You don’t have to be a young teenager to enjoy creating beaded jewelry and crafts…. older teens and moms love it too. I can get overwhelmed in a bead store, confused by all the choices and without any idea where to begin. Bijoux in a Box solves that problem by packaging the projects and guiding you with pictures and simple instructions so you know what you’ll be creating. This can provide a great vacation project for daughters, friends and visiting relatives, as well as for pleasant mom-daughter time together.

BijouxinaBox.com

Check out Bijoux in a Box.

Here’s an idea that stood out again this year as a great way to incorporate test prep into your holiday gift-giving. VerbaLearn is a unique online service that focuses on vocabulary building for grades 7 – 12 (and higher). The service successfully bridges the gap between traditional flashcards and Web 2.0 technologies by offering audio, video, games, and more! The creators of this unique service have done a creative job of making this process contemporary – it uses all the tools kids are comfortable using these days – and fun.

VerbaLearn’s basic service is free for anyone to sign up, but here’s the gift idea: you can actually sponsor a student for $40 to learn the words, much like you would sponsor someone to complete a charity walk. The sponsorship helps provide motivation for the student to learn the words and the cash is awarded to the student as he or she progresses through the course – there are no strings attached! Students can choose from 12 specifically designed courses (e.g. SAT, ACT, GRE) to help them prepare for entrance exams, do better in school, or advance their career. Check out the VerbaLearn demo video below to learn more about this cool vocabulary building service and visit VerbaLearn.com for more information on their unique sponsorship option.

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There are times it’s nice to share your music and not be tied to your headphones. This small, lightweight and portable speaker is a flexible device with many applications… your teenagers will see ways to use it you and I wouldn’t even dream of. I purchased this speaker for our vacation last summer and it provided excellent sound quality and just the versatility we needed on our houseboat on Lake Mead. Whether your teen wants to practice dancing, work on a joint project at school, or share music with the family, this speaker provides options and flexibility and can make a great gift.

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My friend Cindy Loughran is a skilled coach and facilitator with particular expertise in supporting people through change… something any parent of teenagers know something about. I love her New Leaf Touchstone bracelets, which can make a particularly meaningful holiday gift. I asked Cindy to share her thoughts about their relevance to parents and teenagers. Here is her contribution:

One of the hardest things about being a parent is watching your child when she is in pain. You know, the pain caused by a broken heart, not making a team, struggling with homework, being homesick when she’s away. The temptation is often to swoop in and help, to come to the rescue and save the day. When I’m tempted to do that, I remember the story of the Chrysalis.

The Chrysalis: This is the story of a caterpillar that spins itself into its cocoon as part of the natural process of becoming a butterfly. The cocoon sits, appearing to be doing nothing for a period of time and, when it is ready to emerge in its transformed state, it begins to move. On one such occasion, a woman, sitting nearby, noticed the cocoon moving and watched. As she watched, a crack appeared in the cocoon, slowly becoming bigger and bigger. Then the cocoon was still for a while; and then the movement began again. This went on for a while. Finally, the woman saw what appeared to be the tip of a wing emerging through the crack. She watched, spellbound as whatever was inside struggled to emerge.

After what seemed to the woman like a very long time, she decided to provide some assistance. She reached over, picked up the cocoon and very gently, opened it up so that the butterfly could be freed.

The butterfly tried to fly away but it could not. It soon fell to the ground and died.

You see, the struggle to emerge from the cocoon is all part of a necessary process. It serves to make the butterfly’s wings strong enough to carry it along once it has emerged from its shell. Without going through that process, the wings don’t gain the strength they need to survive and the butterfly dies.

As hard as it is, we need to let our children struggle, work through their challenges and their pain. The best we can do is to be there with them and for them and love them. And, we can’t be there with them physically all of the time. New Leaf Touchstone Bracelets can be a great token of our presence and our love in those times when we can’t be there to (or our kids won’t let us) wrap our arms around them.

When you each wear identical, ‘Soul Connection’ bracelets, you can know that you are expressing your love and support to her, and she can look down, or touch her bracelet and know that your love and support are with her, giving her the strength and confidence to endure and succeed on her journey.

New Leaf Touchstone bracelet - one of many styles

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My eldest is a mountain bike fanatic, mountain climber and extreme skier. Do I worry about him? You bet! It makes him crazy that I do – he is 25 after all. But I figure that is a mother’s prerogative. Now I really hope he isn’t reading this blog post because he will know one of his Christmas gifts this year.

If you have an active outdoors-ey teenager, you will love this safety-oriented gift idea courtesy of the Daily Grommet. Road-ID Personal Identification Gear provides personalized ID tags for the runner, biker or adventurer that will provide vital information should an accident occur. There are various shapes and sizes, and even an interactive version that allows the user to change and update the contact and medical information. I can’t promise your teenager will get all excited, but a safety-conscious parent will.

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Here is my second gift idea for parenting teenagers: Parents are often looking for ways to spend pleasant family time with their teens… and the right game can be the perfect ticket. Yomado is a new word game that will be right up the alley of those right-brained creative types, and a great exercise for those who spend too much time in their left-brain.

Product and pricing information for Yomado

Ready to start your holiday shopping? I’m beginning a six-week series about varied and interesting gift ideas for your teenagers. I am not a product reviewer, and this Please Stop the Rollercoaster blog is not a product review blog… this will be completely subjective on my part! (Ah, the power of the pen! :>) And I’m confident if you visit regularly you will find a gift idea that is just perfect for a teenager you know. I have some really great gift ideas to share with you!

Teens love items that are a bit out-of-the-ordinary, and have meaning. And I love the way they will support the underdog. So for many of my gift suggestions I am relying on the good folks at the Daily Grommet who share the very same values. If you are not familiar with the Daily Grommet, allow me to introduce you to this special online retailer. The Daily Grommet is an online marketplace where you can discover innovative products and the stories behind them. They unveil a different product every day with a short video about it, sharing their personal experiences in testing the product and letting us know about the people behind it. With their mission to uncover unique products with special stories it can make your holiday shopping for teenagers really fun. Founder Jules Pieri has recommended a dozen great gifts for teenagers which I will share with you over the next few weeks, and I’ll add a few of my own notable items to our list.

The Shred Sled: If you have an active and athletic teen who loves snowboarding and/or skatboarding, you may just love this first product, the Shred Sled which offers a unique blend of skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing. Check this out:

Click for ShredSled pricing and purchasing information