Greyson Chance and Cody Simpson Coming to D.C.!

Rising tween music stars Greyson Chance and Cody Simpson are coming to Washington, DC for a joint concert on April 28th!

Tickets are only $25 and the show is at a convenient downtown location (the Synagogue at Sixth and I). It's a great chance to see these two before they are everywhere (well, everywhere beyond YouTube), and I guarantee you that your tween will go nuts for a chance to go.

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. You can also stay up-to-the-minute on updates on tween lifestyle by following us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

Fun Dresses For Tweens at Target Prices

We love a bargain as much as the next mom, but it can be really tough to find fun, age-appropriate dresses for tweens at affordable price points. So we were thrilled to learn that Target announced it was re-running some of the most popular items from its Go International Designer Collective collection (featuring Rodarte and Zac Posen to name a few). Dresses in this collection run fairly small, making it perfect for older tweens - and most run about $40!

Our picks include this sweet hot-pink dress with a bow in the back (try covering her shoulders with a fun sherbet-colored shawl and she's all set for Easter or Passover!) by Luella Bartley for $40:

This black dress from Erin Fetherston has fun layers and will look great on the dance floor ($45):

Or this funky green and navy tartan dress (with a cute shrug over the shoulders!) from Luella Bartley for $45 (we love the boots its pictured with, but this would also look great with Converse low-tops):

The fun rugby-stripe t-shirt dress from Libertine is only $25 and is perfect for casual days:

And this white cotton dress reminded us of Vanessa Hudgens in the last High School Musical movie (Tracy Feith, $40) (again, try pairing these with Converse low-tops).

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. You can also stay up-to-the-minute on updates on tween lifestyle by following us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

Happy Pi Day!

For all you math geeks out there, today is March 14th, or 3/14, also known as Pi Day. According to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, "Every year math enthusiasts everywhere celebrate pi, a celebrity among mathematical constants, on 3/14, also known as Pi Day. Extreme enthusiasts have a special celebration at 1:59 (aka, Pi Minute)."

Here is a link to the popular New York Times' article by science columnist John Tierney from 2008.

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. You can also stay up-to-the-minute on updates on tween lifestyle by following us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

What Parents and Schools Can Do About Bullying - Our Report from the White House Conference on Bullying

We were lucky enough to be invited to the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention yesterday and spent the entire day surrounded by brilliant minds addressing this issue. We'll break up our report on the day's events into a few posts as SO much material was covered.

A panel of experts participated in this session which was moderated by Senior White House Adviser Valerie Jarrett. The panelists were: Susan Swearer-Napalitano (from the University of Nebraska), Justin Patchin (from the University of Wisconsin), Catherine Bradshaw (from Johns Hopkins University), and George Sugai (from the University of Connecticut). They shared the following about what parents and schools can do about bullying:

• Although there is lots of press about the misuse of technologies such as texting and social networking, the good news is that the overwhelming majority of teens and tweens use technology in positive, healthy ways. So don't just focus on the negatives or "blame" technology.
• We need to change the overall climate in our schools to prevent bullying. This means we need to: 1) actively supervise our kids both in person and online; 2) vocally and publicly acknowledge those kids who work to prevent bullying; and 3) change the dialogue about bullying from "this what happens to occur at school" to "bullying has an enormous negative impact on learning." Professor Sugai quoted research that found that schools with strong anti-bullying climates also had stronger academic achievement.
• Professor Bradshaw urged that anti-bullying programs have two-tiers: one for the victims, and one for the bullies. Her work found that bullies have underlying causes for their negative behavior including violence at home, developmental delays, and others. 
• Valerie Jarrett asked the panel for ideas on how to make it safe to report bullying so that students wouldn't be so hesitant to report bullying (this was another theme from the conference; more on this later). Professor Patchin counseled that action upon such reports be swift; otherwise all parties are bogged down in an interminably long process and that dampens participation. (Perhaps schools should have an anonymous Bullying Tip line?) His research also found that only 15% of bullying cases are actually reported. Professor Sugai added that anti-bullying programs must be simple and safe in addition to swift - the reporting process should be straightforward and easy to understand and use. Finally, it is not enough to have a bullying reporting process - a bullying prevention program is essential to heading off problems before they escalate.
• Professor Patchin warned that a knee-jerk reaction to cyberbullying is to remove the technology - parents and schools respond by banning social networks and mobile phones. But doing so won't stop the bullying since his research found that cyberbullies and real-life bullies are the same people - so the bullying will continue. Rather, he pleaded for parents to learn the technologies their kids use and be able to help their kids navigate them safely. This means learning about privacy controls on Facebook (see our tips!), monitoring where kids are going online (lots of companies can help with this), etc.
• Anti-bullying programs need to extend beyond the classroom to the hallways, to the bus aisles, to the libraries, to cafeterias - every part of the school. The effort must be holistic in its application to include teachers, all school staff, coaches, etc.

More quotes and takeaways to come!

