Grocery List: Enlist your child's help in making grocery list. Walk around kitchen, naming things you need from store. Ask your child to write everything down. Your child can also suggest foods you might need from store and he can add those, too.

Old Checks: If you've recently switched banks and have checks that need to be destroyed, first let your child play with them. Give him some envelopes and he can pretend to pay bills -- while getting him to do some writing. Of course, destroy checks afterwards. If you do not have checks available, you can just give your child some blank pieces of paper and he can make his own checks.

Cards: If your child is interested in Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh cards, then give him some index cards cut in half and have him design his own cards. Encourage your child to give characters names and special abilities on their cards.

Most people shoot some random video of their child’s birthday party, then toss video in a drawer and forget about it.

Hey, we’re talking about some precious video of an important event in your child’s life.

So if you’re going to shoot some video of your child’s birthday party, why not make it into a video everyone will want to see?

With just a little planning you can turn your child’s birthday party video footage into a fun music video that’s sure to become a treasured family keepsake and heirloom.

Choose A Favorite Song

Before you shoot your video, choose song you want to use for your completed music video. It can be one of your child’s favorites, or one that fits your party theme. Now you can shoot your video to go along with music. Most songs are about 2 and a half minutes long which tells you how long your completed music video will be.

10 Things You Need To Shoot

Putting up decorations

Party guests arriving

Activities and crafts

Party Games

Bringing out birthday cake

Opening cards and gifts

Finished decorations and balloons

Parents, brothers, sisters, family members and pets

Staged shots of your birthday child and guests being silly

Guests saying good-by and leaving

The birthday child’s parents collapsing on a chair after party.

You may find other shots you want to include as well.

Fun Camera Angels

Make your shots at least 5 to 10 seconds in length. A series of short but fun shots will help make your music video more fun to watch.

Try to stay away from using zoom lens. Unless a zoom is done very well it tends to look very amateurish.

Get lots candid of wide shots of your group.

Then move in and shoot medium shots of 2 or 3 people together.

Shoot close-ups of individual faces

Have fun by shooting some shots that are tilted to one side or stand on a chair and shoot down on party. Put camera on floor and shoot up.

Editing Your Birthday Video - Music Video