Must See Video For Tweens at Back to School: Rachel Crow's "Mean Girls"

We were watching the Arthur Ashe Kids Day concert at the US Open this weekend, and a new performer named Rachel Crow sang her new single, "Mean Girls". Both this mom and tweens were captivated by the song, so we went online to find the video - and that was even better.

We love how this young girl (she's 14 years old!) captured both the loneliness of being bullied and the courage it takes to move beyond it. This is must-see viewing for all tweens and their parents this Back to School season.

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Final Exam Study Tips for Middle School

Final exams are this week in our household, and the tweens have been busy studying for the past week. We asked the girls to share some of their study tips - we hope you find them useful!

• Put your exam dates on the family calendar. That way, your brothers know to not bug you and your parents remember to make you a good breakfast the morning of.

• Make digital flashcards. We found a fun app called Flashcard for the iPhone. It works great and made studying more fun - it was especially helpful for study groups.

• Turn studying for history into a craft project: make a paper timeline. This helped me to understand how long a king's reign or a Chinese dynasty really was.

• Take over your space - my sister turned her closet mirrors into a giant study guide for her Mandarin test by using colorful dry-erase markers on the mirrors. It looks really cool!

• Study outside! My mom didn't want us to miss pool-time during our Memorial Day vacation, so she put our study guide sheets in clear plastic sheet protectors - it worked!

We hope you like these study tips - we used them both for mid-terms and for finals. Last year was the first time we had finals, so our mom made us a Finals Care Package that was filled with all kinds of really fun things.

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More Back to School Fun For Tweens: Martha and Friends

Featuring a tween-age Martha Stewart, Martha and Friends is a new webisode series from Martha Stewart and AOL Kids. It's all digitally animated and includes craft instructions and recipes from each episode. The show chronicles what a group of four kids do as they wind down summer and prepare to enter middle school. All of the characters, including two french bulldogs, are sweetly illustrated, and the show is even true to Martha's legendary bossy personality. Our favorite part is the fully stocked clubhouse that most scenes take place in - it's kitted-out with every craft supply imaginable and technology features heavily - sort of a dream treehouse for tweens. This is fun viewing during the Back to School season - each episode is about 11 minutes long.

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Most Creative Website EVER for Tween Lunch Ideas

OMG is right! This is perfect for Back to School (thanks a ton to our friends at Chica Circle for introducing us to this): Susan Yuen is a "bento box chef" (that's my made-up term, not hers), and she writes a blog that is all about cool, uber-creative ideas for how to make kids- themed bento boxes. Bento boxes are the new lunchbox, and while everyone and their mommy blogger seems to show images of them, Susan's blog is the only one I've seen that actually gives you step-by-step instructions on how to make them. We were hooked after seeing the Phineas and Ferb-themed ones she did (thanks to eighteen25 for this story). Yes, it's a bit OCD, but the results are truly amazing.

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Lessons Learned From a Tween's First Week of School

Back to School is a heady time for tweens, especially if they're starting middle school. As parents, we do everything we can to ease the transition and celebrate the occasion. But still, every year I learn something new about the process.
This year's lesson is about Day Two - we all focus on the first day, but there's a whole rest of the week to contend with. Our tweens handled Day One just fine - a fun breakfast, new school supplies, etc. But Day Two we awoke to find a very anxious tween at the breakfast table. It dawned on us that her anxiety may have been placated by the attention of the first day, but the anxiety resurfaces in the absence of the hype. Her nervousness around finding classrooms, making friends, re-connecting with old friends, where to sit at lunch, etc. were all still too real.  Hence, our Lessons Learned From a Tween's First Week of School:

• Schedule the familiar:  Arrange a time to hang out ("playdates" are passe for tweens) with a friend from the neighborhood afterschool. The girls can decompress with a familiar friend and do something other than think about fitting in. Plus, having a plan for what she's doing afterschool will be a convenient buffer should she hear of others' afterschool plans.
• Breakfast is still important: We make a big deal about the first day of school, but the rest of the week is as important. Consider spreading out fun breakfast ideas over the course of the first week - maybe a big pancake breakfast on the first day, yogurt parfaits on the second day, egg sandwiches on the third day, etc.
• Reach out to the new girl: Ask the new girl in class to join your tween for ice cream afterschool one day. She's likely even more nervous than your daughter, and it models the old adage: "the best way to have friends is to be one."

How did back to school go for your tween?

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Havaianas Makes Rainboots!?!

