When it comes to kids in swimming pools, it’s pretty hard for any boredom to set in. The number of activities you can do is amazing, but it’s not just about how many. It’s the quality of fun kids have when playing in the pool that keeps them occupied for so long.

The main reason so many home owners get a pool installed around the home is to provide their kids with total entertainment during the warmer periods of the year. After all, the more time kids spend in the pool (under supervision of course), the more time parents get to spend together. Yes – it’s a win-win situation.

Whether it’s the school holidays, after school or on the weekends, you’ll find most kids in or around the swimming pool by themselves or with friends. Pools have a magnetic effect on kids and it doesn’t take much to lure them in. If the sun is out, the kids are in.

Once in the pool there is so much a kid can do. Unlike a public swimming pool, most pools at homes don’t have signs up saying no running, jumping or diving. At home, there are barely any rules at all.

Some public pools don’t allow balls in the pool because of the threat of someone being hit in the head or face. In your own pool, a ball can provide hours of fun. From tennis ball catches and volleyball, to headers with the football and diving catches from the edge of the pool.

So, if you’ve got children who have difficulty entertaining themselves, buy a swimming pool. It’s the best thing any home could have.

Do you spend much time considering the issue of family entertainment? When parents compare notes and questions about parenting, the issue of entertainment rarely comes up. After all, how can family fun compare with such important issues as health, safety, values, nutrition, and education? But family fun is an important issue for parents for three reasons.

First, it is important to remember that family bonds are not born in the delivery room. Family bonds have to be forged and strengthened over time. Family fun is a great way to build family bonds by spending time together. While you cannot plan an activity specifically just to create a better relationship with your children you can improve your relationship through a family fun activity.

Second, the best way to teach your children something new or help them master a new skill is through fun. No one, and especially not kids, likes learning by listening to a boring lecture but if you can take your children to a location that allows you to teach them something about science, history, or the world then you will be increasing their knowledge based. Fun can be educational as well as entertaining. Remember, that there are all kinds of fun scientific concepts as well as world knowledge that can be learned outside of museums.

Family fun activities are also important for building those lasting memories of their childhood that children will carry into adulthood and out of your home. What stories do you want your children to be able to tell their children? What memories do you want your children to have? Happy childhood memories can help children with self esteem and overcome challenges in the future. Giving your children those happy childhood memories will help provide a solid foundation to become the people you want them to be as adults.

Spending time, energy and money focusing on family fun activities is a worthwhile activity for every parent because it helps strengthen family bonds, provides opportunities for learning, and creates lasting memories. Keep that in mind the next time you decide family entertainment is not a high priority.

Fortune telling is an excellent way to liven up your party or special event.

It is both fun and highly popular with guests.

If you are thinking of hiring a fortune teller to be part of your party entertainment, it is helpful to know what she is providing and how she works.

The appeal of fortune telling as a party entertainment idea is simply that guests love to hear about themselves. Even skeptics listen intently as a skilled fortune teller zooms in on what makes them tick.

Psychic entertainment or intuitive readings, as party fortunetelling is sometimes called, is found at events ranging from gala fundraisers, tradeshows and cocktail receptions to family and holiday events. And fortune telling is a very successful party entertainment idea for bachlorette parties, ladies’ teas, and birthday parties for adults, teens, and even older children.

A competent party reader relays his messages in an upbeat manner that leaves guests feeling empowered.

Although fortune telling comes in various flavors, each type relies on some form of divination, that is, accessing a universal or divine intelligence. Many types of fortune telling rely on accumulated bodies of wisdom that are expressed in symbolic form. Tarot and Astrology are two examples.

The reader (the preferred term for a fortune teller) gets his or her information by analyzing and interpreting the symbols.

But since the symbols are designed to open the reader’s intuitive sense, he or she will add his psychic impressions to the reading, if the reader is at all intuitive or psychic.

In a party setting, readings are kept short and sweet, just several minutes apiece. The subject may choose to be read privately or allow her partner or friends listen in.

Inviting fortune tellers to read at your event is a surefire way to add fun to your event and delight your guests.

Even though you may have stopped spending as much money on entertainment in recent times, there is no reason to deprive yourself! Here are ten ways to have fun at practically no expense at all:

1. Borrow your DVD’s from the library. It’s a free service and most libraries have a huge selection of DVD’s. If you watch all the DVD’s at one library, you can move on to the next.

2. The next time you’re tempted to buy a book online, call your local library. If your library doesn’t carry the book, the librarian will check with other libraries for an inter-library loan. Librarians are exceptionally helpful people. If the wait for book from another library is too long, they’ll order it, just for you! Be very nice to librarians.

3. Attend speaking events for free. Contact the organization hosting the event and offer to volunteer. No one has ever said “no” to my offer! I’ve seen Donald Trump and met Dr. Deepak Chopra, Walter Cronkite, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Cheryl Richardson and Robert Kiyosaki by volunteering. The Learning Annex welcomes volunteers. Check their website.

