Organizing Tweens in 2012

We like to think of the entire month of January as resolution month - it take the pressure off of having to document all of our resolutions on New Year's Day. As we put our list for 2012 together, we're reminded of our list from 2011. So far, so good.

For us, starting the new year means starting with a new calendar. We use the big desk-blotter size ones and tape the current month to the fridge. The tweens love, love, love the Hello Kitty calendar stickers for marking big dates (birthdays, field trips, concerts, etc.), but alas those are no more. 

Typically we just use whatever calendar is at the office supply store (read, "BORing, Mom), so this year we resolved to look around to find a more colorful one.  Below are our faves:

Designer Erin Condren is GIFTED with color. She makes a personalized family calendar. $30 at ErinCondren.com

Dylan's Candy Bar has a fun wall calendar - it's half off for $7.47 on her website

Hello Kitty calendars no longer come with stickers, but SeeJaneWork has these calendar stickers that look hip (price unknown; they're on back order).

Kate Spade has a great idea for the little things - this wall calendar is full of fun photographic details. $20 with free shipping from KateSpade.com

Another very, very colorful calendar from Lilly Pulitzer - $24.50 online

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A Lesson For Tweens: Umm, No - I'm Pretty Sure It's Fotoshop

January is for resolutions, and for many this includes renewed efforts to work out, look good, etc. This video comes at an opportune time as our tweens (and everyone else) see the magazine covers everywhere this month. As the video's creator says, "This commercial isn't real,  neither are society's standards of beauty." Our YouTube-obsessed tweens gave it their stamp of cool.


 


Fotoshop by Adobé from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

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New Year's Eve and Tweens

We love, love, love celebrating New Year's Eve and planning a party with our tweens is half of the fun. Here's a link to an earlier post with some party planning ideas including decorations, food, and drink suggestions.

This year we're adding surprise balls to the mix - check out this video from Kate Spade New York showing how fun these are:


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It's March: Where Are Your New Year's Resolutions?

We know that our own new year's resolutions could use a good kick-in-the-seat about now, so we're re-posting our list of resolutions below. How are yours coming along?

Tween New Year's Resolutions

• Role-Model Healthy Living
• Cook as a Family
• "Unplug" More - Use Facebook and Text in Moderation
• Make Family Dinners Fun
• Get Up For School on Time
• Write Thank You Notes
• Pack the Right Gear
• Connect With Mom - Try a Mother-Daughter Journal

What others would you add to this list?

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A Candy Diary!

If you and your tween had started a journal this year (or were considering it), this fun diary is just the thing to jump-start your efforts. Dylan's Candy Bar has partnered with craft kit company Alex Toys on a line of candy-inspired projects. This sweet diary craft caught our eye, and at $14, it would also make a terrific birthday gift for a tween.

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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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MsTwixt's List of 2011 Tween's New Year's Resolutions

Here's the complete list from our series of New Year's Resolutions for Tweens in 2011. Did you try any of these? Please add your suggestions and comments below.

• Get up for school on time
• Write thank you notes
• Pack the right gear
• Connect with mom - try a Mother-Daughter journal
• Make family dinners fun
• Unplug more - use Facebook and text in moderation
• Cook as a family
• Role model healthy living for our daughters

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Tween's New Year Resolution: To Model Health and Happiness For Tweens

Here's one last resolution for consideration in 2011: role modeling health and happiness for our tween daughters. Like a few of our other resolutions, this one is for both tweens and their parents. We wrote about this topic earlier when First Lady Michelle Obama explained in an interview that "Throughout my life, I've learned to make choices that make me happy and make sense for me. Even my husband is happier when I'm happy. So I have freed myself to put me on the priority list and say, yes, I can make choices that make me happy, and it will ripple and benefit my kids, my husband and my physical health."

Making time for ourselves as moms is especially challenging given the demands of work, parenting, marriage - you name it. Personally, I can use all the positive reinforcement I can get, so I'm going to borrow the First Lady's motivation for sticking to a regular workout schedule and use Mrs. Obama's counsel "to put me on the priority list."

This will be easier said than done as self-sacrifice has become the m.o. in our parenting career. But after this month of sharing our resolutions and all of the great comments from readers, it became clear that the choices we make (especially publicly stated ones, like resolutions) and the deliberate actions we take have a visible impact on our tween daughters. If we want them to grow into women with a healthy, positive body image, we've got to start with walking the walk. So, 2011, here we go.

