St Patrick's Day Activities for Tweens: An End of the Rainbow Party

We were thrilled when our friends at Club Chica Circle asked us to write a guest post for them on ways to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with tweens. We had a ball creating an End of the Rainbow party in honor of the day - check out our post for ideas and how-to's here.

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International Women's Day, Sandra Fluke, and First Tweens Malia and Sasha Obama

By now the story of Georgetown University Law Student Sandra Fluke's testimony before Congress and Rush Limbaugh's subsequent treatment of her has reach most our our readers. On today, International Women's Day, we were heartened to hear about President Obama's call to Ms. Fluke thanking her for serving as a positive civic role model for Malia and Sasha Obama.

Here is what the President said in his press conference (and you can view the video below):

". . . All good folks can agree that the remarks that were made don’t have any place in the public discourse. And you know, the reason I called Ms. Fluke is because I thought about my daughters, and one of the things I want them to do as they get older is to engage in issues they care about, even ones I may not agree with them on. I want them to be able to speak their mind in a civil and thoughtful way.”

“And I do not want them attacked or called horrible names because they are being good citizens, and I wanted Sandra to know that I thought her parents should be proud of her, and that we want to send a message to all of our young people that being part of a democracy involves argument and disagreements and debate, and we want you to be engaged, and there’s a way to do it that doesn’t involve you being demeaned and insulted, particularly when you are a private citizen.”


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Reading Resources for Tweens in Honor of Dr. Seuss' Birthday & The Lorax

You're never too old to read to your kid - even in her tween years. On today, Dr. Seuss' birthday and National Read Across America Day, we wanted to share a book called "The Reading Promise." Written by Alice Ozma it chronicles the promise made to Ms. Ozma by her father when she was 9 years old (a tween!) to read to her every day for one hundred days. One hundred days turned into one thousand days and then more - until Ms. Ozma went to college. Our tween's middle school and our teen's high school have both launched a "reading streak" campaign challenging parents to read daily to their tweens and teens. We thought today would be an auspicious day to kick-off the program in our house. We're on the hunt for the best read aloud books for 7 to 14 year olds - please post your suggestions. Since today is also the opening of "The Lorax", we figured that would be a good place to start. (Also check out our other Cool Seuss Things for Tweens on our Pinterest board.)

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Happy Birthday to Professor Snape!

Actor Alan Rickman portrayed the immortal (well, at least in our hearts) Professor Snape in the Harry Potter films. Mr. Rickman is 65 years old today.  We're thinking of ideas to mark the day with our tweens - any ideas? From around the web we found:

• A Harry Potter manicure
• Raise a glass of Butterbeer to toast the Professor (we found some good recipes here)
• Make "In Snape We Trust" buttons

• Watch Harry Potter Puppet Pals
• Host a Snape Day party like the fabulous folks at a bookstore called Libreria in the Philippines
• Mix up a batch of Felix Felicis - see our Potions Party post here

P.S. Severus Snape's actual birthday is supposedly January 9, 1960, but we've not yet confirmed that tidbit with Ms. Rowling.

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Girl Scouts Heart STEM

This week there was a super cool event celebrating STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). Girl Scouts and the New York Academy of Sciences hosted a panel discussion called "Girls Heart STEM" to review results "from a new study conducted by the Girl Scouts on girls' attitudes and awareness of careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

According to the Girl Scout Research Institute study Generation STEM: What Girls Say about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, 74 percent of girls — and even higher percentages of African-American and Hispanic girls — say they’re interested in the so-called STEM fields of science, technology, math, and engineering. The trick is to break professions into their component parts. Girls who are interested in STEM want to know how things work. They like solving puzzles and problems. They want to understand the natural world."

 

From the Girl Scouts blog, here are the keys to successfully fostering and supporting girls' interests in STEM:

• Engagement: Having an orientation to the sciences and/or quantitative disciplines that includes such qualities as awareness, interest and motivation.
• Capacity: Possessing the acquired knowledge and skills needed to advance to increasingly rigorous content in the sciences and quantitative disciplines.
• Continuity: Institutional and programmatic opportunities, material resources and guidance that support advancement to increasingly rigorous content in the sciences and quantitative disciplines.

Girls also live blogged and live-Tweeted from the event - very cool!

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What We're "Pinning" This Valentine's Day

 We found some REALLY cute Valentine's Day craft and recipe ideas for your tween to make, and we "pinned" them to our board on Pinterest. Our favorites include the tinted milk hearts, the roasted potato hearts, and cinnamon heart rolls. Today we made meringue hearts and pink marshmallows for teacher gifts.

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Tweens Date By Text

We were fascinated by an article in this week's Wall Street Journal about the dating habits of tweens. Apparently entire relationships start, live and end via text message - and it's not an isolated occurrence: half of the older tweens surveyed (ages 11 to 14) say they've had a dating relationship. The few dozen tweens we spoke to this week confirmed the study findings: that this trend is a norm in their schools. One girl said, "Girls in my school do this to say they're in a relationship, but they never actually go anywhere."

