-do list are for the week so that they are aware of your workload.

"You can't cure what you don't know about. You'll never know about something until you ask the right questions."

Some Ideas for Easy Crafts that can enhance a Child's Creativity

Easy crafts for kids are great because they generally succeed in keeping toddlers busy, not burning a hole in one's pocket at the same time. They are very entertaining, yet very productive. In this article, one will find some good easy crafts that can be applied to kids all over the world.

Rock Painiting : It's a very modest, old fashioned craft for kids, but enjoyable at the same time. The next time one wants around the neighborhood, instead of walking just ambiguously, one should try to find some different size stones or pebbles, collect them and bring them home. Then along with the kids, one can carry them all in the backyard and wash them thoroughly with water and a brush.

The stones and pebbles are great to be drawn and designed on. craft paint can be used very effectively on it. Even acrylic paints can be used to paint designs on them. A variety of designs, shapes and colours can be used. One has all the freedom to use one's creativity to the fullest and make something pretty and attractive.


Collage picture: this can be attempted by kids a little older. Any packet, like a breakfast cereal packet can be used to make it. One can assemble together all sorts of odd and ends. Old magazines that no one reads can have their pictures cut out, bits of cute ribbons, old buttons, cotton wool, odd bits of fabric and essentially anything that is not too thick can be used to decorate and ornament.

Parents can have a good time making a collage with their kids. The kids can be entrusted with the work of tearing photos and whatever else and sticking them with glue. One may need to help them cut things like the fabric. This is a really great way to enhance a child's creativity and imagination and also work on their motor skills using the glue stick and scissors.


Paper Plate Faces: Paper plates are common in parties and outings. However, here instead of just disposing them, one can give them to the kids to make a face of someone they know. Pipe cleaners and various size buttons and ribbons and other things can be used to make eyes, nose, ears and mouth. For hair, knitting wool can be used, or anything,as long as it sticks. Children simply love making paper plate faces. Parents should try newer and newer ventures to display their child's creativity.

A propagator for small plants or seedlings

THINGS TO MAKE AND DO - A propagator for small plants or seedlings

A propagator for small plants or seedlings

You need:

* 2 x 1.5 or 2 litre plastic soft drink bottles (labels removed), preferably including one with a coloured base
* A piece of wick
* Some soil, compost or growing mixture
* Water


To remove the label cleanly:

* Fill the bottle with hot water ( not too hot, or it will buckle).
* Screw the cap back on the bottle and in a short time the label should peel off.
* Empty the water out of the bottle.

SAFETY NOTES!
1. Always be very careful when working with hot water.

2. Sharp scissors have to be used to cut the bottles, if you have a ragged cut edge on the bottle it may scratch fingers and hands. Care should be taken at all times.


METHOD



1. Cut a 1.5 or 2 litre transparent plastic bottle at the widest point



2. Cut a slit in the cap. Thread a wick of absorbent cloth through to make a wick


3. Add water and rest the inverted top of the bottle in the base. Add soil and your plants.




4. Cut another identical bottle slightly above the "shoulder" and place on top as a propagator. Make holes in the screw cap (or leave it off) to allow air to circulate.