Friday, March 13, 2009

Old-Fashioned Playing: Why It's Important for Modern Kids



How much time do your kids have for unstructured play? You know, the old-fashioned kind, where time and space are open and you get to do whatever you think of that happens to strike your fancy. In generations past, unstructured play constituted almost all the leisure time of children. Today, most kids' after-school time is filled with scheduled activities: sports, ballet, art classes - everything but time and space itself.

Empty time and space are essential for children if we want them to be happy and creative. It's in the gaps between the structures of our lives where we find refreshment, insight and inspiration. Our originality is rooted in that place, and we can only access it in "downtime". Kids need downtime even more than adults.

A child who doesn't get to just kick back and be silly, or kick back and pretend, or kick back and contemplate, is a kid in danger of becoming robotic, of living life in a programmed way instead of being the doer and creator of his own story. Such a child may grow up to be "successful", but at what cost? Is having a star ballerina or gymnast in the family as important as having a son or daughter who lives genuine fulfillment and happiness, defined on their own terms?

There's nothing wrong in giving your kid piano or dancing lessons, or signing them up for sports. But when those activities consume most nights in the week, or exhaust the energy of your little one, something is out of balance. If your child doesn't have at least an hour each day to do whatever she likes by herself, something essential is missing in her life.

Unstructured playtime can take place alone or with other kids, but at least some play time, some days a week, should include quiet time where your child can be alone - imagining, drawing, humming, climbing, swinging, pretending, playing with the dog, or following any other whim without the distraction of others.

During play time, make materials available to the kids to inspire creative or reflective activities. Play materials should include things like colored markers, scissors, paper, pencils and pens, paints, modeling clay, pipe cleaners, blocks, Lego, marbles, books, and clothes for playing "dress-up." Old-fashioned play props like these should never have gone out of fashion, as they are important for culturing the originality and creativity of every child.

Give your child more downtime (with the TV turned off), and you'll see him start to learn to make his own fun. It's amazing the things kids can turn into a toy or a game if we give them the room and the time to imagine in. Unstructured free time for kids is not only essential to their sense of well-being and happiness during childhood, it is vital for their development into independent, thinking, original adults.

Carve out free space and free time for your child at home, and you'll be delighted at the wonders that emerge. It's there inside each young person, like a butterfly in a cocoon, just waiting for the right climate to draw it out. All you have to do is create an allowing environment, free up their schedule and make space for it to happen.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Why I Got On Board and Why You Should Too

If you want better results in anything, you have to take action.

So get this...

Imagine you have $200 you want to spend…

STE = Points which translate to CASH.

You go through
the site and buy a gift card for $200 - on which you earn 3% cash back and points.

You bought the gift card with your American Express - on which you make 3% and rewards points.

You use the gift card to buy at - example - golf clubs dot com where they have a 15% cash back payout. You get the 15% cash back and you make more points.

$200 minus 6.00 American Express, minus 6.00 Gift Card, minus 30.00 golf clubs dot com cash back.

Now - because you are a regular online shopper - you also remember that golf clubs dot com sent you a "this weekend only take an additional 10% off" coupon.

We are at $158 minus another 10% off the $200 purchase = $138.00

SO - you made a $200 purchase for $138.00, PLUS you saved time and gas, PLUS you earned the STE points on a couple transactions even though you only made one purchase. YES, you had to re-wire your brain to work in a new way... to play with it a bit, BUT YOU SAVED almost $62 plus the time and gas AND your points add up to cash, PLUS when you hit certain points numbers, you get additional SCORE bonuses.

Can you see what fun you can have with this?

Imagine ONE PURCHASE - like your new apple computer.

I suggest you buy it the way I described above.

1. Use a card that gives cash back or rewards
2. Use it to buy a gift card (so you earn cash back percentages AND make points on that purchase)
3. Use that gift card through your site to buy the item. Get more % off and more points

My friend bought her daughter an apple latest whatever it is called that sells for $2600 on sale, doing this above trick - she paid $1200!!!!! On ONE BUY, plus she is making and earning from the points at her site.

THIS IS A NO BRAINER especially when
malls will be closing and if you learn to play with it and tweak it to your benefit.... Now remember - with retailers closing their outlets, the ONLY PLACE TO SHOP will be online. Imagine getting in NOW when it is still pretty much at the ground floor level.

If you have time and get in the habit of shopping with your favorite vendors, you pre-register an account at the vendor and they usually send you a "welcome aboard" coupon. Additional savings... not to mention that they are always emailing more coupons, incentives, etc.

I just did the 3 step walk through as above and I paid $2.99 for $40 worth of organic granola bars for the children!


1. Go to my site at http://shoptoearn.net/kytka

2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on MY HAPPY SMILING PICTURE. ;-)

3. At the top of that next page, the top right to be exact, click on OVERVIEWS.

4. Click to watch the short video that explains how this works and how wonderful a concept it is.

After the video, consider that Bill Clinton called MLM and Direct Sales the "American Dream" and sang praises to the industry which is growing. Read through the stats below and realize that this company is NOT SELLING ONE SPECIFIC PRODUCT that you have to train your clients to buy - this concept opens the doors to HUNDREDS OF RETAILERS WHERE YOU ALREADY SHOP.

Good for saving, good for earning, good for the time we are in, good for the environment, GOOD TIME TO SIGN UP!

Make it a great day and remember that I am here to assist you should you sign on…


Kytka „Kit” Hilmar-Jezek

http://www.24hourtour.net/kytka

http://www.shoptoearn.net/kytka

USA: 727.277.3531

Direct Selling Facts – Why It's Great – Especially in These Economic Times?

Direct Selling Facts – Why It's Great – Especially in These Economic Times?