4. Hold a barbecue instead of eating out. You can enjoy nature and food at the same time.

5. Attend a weekend book-camp or seminar. Loral Langemeier, Raymond Aaron and T. Harv Ecker all hold wonderful free, or almost-free weekend workshops. Look up your favorite guru and see what weekend events they’re holding for free. You can cut the hotel bill in half (if you’re going by yourself) by calling the organization hosting the event and requesting a roommate, which gives you the added benefit of an instant friend. Yes, you’ll learn about amazing educational packages at the event that you’ll want to buy. Promise to yourself that as soon as you’ve taken care of your other commitments, you’ll invest in all of them.

6. Hold a potluck supper. Some of the best events I’ve ever held cost me the time it took to make 12 phone calls and a salad.

7. Rather than just invite people over for food, how about throwing a fashion party or a book swap? Invite your friends, have them bring all the clothes they don’t wear any more or the books they’ve already read and trade!

8. Find an interesting event on meetup.com. You can hike the Appalachian trail for one dollar or take a walking tour of Manhattan for two.

9. Begin a Toastmasters International program. If you divide the cost of membership by the number of weeks in a year, I think the cost comes to fifty cents a meeting.

10. Answer questions on Yahoo, tweet on Twitter and blog on WordPress. These three activities will not only provide endless sources of entertainment and new friends, they can source you into cashflow!

11. Pull out your roller blades or your bicycle and call a friend!

This list is as infinite as your imagination! So have fun, and even if you’ve felt a pinch in your wallet area lately, remember that life is the only true currency.

Choosing entertainment for your Christmas party can be a daunting task. You have a group of 100plus people who never socialise with each other, generally only talk to the people they know and spend most of the evening avoiding their boss!

Not a situation that shouts fun!

There is however a simple solution, one that is often overlooked or left until last in the event organising process, entertainment.

After organising entertainment for the last 13 years I can honestly say that entertainment can either make or break a Christmas party and this depends on how much research is done by the organiser.

Here’s a checklist to help you choose the best Christmas party entertainment for your company;

1) Find out the average age of your guests (there’s no point in booking a DJ if you guests are over 50 and will probably leave straight after the meal)

2) Find out the average gender of your guests (if most of your guests are female you probably won’t want Belly Dancers!)

3) Are you guests bringing their partners? (If so you’ll need to make the entertainment more general so having a company quiz is probably out.)

4) Ask you guests what they’d like (it sounds obvious but simply asking your guests what type of entertainment they’d like is sometimes the best way to please the majority)

5) Find out your entertainment budget as early as possible (there’s no point spending hours talking to Christmas party DJ’s, bands, magicians and casinos if you know you’ve only got £100 to spend)

When you get the answers from this checklist you’re ready to start finding your entertainment.

Now comes the second conundrum, do you use an entertainment agent, go directly to the acts or use the entertainment that your venue recommend?

This can completely confuse the average Christmas party organiser.

It’s probably best to only go directly to the act if you’re only having one entertainment act, think of all the stress it’s going to be having three or four acts calling you on the day asking the same questions!

This is where going with an entertainment agent can help, the agent will look after all the acts so you don’t have to and they’ll deal with all those small questions that will just add to your stress!

If your venue does recommend an entertainment agent then it’s probably best to go with this option, they’ve been recommended for a reason and their acts have probably all worked at the venue before so they’ll know how to get in, set up and who to speak to if there are problems.

If you’re stuck for Christmas party entertainment ideas here’s a few

Drinks Reception Entertainment

This can set the tone for the whole evening, if you’re guests relax and talk to each other then you’re going to relax too! So how do you break the ice?

The best way to do this is with some ‘Walkabout entertainment’ for example a Close Hand Magician or Caricaturist.

Close Hand Magicians are great because they subtly mingle in with your guests, come up to small crowds of people and draw in other guests to watch. This means that by the end of the trick all the guests should be left laughing and commenting ‘how did they do that!’ with someone they don’t really know, in effect breaking the ice.

Caricaturists do the same thing with the added bonus that you’re left with a gift to put above the computer at work.

Entertainment after the main meal

It’s sometimes a fun idea to have a surprise element to your evening and what better way to do it than by having your waiters who have been quietly serving you all night suddenly break into song!

This will delight all your guests, make them laugh and stop people talking shop at the end of the meal.

Main Christmas party entertainment

This is the most exciting party of the entertainment, the main event! Will it be a Christmas party band or a DJ, or if you can afford it, both.

A Christmas party band adds a great live feel and if they’re good, can have the immediate effect of getting every dancing. A DJ will do the same but with the added bonus that they generally play for longer, although it can be a bit cheesier and generally it will take people longer to get up and dance.

Other Christmas party entertainment ideas

Other ideas include Casinos and Belly Dancers which can be great if you have mainly male guests. Henna artists, Butlers in the Buff and Chocolate Fountains are all better for female guests unless everyone is on a diet!

Remember, when you’re guests are leaving the event, the biggest talking point isn’t the food, decorations, venue or the staff, it’s the entertainment.