Hurricane Katia is pouring buckets up and down the East Coast, and Washington-area tweens have had a very soggy Back to School week. Rainboots were not originally on our Back to School shopping list, but they are now. While browsing the interwebs we stumbled upon these AMAZING rainboots from Havaianas. This colorway is appropriate called "Always Summer". They seem to be available only in the UK for now, but we'll keep you posted.

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Fun Tween Tradition on School Year's Eve: Schultuete

Happy Back to School! Our tweens return to school tomorrow, including one starting middle school (!). The girls aren't the ones only excited/nervous about Back to School - Mom loves the idea of starting fresh too. Readers know that the MsTwixt household celebrates every little thing, so here is one of our tweens' favorite Back to School traditions that your family might enjoy too:
Schultuetes are a German tradition of giving paper cones filled with school supplies and trinkets to celebrate the first day of school. They remind us of Christmas stockings. They are SO easy to make - all you need is: poster board, a stapler, some tissue paper, scissors, a glue stick, and a piece of ribbon.
Here are  the instructions:
1) Roll a piece of poster board into a cone shape. Your goal is to have the smallest opening possible at the tip of the cone. The overall size of the cone itself isn't critical. We find that a standard piece of drugstore poster board rolls naturally into a narrow cone that is approximately 30" tall.
2) Staple the poster board closed to keep the cone shape, and then trim the base of the cone so that the end is fairly level (precision isn't important here).
3) Decorate the outside of the cone as you like - we tend to use school colors and then use Sharpies to write our tweens' names on the schultuetes. Stickers are a great choice too.
4) Fill the cones with small school supplies. This year we included PJs from BeePosh, thin pens to help her color-code her notes, personalized pencils from Oriental Trading, erasers, rulers, portable hand sanitizer gel, a new toothbrush, and some scratch-n-sniff stickers.
5) Once the cones are filled, run glue stick along the INTERIOR edge of the cone's base. Then press tissue paper along the glued edge (we find that 2 pieces of tissue paper works well).
6) Cinch the tissue paper closed with the piece of ribbon, and Voila - a homemade schultuete! Schultuetes can be made in any size and any color combination - have fun with it!
Our tweens open theirs the night before school starts (School Year's Eve), and it's a great opportunity for parents to tuck in any straggling supplies.
What Back to School traditions does your family have? We'd love to hear!
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A Perfect Birthday Gift For Tweens

Remember our New Year's Resolution post about writing thank you notes? We had a terrific response to that idea, and one company, Expressionery, wrote to tell us about their line of stationery created for tweens. Their cards are fun and customizable, but what we REALLY fell for were their custom Hello Kitty zodiac stamps. How cute is this!?!?

We think this is a perfect birthday gift for the next time your tween has a birthday party to attend - it's personalized, unique, and will be adored by the recipient. We chose one with our name (Ms.Twixt), city (Washington, DC), and our horoscope (Gemini). You could have an entire address printed on the stamp, making it ideal for envelopes, invitations, and customizing school supplies and notebooks (which, come to think of it, will help our tweens stick to another New Year's Resolution to pack and keep the right gear).

The company also makes a fun line of invitations, cards and bookplates featuring the Jonas Brothers, Hannah Montana, and (our fave) the Wizards of Waverly Place.

Hello Kitty zodiac stamp, $45; flat note cards start at $14/set

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Perfect Non-Sweet Treat for Tweens on Halloween

We saw these and flipped! Twixt has always sold these cool Lego-like Zip Zip drives, and customers love them because they're fun and perfect for storing homework files.

Now Zip Zip has come out with a glow-in-the-dark version just in time for Halloween - so cool! They also work as light up keychains, and with Day Light Savings Time around the corner (next Sunday, November 7), these are great for our tween's backpacks. Ms Twixt plans to include these in our tweens' ghost gift baskets.

