• Throw a sleepover for your teen to affirm her independence.party cup ctreamers and party banners image by Warren Millar from Fotolia.com
  
  As children grow into teenagers, they become more independent. They are more comfortable spending time away from home and sometimes want to hang out with their friends more than their families. You can give them the space they need, while still keeping an eye on things, by throwing your teens a sleepover. This keeps the teens in a safe, semi-controlled environment, while still allowing them the space and privacy they need to have tons of fun. Gear the atmosphere toward teens with decorations and activities to set the mood.
  
  

Decorations

• Create a playful, cool space for the teens to party. This can be your teen's bedroom, a spare room or a basement rec room. The more privacy the teens have (without a lot of foot traffic from parents or siblings) the better. Move all of the furniture to the sides of the room to make way for sleeping bags. Stick glow-in-the-dark stars, moons and planets to the walls and ceiling. Place clusters of battery-powered candles all around the room and string white and purple twinkle lights around the room's perimeter to pump up the atmosphere. Tape temporary band posters to the walls and make sure the teens have access to a TV and DVD player. They can watch movies or use the player for CDs during games.
  
  

Activities

• Sleepover activities for teens can involve the traditional Truth or Dare and makeup, but you can add another facet to the fun with homemade spa recipes. The girls can give each other avocado banana or chocolate facials. Add a few bottles of nail polish, hairstyling tools, makeup and even temporary tattoos to a basket with the facial recipes.
  
  Give the teens a bunch of white pillowcases, T-shirts, flip-flops and craft supplies. Include laundry pens, permanent markers, colorful fabric scraps, glue and plastic gems. The teens can decorate these items with the craft supplies.
  
  Teens can use up some pent-up energy by playing dance mat video games or freeze dance. Freeze dance involves one person turning the music up and down. Everyone else dances while the music is up and freezes when it's down. Those that move when the music is down are out.
  
  

Food

• Food is the part of the evening where parents can check on everything under the guise of bringing in food. Choose healthy snacks like trays of colorful fruit and veggie sticks with homemade dip. You also can set up an assembly line with individual pizza or taco shells and let the teens create their own food. Set up an area with a fondue pot and dippers away from the sleeping bags. Provide fruit juices, caffeine-free soda and a variety of herbal teas and hot chocolate as beverages.