Check out our full list of 2011 Tween's New Year Resolutions (see the upper right corner of the blog), and tell us what you thought about this series.

Photo credit: O Magazine

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Tween's New Year Resolution: Cook As a Family

Truthfully, this resolution is more for me, the mom, than the tweens. They would all gladly cook more. It's me, the control-freak, who has a fit every time the milk spills, flour gets on the floor, eggshell bits fall in the bowl, etc.

Well, I need to get over myself, so this year I resolve to ease up on the tweens in the kitchen and let them help cook. There are articles galore about the link between cooking and making better food choices, so there's incentive enough.

Our list of fave blogs to help us get dinner on the table:

• The Family Dinner - you may remember their Treasure Bowl idea we blogged about earlier
• Dash and Bella - an irreverent blog about the trials and tribulations of raising young foodies
• Dinner A Love Story - AMAZING blog from a real working mom and how she gets dinner on the table every night
• No Take Out- a dinner recipe emailed to you every morning with directions and a shopping list to feed a family in 30 minutes - genius!

Does cooking with tweens make you want to pull your hair out? Or are you more Zen than me? Please share your tips!

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Tween New Year's Resolution: Unplug

Facebook and texting are now part of life for most tweens - whether or not they have a Facebook profile or a mobile phone, these technologies play a growing role in the social culture of tweens throughout the U.S. We're always vigilant about how much and when our tweens use technology, but in general, we all could "unplug" a bit more. This year, we've made that resolution as entire family.

An article in the New York Times last fall titled "Growing Up Digital: Wired for Distraction" provided some context for our resolution - it tells a cautionary tale of tweens and digital overload:

• On YouTube: “You can get a whole story in six minutes,” explains a high school junior. “A book takes so long. I prefer the immediate gratification.” 
• "The technology has created on campuses a new set of social types — not the thespian and the jock but the texter and gamer, Facebook addict and YouTube potato."
• “If someone tells you about a drama going on with someone,” 14-year old Allison says. “I can text one person while talking on the phone to someone else.” 
• “I’ll be reading a book for homework, and I’ll get a text message and pause my reading and put down the book, pick up the phone to reply to the text message, and then 20 minutes later realize, ‘Oh, I forgot to do my homework.’ ” 

We thought the article was a useful reminder of the academic dangers of being too plugged in - let us know what you think.

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Tween New Year's Resolution: Make Family Dinners Fun

We try to eat dinner as a family most nights, but we admit that with the tweens' activity schedules, this gets tougher to do every year. As a family, we need to work hard at maintaining the family dinner ritual, so this year, we're going to make the Bowl of Treasures, a regular thing.

You may remember this idea from this blog last year - it's from Laurie David's book, "The Family Dinner". The idea is set out a large bowl at the beginning of the week and let your kids fill it up with tiny treasures they find. At the end of the week, you set the bowl in the center of the dinner table and take turns hearing about each treasure. For reticent tweens and teens whose daily response to "How was your day?" is "Fine", this tactic worked like a charm.

One of my favorite parts of this new ritual is sharing it when our family dinner table is wider than usual - when friends, neighbors, and guests visit. Everyone has gotten a kick out of it. What tips have helped you keep family dinners on track?

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Tween New Year's Resolutions: A Mother-Daughter Journal

We are firm believers in the notion that it is never too late to make a change, and we think that this is true also for New Year's Resolutions. In fact, we view the entire month of January as a time for making resolutions, and we find that this gives us time to reflect on the changes we'd like to make, to celebrate small victories, and to borrow great ideas from others.

One great idea to borrow is "journaling".  Journaling is simply the act of keeping a journal, and lots of tweens keep journals as diaries, song books, etc. This year we're going to borrow an idea from Meredith and Sophie Jacobs and keep a mother-daughter journal. It works like this: take a blank book and one person writes a short entry - then trade, and the other person writes an entry commenting on the prior.

We spoke with Meredith at a local book event, and she and her tween have been journaling like this for five years. She says that it's added a new dimension to their relationship and made discussing challenging topics (like puberty) easier.

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Tween New Year's Resolution: Pack the Right Gear

Tweens are notorious for running out the door half-packed. I cannot count the number of panicked calls we've received due to forgotten ballet shoes/soccer cleats/swimsuits/you-name-it. To be more prepared is one of our tweens' New Year's Resolutions, so to help them pack what they need in the rainy winter weather, we found these fantastic boots that are so fun, they wouldn't leave home without them. They're by fave tween brand Little Miss Matched. Like their signature socks, these rainboots are designed to go together but have slightly mismatched patterns. And at $20, a lost pair won't mean the end of the world.