$35 for 2GB from MyZipZip.com

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Top 10 Back to School Safety Tips for Tweens

Given our recent post with the latest study results finding that tween girls are the most at risk for abduction, here are the "Top 10" back to school safety rules for tweens (borrowed liberally from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) website:

1. Travel in packs: always TAKE A FRIEND with when walking or biking, and stay with a group while standing at the bus stop. 
2. Stay in the light: whenever walking places, even familiar routes, NEVER TAKE SHORTCUTS and always stay in well-lit areas. Parent can point out landmarks and coach tweens on safe places to go if they’re being followed or need help.
3. Trust your gut - if it feels unsafe, go with that. If anyone bothers them, makes them feel scared or uncomfortable to TRUST YOUR FEELINGS and immediately get away from that person.  
4. It's okay to be rude sometimes: parents of tween girls especially need to coach their daughters and tell them it is ok not to be polite at all times, and IT IS OK TO SAY NO. 
5. Go ahead - make a scene: Teach your tween if anyone tries to take them somewhere they should RESIST by kicking and screaming, try to run away and DRAW ATTENTION by kicking and screaming “This person is trying to take me away” or “This person is not my father/mother.” Staying out of a would-be abductor's vehicle is crucial.
6. There's no such thing as a free ride: Teach your tween NOT TO ACCEPT A RIDE from anyone unless you have said it is ok in that instance.  If anyone follows them in a vehicle they should turn around, go in the other direction, and run to a trusted adult who may help them.
7. Ignore adults - at least when they ask for you directions: Tweens should know that grownups do NOT ASK CHILDREN FOR DIRECTIONS. It's a red flag if someone does. 
8. No handouts: tweens should NEVER ACCEPT MONEY OR GIFTS from anyone unless a parent has told them it is ok to accept in each instance.
9. Paperwork, paperwork: Make sure the school has current and accurate emergency contact information is on file for kids your and CONFIRM NAMES of those authorized.
10. Check in early; check in often: Always know where your tween will be. Teach your children to always CHECK FIRST before changing their plans before or after school.  Teach your children to never leave school, with anyone unless they CHECK FIRST with you or another trusted adult, even if someone tells them it is an emergency. We're explicit with our tweens that cell phones are not for after-the-face - they're for before-the-change.

According to the study authors, kids are their own best savior in these situations, so coach your tweens!

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Tween Girls Most at Risk for Child Abduction

As we prepare to send our tweens back to school, a sobering new study was released last month by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that finds that tween girls are the most at risk for abduction by a stranger.

Thirty-seven percent of stranger abduction occur between 2-7pm during the week (in other words, just as tweens are walking home from school or to activities), and sixty-eight percent of abductions involve a vehicle. Most tweens were approached by someone in a vehicle, often offering a ride. Other offenders lured kids with sweets or money or with an animal or a story about finding a lost animal. Some asked for directions.

The study authors are quick to point out that their intention is not to scare, but to educate both parents and children about the need to be safe as we all prepare for back to school. NCMEC found that:

• 38% of attempted abductions occur while a child is walking alone to or from school, riding the school bus or riding a bicycle;
• 37% of attempted abductions occur between the hours of 2:00 PM through 7:00 PM on a weekday;
• 43% of attempted abductions involve children between the ages of 10 and 14;
• 72% of attempted abduction victims are female;
• 68% of attempted abductions involve the suspect driving a vehicle.

The silver lining? The study hows that kids are their own best protectors. "They escaped these things not through the efforts of good Samaritans, but through recognizing a bad situation and either getting away from it, avoiding it, or screaming and kicking to draw attention," said Ernie Allen, President of NCMEC. "The child should do whatever is necessary to stay out of the car, because once the child is in that car, it dramatically reduces the chances of escape," Allen says.

Every parent's nightmare scenario of their child being snatched tragically occurs every 40 seconds in the U.S., and 800,000 children are reported missing every year.

Sobering facts to ponder this back-to-school season - stay safe.

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New Tween Style for Back to School? Willow Smith as Trendsetter With Lady Gaga Ear

Is this a sign of a new tween trend?: at The Karate Kid premiere in Paris, Willow Smith, star of the American Girl movie, "Kit Kittredge" and sister of Karate Kid movie star Jaden Smith, sported a silver painted ear. An homage to Lady Gaga perhaps?

Her avant garde haircut and stunning visage already sets her apart from the crowd - and we *heart* her rocker-chic fashion choices (did you catch her Carrie-esque ring?). Unique style must be what happens when one follows the beat of your own fashion drummer and don't cow to group-think - Willow and Jaden Smith are home-schooled.

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First Tweens Sasha and Malia Obama Gifted Wellies by British PM

First Tweens Sasha and Malia Obama were given very cool rainboots (or "Wellingtons" as the British call them) by Samantha Cameron, wife of British Prime Minister David Cameron, during the Prime Minister's visit to Washington, DC last week. The boots are made by Hunter, the Royal Wellington provider, and Malia got a pair in pink, and Sasha got the purple ones. Great colors!

