Moving or Renovating? Here's a List of the Latest Housing Amenities Geared Toward Tweens

'Looks like the Big Apple is getting more hospitable for families with tweens. NYC never lacks for luxury nor trend, and the latest in Manhattan real estate is all about tweens. Luxe amenities in the newest condos in New York offer tweens spaces to socialize, exercise, game, and even create music. Standouts include:

• A sound-attenuating music practice room in the Brooklyn Trust Company Building (Brookly) where tweens can set up their drum kits and guitars and rock-out without disturbing the neighbors
• The indoor basketball court at 221 West 77 (UWS)
• The vintage gaming room at 111 Murray (TriBeCa) that features foosball, ping pong, and vintage arcade games (retro fun for the parents too)
• Robert Stern's townhouses at 20 East End also have a gaming room called a "Junior Lounge" for their residents ages 7-18 (UES)
• A first-of-its-kind building ringing the north edge of Central Park in Harlem/Morningside Heights will be Circa Central Park, and their plans include a video gaming room and free rentals of remote-control model sailboats, skateboards and bikes for taking advantage of the Park

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A New Film Asks: What Are the Consequences of a Childhood Removed From Nature?

In this hyper-media saturated digital-age that tweens come of age in, we are all plugged-in to an astonishing degree. Now more than ever, technology permeates childhood at earlier and earlier ages - and that's often a good thing. "Play Again" is a new independent documentary that explores the consequences of trading screen-time for scene-time (outdoors). The crew follows six teenagers who, like the “average American child,” spend five to fifteen hours a day behind screens. The filmmakers unplug these teens and take them on their first wilderness adventure – no electricity, no cell phone coverage, no virtual reality. We've not yet seen the film (we missed it when it came on DC for the Environmental Film Festival) - have you seen it? What did you think? Especially after "Race to Nowhere", we're excited to catch this screening the next time it's in DC.

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New Online Obsession for Tweens: Harry Potter, The Quest

In preparation for the final Harry Potter movie release this summer, Warner Brothers has launched a new interactive website called Harry Potter: The Quest. Fans of the series can play games, post questions and earn points that enable them to see clips from the movie before its release. This is sure to be the newest online obsession in our house (for both the tweens and their parents!).

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Latest Stats on Tweens and Social Networks

The latest study on tweens and how they use social networks (like Facebook and MySpace) came out today, and there are some surprising figures about how tweens spend their time online:

• 28% of tweens use Facebook (be sure to check out our tips on protecting them against unwanted photo tagging)
• On average, tweens spend 1.9 hours online a day
• More than half of tweens watch videos online (you have to screen YouTube as carefully as t.v. - check out our channel on YouTube for fun, age-appropriate videos)
• 78% of tweens play online games, and this ranks as their number one activity online

On cell phones:

• 34% of tweens have a mobile phone, and 18% of these own a smartphone (this is up from 26% three years ago)

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Happy Birthday to Pac-Man!

The little guy is 30th today, and in his honor, Google released its first "playable" Google Doodle - check it out for the next 48 hours only on Google.com

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Tween App for the iPhone: Littlest Pet Shop

How cute is this? Littlest Pet Shop, which SO many tweens have on their Nintendo DS, has just launched a mini version as an iPhone app. The price is right, just $2.99 from the iTunes store.

Another popular tween game, Cooking Mama, was also launched as an iPhone app a little while ago.

So cool to use with those fun candy-themed earphones she got during the holidays.

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