While exploring dating is a cultural norm in middle school, MsTwixt does wish that the 1950's notion that having a boyfriend somehow validates a girl's worth would get with the times already.

Do you know if your tween "dates"? And if so, does s/he have a virtual or in-person relationship? Given that texting often figures in tween relationships of any kind, do you monitor your tween's texts? One tip: have all family members dock their phones at bedtime in a central location in your house - it will cut down tremendously on the late-night text sessions and mean more shut-eye for your kid. For other tips on developing a family technology policy, view our Women in Media interview here.

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Facebook's New Timeline Feature: What You Need to Know to Keep Your Tween Safe

Facebook will automatically be updating all profiles to their new Timeline view next week (February 16, 2012 according to their website). What this means is that your "Wall" will be displayed as a "Timeline".

The biggest change from a privacy standpoint is that while any post on Facebook stayed on Facebook forever, someone had to really search hard to find older photos and posts (and while college is a while off for tweens, most college admissions offices DO search applicants' Facebook profiles - and photos of indiscretions or questionable behavior have staying power). The Timeline feature now includes a "sort" feature by year (on the right side of the page), and this makes finding those old photos and conversations MUCH easier.

 For an example of a Timeline you can see Mark Zuckerberg's Timeline below:

There are two important things you need to do to keep your tween safe (And while we all know that Facebook does not permit anyone under the age of 13 to join, many tweens have. Or, if you have a family Facebook page as we do, you'll want to look at these directions too.):

• Check your Privacy Settings (after you've logged in, click the arrow next to "Home" and select "Privacy Settings" from the drop down menu)
• Scroll down to "How Tags Work" and click on "Edit Settings"

• Select "Maximum Timeline Visibility" and choose your privacy setting; you can see that we opted for "Friends" - meaning that only our Friends can view the posts we're tagged in. You could also choose "Custom" and then "Only Me" for maximum privacy

• Click "Done"; you'll revert to the Privacy Settings Screen
• Select "Limit the Audience for Past Posts" and click on "Manage Past Post Visibility"
• You can opt to "Limit the Audience for Old Posts on Your Timeline", and this will mean that old photos and posts can only be seen by your Facebook Friends and not by the public at large.

For more tips on the new Timeline, check out this article in PC World - it has some of the best, most clearly written tips I've seen on the topic.

For more tips on keeping your tween safe online, check out our interview on Digital Literacy in the Women in Media Journal.

Full disclosure: MsTwixt does maintain a Facebook page.

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To Get Her There: Girl Scouts' Campaign for Girls' Success

An amazing new campaign kicked-off today: To Get Her There. It's a massive effort by Girl Scouts to empower and encourage girls so that they succeed. A central idea is that when you help a girl, you help society overall; that leadership is a birthright of girls.

From their website:

• The problem: There's something seriously stopping girls from reaching their full potential. What's stopping girls today? Negative influences surround girls' lives, including peer pressure to not stand out, a lack of role models and mentors, unhealthy images in the media about beauty, and even bullying from their peers. If this current cycle of discouragement continues unchecked, millions of girls won't reach their full potential as leaders in our society.  It's time we create a supportive environment that helps pave her path to success. We all have a role to play to get her there.
• A solution: When girls succeed, so does society. We know that the greatness inside her hasn't gone away. It's just not being realized. This generation of girls deserves to lead tomorrow's boardrooms and courthouses and run our hospitals and technology start-ups. But she might not get there, unless we create the environment needed to support her. All of us have a role to play in helping girls achieve their full leadership potential. Get informed here, and then learn how you can participate, speak up, and invest in girls to create change.

I was most struck by this quote from Girl Scouts CEO Anna Maria Chavez about what happens to girls in their tween years: "Why is it that a girls' desire to lead is strongest when she's 8 years old, but then diminishes by half when she is 16 years old?"

The To Get Her There website includes a video series about "Who got YOU there?" - interviews with several successful women about "Who helped you get to where you are today?" and "How can we support girls to reach their full potential today?" Their answers are enlightening.

(Full disclosure: MsTwixt is a Girl Scout troop leader in Washington, D.C. for three troops and has been a troop leader for nine years - so yes, I have a stake in this.)

Find out how you can get involved here and watch the LiveStream address here.

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Thin Mint Lip Balm!

We stumbled across these fun lip balms in Girl Scout Cookie flavors! Made by Lip Smacker, these look and smell yummy. In fun flavors like Thin Mint, Samoa (chocolate and caramel), Trefoil, and Tagalongs (peanut butter and chocolate).

Available at Claire's $3.50/each or $14.00 for a Party Pack of 8

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