Will you put Wellies on your back-to-school shopping list? (BTW, we wrote about Hunter Wellies for tweens way back in 2008!)


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Awesome Percy Jackson-esque Shoes!

Our readers know that we are HUGE Percy Jackson fans, so we just have to share with you these amazing kicks:

Adidas will offer them for sale on their website in early August - perfect for back-to-school for tween Percy fans!

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Back to School Resolution #4: Make New Friends

Part four of the series Top Ten Back to School Resolutions for tweens and their parents:

Back to School Resolution #4: Make new friends.

Or, "Hang out with new people but still keep in touch with old friends." A new school year and/or a new school also means an opportunity to meet new people. While that can be scary, it's also something that tweens can find energizing. What struck me most when hearing this resolution from tweens was how universal this goal is – I heard it from sporty girls, drama girls, rocker girls, city girls, country girls – all around. Tweens are still working out who they are and exploring a variety of interests, and social groupings are often still fluid. It makes sense that tweens still want to meet people from a wide variety of backgrounds with different interests.

As parents, we are often left wondering when our little girl in pigtails who loves soccer and glitter was replaced by the sullen and moody changeling in front of us – and then by how fast she returned. Such is the nature of pre-adolescence. We cannot choose her friends anymore than we can choose her interests, but we can help her navigate how to form and keep friendships. Social skills are still developing, and tweens are trying to make sense of all the dynamics around them. Sharing our experiences with friendship and how relationships can change over time lends some perspective. It can be eye-opening to realize that one cannot get everything from one friend, and that having a network of different friends and groups to draw from can be a source of strength and comfort. Authors such as Rachel Simmons (Odd Girl Out and The Curse of the Good Girl) and Rosalind Wiseman (Queenbees and Wannabes, among others) have done extensive research on the social dynamics of tween girls, and their findings and case studies have broad application for parents and school administrators.

Is your tween nervous or not about meeting new people? How do you help her in this regard? I’d love to hear your Back to School tips for tweens – send me a tweet at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt or post your comment below.

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Back to School Resolution #3

Part three of the series Top Ten Back to School Resolutions for tweens and their parents:

Back to School Resolution #3: Participate more.

This resolution was a bit surprising to hear tween girls articulate – I expected to hear it from parents and teachers about girls and was so glad to hear it from the girls themselves. To strive to participate more in class – also articulated as “Raise my hand more often” and “Pay more attention/ask more questions” – demonstrates a level of self awareness that is amazing to hear from 7 to 14 year old girls. It makes sense that students who engage more in class get more out of class because they are active in the dialogue and mentally present. One of the best tips I heard for achieving this goal also came from a tween: set a goal of making one comment a day in any class; once you’ve lived to tell the tale, it’s not so scary and makes it much easier the next time. To raise confident and competent girls, we need to coach them to take risks by either volunteering an answer or asking questions to clarify her knowledge. By putting herself out there and increasing class participation, girls become more self-confident and little “failures” (like an incorrect answer) only pave the way for greater successes. In the President’s speech to school kids today he also spoke about taking risks (using himself and Michael Jordan as examples) and learning how to fail because without making mistakes, one cannot improve.

As a parent gearing up for the new school year, I am also feeling a renewed sense of commitment to my children’s schools. Education funding is hurting at all levels, and schools need their PTAs and PTOs more than ever. It is in that spirit that I find myself signing up for one extra volunteer task and moving my schedule to accommodate at least some of those parent meetings. So this year I resolve to take those extra steps to stay informed and to participate – I want to be aware of any changes our schools will need to make in this economic climate and be sure that add my voice to the dialogue.

As you send your kids back to school, how are you dealing with the calls for extra help from parents? Participate! Add your voice to the dialogue! Please post your comment below or send me a tweet at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt.


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Back to School Resolution #2

Part two of series, Top Ten Back to School Resolutions for tweens and their parents:

Back to School Resolution #2: Be organized.

Tweens are just learning how to manage their own school work, and some are better at organizing themselves and their materials than others. Entice your student to be organized by appealing to the universal tween girl obsession: color-coding. School supplies are thankfully available in more colors and options than when I was a tween, and your local office supply depot is bursting at the seams with folders, pens, notebooks, index cards, highlights and stickers in a rainbow of colors. She can assign a color to each subject or day of the week and use pens, index cards, notebooks, highlighters and labels to organize her notes and materials. She can even use colored wrapping paper or stretch book covers to color-code her text books. Color coding can work for any gender, but if color isn’t their thing, try assigning a sport (e.g. basketball-themed materials for math, football for English, hockey for science) or an animal (e.g. dogs for math, cats for English, birds for science) to their materials – you can print stickers or labels with these motifs to apply to binders, folders and the like to reinforce their system. Giving your tween control over her system is what will make the system work.