  • Strengthens the economy
  • Offers business opportunity to others
  • Builds community
  • Is a part of a global movement promoting enterprise and rewards individual initiatives
  • Online shopping is here to stay and will only grow exponentially as knowledge and trust are gained
  • It is a very simple concept once you understand it, anyone can do it
  • Low start up cost to own your own business

Direct Selling Facts – Who is doing it (these are stats based on 2007)


  • More than 7 million Americans in direct sales
  • More than 21 million people world wide doing business in 125 countries.
  • An average of 69,000 new people join the direct selling industry EVERY WEEK
  • More than 300,000 are over 65
  • More than 500,000 have a disability
  • 75% are woman whose commitment is to raise children and maintain family while having an income.

Direct Selling Facts – Personal & American Values


  • Direct sales promotes American values worldwide
  • Gives people a chance to make the most of their own lives
  • That IS the heart if the American Dream

Direct Selling Facts – Statistics and Growth

June 25, 2008 – Nearly a quarter of the world's population – roughly 1.4 billion people – will use the Internet on a regular basis in 2008. This number is expected to surpass 1.9 billion unique users, or 30% of the world's population, in 2012, according to IDC's Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast.


  • 2002 – 47 million
  • 2003 – 49 million
  • 2004 – 54 million
  • 2005 – 58 million
  • 2006 – 61 million
  • 2007 – 67 million

Direct Selling Facts – Future of Shopping Online:

Highlights from IDC's Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast include the following:


  • Users will access the Internet through more than 1.5 billion devices worldwide in 2008, including PCs, mobile phones, and online videogame consoles. By 2012, the number of devices accessing the Internet will double to more than 3 billion, half of which will be mobile devices.
  • Nearly half of all Internet users will make online purchases in 2008. By 2012, there will be more than 1 billion online buyers worldwide making business to consumer (B2C) transactions worth $1.2 trillion.
  • Business to business (B2B) eCommerce will be ten times larger, totaling $12.4 trillion worldwide in 2012.

Direct Selling Facts - Worldwide sales generated:


  • 2002 – 85 billion
  • 2003 – 89 billion
  • 2004 – 99 billion
  • 2005 – 102 billion
  • 2006 – 109 billion
  • 2007 – 110 billion

The Network Marketing Compensation Structure accounts for 95% of ALL sales in direct selling. That equates to over $104 BILLION in 2007.

The company I am involved with has a few advantages that personally resonate with me. There are as follow:


  • Their long term focus is “green” and they are strongly committed to the environment.
  • There is no one juice or berry or vitamin that this is promoting and you are being asked to “sell”. This is basically a portal, or a doorway if you will, to provide people the opportunity to shop at all of the retailers they are already shopping at – only now they get paid for doing so.
  • Everything about their sales training is about NOT selling this in any pushy way. They clearly know that what they have is set up in such a way that it sells itself. The easy part of this “work” is that all you need to do is get people to try it once. When they do and they see the clear benefits – it really sells itself.
  • The people behind the company are “real people” who are clearly very passionate about their dream. These leaders are qualified to mentor and lead others to success.
  • In their history, they have never been late on making a payment, in fact, they are known for paying early.
  • The training calls, seminars, videos, etc. are top of the line and easy to follow, access and comprehend.
  • They built the company of strong principles and values of integrity and character.

My Personal Thoughts of Direct Sales and Network Marketing:


  • As Network Marketing and Direct Sales Professionals, I firmly believe that together we can do more to reverse the worldwide recession and give people their dreams back, than all of the government bailout packages combined. Clinton did state that this industry IS THE HEART OF “THE AMERICAN DREAM”!
  • I firmly believe that we can rebuild and re-energize the free enterprise system from the ground up - one individual at a time.
  • I believe we have to create a revolution in the way our business is done. We must challenge ourselves to higher levels of leadership and take personal responsibility for making our own way within a community that supports and rewards our individual growth.
  • I believe we have to shift the way we do business, how network marketing is viewed around the world, and what kind of future we will build with it.
  • I believe people want their personal power back, and in this industry – you have the chance to “walk your talk” and claim that power. But you have to work it – it will NOT rain down on your from the sky. If you put in your effort and work it, you will be rewarded.

My Personal Thoughts for the “Nay-Sayers”…

Only 3% of people in the country are financially successful and secure.

This is because most people are lazy and skeptical - which is convenient because it makes it easier for us positive thinking winners. I've noticed that there are 2 types of nay-sayers;

#1) Professional people with Law degrees and Master's degrees who either don't like to see people with maybe less credentials make more money with less work (which is their problem not ours) or they may be legitimately worried about their "reputations" of being involved with something that scares many people and clients (which I can understand).

#2) The way more numerous typical lazy person who can't ever follow through on anything anyway.

Many of these folks seem to have the excess time for over analyzing and bashing everyone and everything out there then just getting off their chairs and getting to work.

ANYTHING WORKS IF YOU WORK IT.

Personally, I like to hang out with positive thinking winners that want to give back to society through saving the planet and donating some proceeds. That is what STE is all about!

Yes, there are people who are critical of STE because of the $100 per month selling/buying requirement. However, I don't know ANYONE who does not spend at least $100 per month on items needed to run their household or business; and they get NOTHING back for those purchases.

The way I see it, STE offers a way to profit from the spending you are already doing. Going at it alone on an affiliate site isn't a business, it's coupon cutting.

You can't save yourself rich.

The only way you can make money is to earn it.

Earning money isn't easy, and takes work.



from “President Clinton Endorses Network Marketing & Direct Selling”

If you want better results in anything, you have to take action.

Make it a great day and remember that I am here to assist you should you sign on…

Kytka „Kit” Hilmar-Jezek

http://www.24hourtour.net/kytka
http://www.shoptoearn.net/kytka
USA: 727.277.3531