My home is 50 years old and has asbestos shingles. Needless to say, the house needs a paint job. What do I need to do? Can you even paint these things? Help!!!!

Yes you can paint them and they hold very well.
The first thing you need to do is wash the shingles down to remove dirt and mildew. Jomax is good product to use and all you need is a pump up garden sprayer and a hose to use this product. You do not want to scrape or sand the shingles directly as you could release asbestos but otheriwse you will be fine. Allow the shingles to dry for a couple of sunny days before you start to paint them. Then you will need to prime the shingles with an exterior acrylic primer, such as Duron Bond-N-Seal and finish with 2 coats of either a flat or satin acrylic house paint, such as Duron Weathershield. I feel that you will need to coats of finish to get an even look if it has been many years since it has been paint or even it if never and the paint job will last longer also.
Happy painting.

I beg to differ on the primer. Asbestos shingles chalk badly - even after a power wash - you are likely not going to be able to remove it all.

Latex products won't stick to chalk - alkyds will. Use an exterior oil primer - and two coats of 100 Acrylic Latex topcoat.....

Mr. Paint

The primer i reccomended is modified with an alkyd resin and will stick to slightly caulky surfaces, but if you can't get that product you do your own by adding EB (Emulsa-Bond) by the Flood Company to an acrylic primer and that will work great. That way you will not have to deal with an oil based paint and all the clean up and disposal of the dirty thinner.

Some of the asbestos shingles laminate is flaking. Is there any way to prevent this?