As parents of tweens we want to set our sons and daughters up for success. Setting up a regular space to do homework is key. For some families, this means a desk in a child’s room, and in others’ it means the kitchen table. I’m a fan of the kitchen table as it allows me to monitor the chatter that accompanies the schoolwork. It can be helpful to keep a box of school supplies on hand (erasers, pencils, a ruler, and a calculator) next to the homework space to minimize trips to and from their backpacks.

A tip that helps both you and your tween to be organized is to have them empty their book bag every night. That way, you get any school notices/permission slips sent home, and they don’t develop scoliosis by lugging everything for every subject on their back.

I’d love to hear your Back to School tips for tweens – send me a tweet at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt.


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School Year's Eve: Resolution #1

School Year’s Eve is almost bigger in our house that New Year’s Eve - with four kids, three of them tween girls, school rules the family calendar. In Washington, Fall weather is still a few weeks away, but September evokes all things new: new classes, new teachers, new friends, new uniforms, and new opportunities. While the adult work world doesn’t follow the school year cadence (I’m still yearning for summers off), the chance to start the season afresh has universal appeal. As a result, one of our family traditions is making Back to School Resolutions.

As culled from years of working with tweens and their parents, what follows is a Top Ten Back to School Resolutions list for both tweens and parents – one resolution a day for the next ten days. I’d love to hear your back to school resolution suggestions as well – please send me tweet at: www.twitter.com/MsTwixt or post a comment below.

Back to School Resolution #1: Don’t procrastinate.

This one tops the list by far for both students and adults. For tweens, many of whom are just entering middle school, managing their school work load independently is struggle. I most often hear variations on this resolution such as “Don’t wait until the night before to study for a test” or “Start projects early; don’t leave them for the last minute.” It’s a learning process to figure out how to organize their work and their time, and schools are just beginning to give them greater responsibility in doing so. Any adult knows that one of the keys to success in life is time management, so the sooner one masters this skill, the better. Talk with your tween about their long-term assignments and pose some thought-starter questions such as: When is it due? Will you have time in class to work on it? Is it a group project? (And if so, you can point out that scheduling meetings/work sessions will impact the project work schedule given kids’ after school activities.) Have you thought about how to break down this big assignment into smaller pieces of work? The tendency for many tweens is to become overwhelmed by a large project because it’s a change from the smaller, discrete assignments from elementary school. You can help by talking it through with them and coaching them on how to make it more manageable. Teachers are well aware of this challenge and many offer afterschool or before school “office hours” to help students learn to plan their work.

For the parents in our house, procrastination begins the minute those long lists of “Important School Dates” arrive in the mail. The task of copying down each date into our Blackberries or journal for each different school can take the better part of an afternoon. Inevitably there is a mad scramble the day of a forgotten event to find a sitter/buy the class snack/change our work schedule to attend an assembly. This year I’m trying something new: copying down one month at a time. It’s still four lists’ worth of dates, but at least I can get this done within an hour instead of an afternoon. If you are the type that likes online tools or to receive reminders via email, you may want to check out a free online service that recently launched called Cozi. It’s a website designed to help parents manage the family calendar and allows for email reminders, separate calendar views by kid, and even can send you text messages of your grocery list (no more forgetting to buy toothpaste – again).

Next post: Back to School Resolution #2 – Be organized.

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Tween Back to School Picks: First Things First - the Bag/Backpack