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. You can also stay up-to-the-minute on updates on tween lifestyle by following us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

White House to Hold Conference on Bullying Prevention

The White House announced details today for its Conference on Bullying Prevention. This event will be held tomorrow, on Thursday, March 10th beginning at 10:30am with remarks by President Obama and the First Lady.

The conference will "bring together communities from across the nation who have been affected by bullying as well as those who are taking action to address it. Participants will speak about the effects of bullying and the work of students, parents, and teachers nationwide."

The event will be streamed live at www.whitehouse.gov/live and on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/facebooklive/
Breakout sessions will be held with participants on topics including:

• In-school Policies
• In-school Programs
• Community-based Programs
• Cyberbullying
• Campus-based Programs

Panelists include:

• Facebook Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan
• Rosalind Wiseman
• Togetherville Founder Mandeep Dhillon
• MTV Vice President of Public Affairs Jason Rzepka

Some related links:

• Tips for keeping your tween safe online
• Our report from the FCC's Forum on Tweens and Texting
• Our interview with Rosalind Wiseman

Stay tuned for our report!

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. You can also stay up-to-the-minute on updates on tween lifestyle by following us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

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?

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. You can also stay up-to-the-minute on updates on tween lifestyle by following us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

Tween Addresses TED Conference; Earns Standing Ovation

I'm not sure how we missed this last February, but did you catch Adora Svitak's speech at the TED Conference? The video is below.

She is just 12 years old but more eloquent than most adults one meets. And she's addressing a crowd that numbers in the hundreds. Chutzpah.



If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. You can also stay up-to-the-minute on updates on tween lifestyle by following us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

Positive Tween Role Models in Celebration of International Women's Day

Today is the 100th International Women's Day, and in honor of it, here's our list of positive role models for tween girls - please add to it!

• First Lady Michelle Obama for fighting childhood obesity and role-modeling positive parenting
• Vicki Abeles for shining a light on the "Race to Nowhere"
• Rosalind Wiseman for teaching girls how to resolve conflicts with grace and power
• Rachel Simmons for a million reasons but especially her guidance on Formspring
• Sheryl Sandberg for speaking frankly and positively about work-life balance
• Taylor Audette for her Say It 2 My face movement to take a stand against cyberbullying
• Willow Smith for making her new single, "21st Century Girl" fun and empowering
• Geena Davis for her work in raising awareness of how girls are portrayed in the media
• Liz Funk for her work in exposing the overwhelming stress girls are under
• Amy Poehler and Tina Fey for making us all laugh out loud
• Lauren Bush for showing how we can raise awareness of and help to solve hunger in everyday choices
• Tavi Gevinson for making her own path and encouraging other tweens to do the same
  

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. You can also stay up-to-the-minute on updates on tween lifestyle by following us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

It's Fat Tuesday! How to Celebrate Mardi Gras With Tweens

Our tweens have discovered Mardi Gras and are excited to celebrate Fat Tuesday as a family. This year they've asked to have pancakes for dinner (I'm not entirely certain how traditional these are as a dinner option - let us know if this is legit).

We saw these Mardi Gras mask cookies by Sweetopia that use this amazing decorating ingredient called "disco dust" (which we'll need to try because of the name alone):

In past years we've made beignets for breakfast, but we haven't tried to bake a King Cake as yet.

We were looking for cool jazz tunes to introduce our tweens to and stumbled upon this great organization called Jazz House Kids. Their mission is to introduce young people to the joy of jazz and provide them "with a unique opportunity to explore the rich heritage of this great American art form firsthand". They are "dedicated to improving the quality of life for young people through the medium of jazz and provide young people with an innovative concept of understanding music." We love that they celebrate "multiple intelligences" by teaching of jazz.

We're looking for some jazz music to play with our tweens tonight - do you have any suggestions?

Some other fun ways to celebrate Mardi Gras with tweens:

• A library in New Jersey held a tween dance party that featured an air guitar competition
• We thought this craft to make unique Mardi Gras masks was really well thought-out.
  

How will you ring in Fat Tuesday with your tween?

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. You can also stay up-to-the-minute on updates on tween lifestyle by following us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt

Is Willow Smith the New Gamma Girl?

We've just seen Willow Smith's newest video, "21st Century Girl" and can't help but wonder if she's a new Gamma Girl role model. You can check out the video below and on YouTube.

The song is a sort of dance-y mantra for girls going their own way and living life on their own terms. Unlike a lot of music videos out there, "21st Century Girl" features totally positive images of girls doing everything from dancing to skateboarding to riding BMX bikes to just rocking out. It's just been released and reviews are still coming, but we think your tween will really flip for it.



Ms. Smith was just honored by the NAACP and is opening for Justin Bieber's European tour (they perform in Dublin tonight), so she's got a lot going on at the moment. We can't wait to hear what else she's got to say about girl power.

If you liked this post, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking here. You can also stay up-to-the-minute on updates on tween lifestyle by following us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MsTwixt and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MsTwixt