OK, I'll try to give you a crash course. Do tell me what camera you have so we can give further guidance.
If you are a beginner put the camera into full auto mode so you don't have too many settings to worry about; children and pets move around a lot and resetting focus, aperture etc is nigh on impossible.
Regarding lighting, consider the weather. If it's sunny or even slightly cloudy, natural light will be fine. Backdrop matters a lot--try to eliminate 'parasites', things that don't look right, such as trash cans, cars etc. On the other hand if you see a great shot just take it!
A high shutter speed is also important, while aperture isn't. 1/60th of a second and shorter to avoid any blurring. Your camera may have a kids and pets mode or something to that effect--use it.
Get in close, either literally or with optical zoom. Digital zoom will seriously degrade the quality of the picture.
If you have a digital camera which I assume you do, don't be afraid to go overboard. Put the camera into burst mode. If you take 500 pictures, perhaps only 2 could have that special something. Get rid of the other 498 and you have a success!
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