Ms Twixt has two recommendations for bags/backpacks for 2009 Back to School for your tween: an investment-in-her-posture backpack and an-inexpensive-but-oh-so-styling messenger bag. Deets below (remember, our reviews are 100% editorial - no pay to play here):
The Zuca
Our own dd's wheel around their classes with the posture-friendly Zuca rolling backpacks - technically, Zucas are not backpacks - they are lockers on wheels. Twixt has carried Zucas for a year now, and despite their steep price tag ($145 - but these will truly last you forever - they are made of the same alloy as airplanes), these sell out every year. Zucas were developed by a mom (who else?) whose daughter was diagnosed with scoliosis after lugging around a regular backpack. Have you weighed your kids' backpack lately?? Our children are carrying around WAY TOO MUCH stuff. Now, part of that is due to the tween pack-rat mentality, but part is truly due to the volume of books/binders/laptops/sports gear required. Our wake-up call was when yours truly had trouble hoisting the backpack from the car one day at drop-off - and we ordered our Zuca that evening. We found Zuca by researching backpacks and then expanding our search to sporting bags. Zucas are often used by ice skaters because their design allows for skates to be stored and transported easily. These "bags" are super lightweight, cannot be hoisted on the back (a plus in our book), have stair-climber wheels, can be used as a seat, and are roomy enough to fit a week's worth of school books, binders and sports gear. The frame has a lifetime warranty, and the bag can be swapped out as whims change (for the much more modest price of $45). Ms Twixt and clan are partial to the write-erase bag pictured here - it's like a walking yearbook for my daughters and their friends. The Zuca is perfect for all tweens and comes in a range of prints and colors. You can pre-order your Zuca at Twixt - orders placed by August 20th will arrive in time for the first day of class.

Tokidoki Messenger Bag from Target
We have been eagerly anticipating the release of Simone Legno's line for Target, and he did not disappoint. Mr. Legno is the cartoon/artist/wunderkid behind Tokidoki (who, incidently, is also doing a line with Hello Kitty in honor of her 35th birthday this year), one of our fave lines. Right now on Target's website you can pre-order this messenger bag. At only $19.99 (most other Tokidoki bags retail for $180-$250), this is a fun, recession-worthy purchase. Perfect for the hard-to-buy-for tween, Tokidoki's designs are modern, edgy and fresh. And you can also by paper goods/notebooks/pencils with Tokidoki motifs in Target stores (these are not available online).

Backpacks Are Killing Our Kids' Backs!

Last week we had a post about the ultimate school backpack for our girls to help prevent back injury (scroll below for info on the Zuca bag). Well, our fears are not unfounded - according to the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), studies show that:
- More than half of students ages 9 to 20 reported chronic back pain related to backpacks
- Backpacks are believed to play at least some part in the lower back pain reported by almost 60% of older teens
- Back pain leads to more than 19 million doctor visits per year, according to the U.S. Department of Human Health and Services. (Source: www.aota.org)

Our school nurse has sent home notices on preventing backpack-related injuries, and we just had to share. She recommends selecting a backpack based on the following criteria: lightweight materials, padded back and padded shoulder straps (at least 2 inches wide), waist belt/hip strap, individualized compartments, and wheels.
Her strategies for preventing back injury from backpacks include:
Loading the Backpack
• Keep the weight of the pack under 15% of your daughter’s bodyweight (e.g. if she weighs 100 pounds, the pack should weigh no more than 15 pounds) – multiply her weight x .15 to determine the maximum backpack weight.
• Pack heaviest items first, keeping them closest to her back.
• Use compartments to distribute weight evenly.
• Arrange items so they won’t move around inside the pack.
Monitoring the Weight of the Backpack
• Establish a routine to go through the backpack at least once per week to empty out unnecessary materials.
• Make sure your daughter is only transporting necessary materials to and from school. Are there books in the classroom that don’t need to be carried back and forth? Can homework be downloaded from a teacher web page instead?
• When possible, use spiral notebooks rather than binders..
• If your daughter must have binders, use 1-inch ring binders rather than 2-inch or 3-inch ring binders.
• Choose the smallest backpack that will meet her needs.
• When the backpack weighs more than 15% of your daughter’s bodyweight, have her carry a book in her hands to lighten the load on her back.
• If she is leaning forward when walking while wearing the backpack, it is too heavy.
• If possible, use a book bag with wheels.
Wearing a Backpack Correctly
• Have your daughter wear the backpack over both shoulders. Consistently carrying a backpack over one shoulder can strain back and neck muscles, cause muscle spasms and back pain, cause curving of the spine, and contribute to headaches and arm pain.
• Adjust the shoulder straps to fit the backpack snugly to your daughter’s body. She should NOT carry backpacks low near the buttocks or hanging loosely from her body, as this can pull her backwards and strain muscles.
• Use the chest strap to help keep shoulder straps in place.
• Wear the waist belt or hip strap to distribute the weight of the backpack more evenly (although this will be viewed by your daughter as “uncool”!)
(Sources: American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.
www.aota.org, and www.spine-health.com )

We hope you find these tips helpful - we did.