A lot of the notices I've been getting from Pinterest tell me that my dragonfly swapping pin was a popular article in my newspaper column in the Examiner. 

I have a whole chapter of swapping pin ideas in my free leader's guide, I Am Living My Faith.  It is a free ebook available at ebooks-online.com, and includes all the activities I did with my Junior Girl Scout troop when we were earning the religious emblem, I Live My Faith.  You can get a copy at:

http://www.eBooks-Online.com/default.asp?eBookID=7001452 

In the back of the book, I've included patterns for SWAPS (Something Wearable Affectionately Pinned Somewhere) that are made from recycled or inexpensive materials.  They seem to be a good craft project for this emblem, because so much of the focus is on being a good friend to others.

 

Day Camp in Hawaii is a new leader's resource for any type of youth program, summer camp, summer school, recreational program or day camp.  It has games, activities, crafts, art projects, music, dancing and other ideas that use a tropical theme, for grades 1-6.
The following five star review was posted on Good Reads.  The author, Jim MacLachlan, moderator of the DYI review group on Good Reads gave permission to repost his review.

Day Camp in Hawaii by Paula Knoderer Hrbacek is for grades 1 - 6 according to the title page. I disagree. It's not just for day camp, Hawaii, or those ages. With very little imagination, it gives any parent a lot of fun ideas of things to do with kids singly or in groups cheaply, whether you're on a trip, have a rainy vacation day, or a birthday party. Baby sitters should read it, too.
My kids are long out of Indian Guides, Scouts, &/or Pony Club, but I did my time as a leader & volunteer in all those organizations& more. I've never run a day camp, but I've faced the problems of how to keep the little monsters busy for weekly meetings, weekend camp outs or days when our best laid plans just made the gods laugh & we had to find
something else for them to do. I wish I'd had this book!!!
 
Although this book has the Hawaii theme, the suggested activities could easily be changed for any place & Paula is a woman after my own heart - a scavenger. Seriously, the funding for activities is always minimal & the prep time is huge & often complicated. She lists a lot of quick, cheap ways to do or make a lot of neat things without a lot of time, special tools, skills or anything else. Under her tutelage, you don't even need a lot of imagination to come up with something special.
 
The author provided me with a free copy for a review to spread the word. It wasn't a chore, but a joy to go through this. I even got a couple of ideas for awards that my wife, a school bus driver, can use. I can't recommend this highly enough for anyone with kids. There are a lot of things I would have or did use to keep my own kids busy. Much better than planting them in front of the TV.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/636929855


5 stars

I received a free ad from Google, but it isn't working very well.  The last stats said that I had 450 views, but none of them resulted in a click.  The notice suggested that I change my key words.
The problem is that there are two different types of people using summer camp for a key word; the professionals who are running the camp, and the parents who are looking for a camp to go to.  I want to connect with the professionals.
So what are the best key words to use?  If you are a professional, looking for activities and crafts to use at your camp or recreational program, what words are you using to find a good resource?  Please comment below.