Cool rainboots by Little Miss Matched $20

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Tween New Year's Resolutions: Writing Thank You Notes

Well, this is more of a whole-family resolution, but taking the time to say "Thank you" for gifts and thoughtful gestures is an important habit to learn. Tweens are old enough to take responsibility for these manners on their own, and ours are pretty good about the annual birthday gift thank you notes.

Make it easy for her to write thank you notes throughout the year with fun, personalized notecards. We LOVE the ones by Design-Her Gals - tweens can customize a printed avatar complete with wardrobe and accessories (even an iPod!) that will be printed on her own stationery. Our friends at Design-Her Gals are currently running a HUGE discount: 40% off! To get this discount, use the code: OOC40 at checkout. You can also feel great about this purchase knowing that a percentage of every sale is donated to the Gal 2 Gal Foundation, an amazing organization that helps women with Stage 4 breast cancer.

A set of 25 custom, flat note cards after the discount is $27.

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What's Cool for Tweens in January: MsTwixt's Calendar

Ms Twixt's Calendar

• Jan 1 Happy New Year!
• Jan 3 National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day
• Jan 7 "Country Strong" movie opens (featuring Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester)
• Jan 8 Elvis' birthday!
• Jan 8 National English Toffee Day
• Jan 8 Noah Cyrus' 11th birthday!
• Jan 9 Last day for the ICE exhibit at the National Gaylord Hotel
• Jan 10 Tintin comics first published (back in 1929!)
• Jan 10 Sarah McLachlan at DAR Constitution Hall
• Jan 13 Emily Grace Reaves' 12th birthday!
• Jan 14 "The Green Hornet" 3-D movie opens
• Jan 21 Ming Lee Simmons' 11th birthday!
• Jan 25-29 No Name Calling Week
• Jan 26 National Peanut Brittle Day

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Tween New Year's Resolutions: Getting Up For School on Time

Every year in our house, we all resolve to get up early for school and work. Our eldest tween has discovered an alarm clock to help her keep this New Year's resolution, and we think she may be on to something. The alarm clock is part of a bedside table lamp that mimics the sun's rays as it rises. The idea is that the alarm clock uses light therapy to help one to wake on time. The Rise and Shine Lamp by Verilux and at $149 is pretty pricey (so we're looking for one on eBay).

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Tween New Year's Eve Countdown: PEEPS Fest!!

OMG! The 2nd Annual PEEPS Fest is happening on New Year's Eve in Bethlehem, PA! (Makes sense, given that the company that makes PEEPS is headquartered there.) We may need to make a New Year's Eve roadtrip with the tweens.

PEEPS Fest begins December 29, goes through New Year's Eve, and culminates in a PEEPS Chick Drop at midnight. The 3-day extravaganza includes a Peeps diorama contest, Peeps crafts, Peeps s'mores making, a local dessert contest, and a 5-K run (to burn off all that sugar!). Sounds like heaven for us marshmallow fans!

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Tween New Year's Eve Countdown: Making Fuzzy Flower Rings

As our tweens plan their New Year's Eve sleepover party, we are stocking up on crafts for the girls to do while waiting for midnight. Crafting fuzzy flower rings out of pipe cleaners fits the bill perfectly: these are inexpensive, independent, and fun!

'Turns out there's a Pipe Cleaner Lady who was on the Martha Stewart show showing folks how to make them. We put a copy of her how-to video on our YouTube channel - click here to see it.

Our tweens are heading to the craft store to pick out all manner of sparkly pipe cleaners for this project. Let us know if you try it and send us photos - we'll post them (removing, of course, all tweens' personally identifiable information)!

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Tween New Year's Eve Countdown: Holiday and New Year's Eve Pillowcases

Our tweens started a new holiday tradition this year: making custom pillowcases.
We bought plain white pillowcases from Target and fabric paint from the craft store, and the girls painted holiday themes onto them. They had a great time working on this project, and it was a nice alternative after opening presents and in between all the eating.

Even our eldest tween thought this was a cool project, and all the girls have asked to do this for New Year's Eve too. Let us know if you try it.

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A Twist on Candy Rings - Perfect Stocking Stuffer for Tweens

From one of our favorite confectioners, PapaBubble in NYC, gorgeous candy rings for her stocking.

Too late for Christmas? Our tweens will be sporting theirs on New Years' Eve.

$20/each from PapaBubble

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