An Easter Egg Hunt Designed For Tweens

We're constantly looking for new ways to update holiday traditions with our tweens, and this Easter we're trying a new twist on the traditional egg hunt: a flashlight egg hunt. We're planning ours for the Friday night before Easter (so as not to conflict with the Passover Seder) and ending with a screening at home of the big Easter movie from last year, Hop (the DVD went on sale March 23.)


How does one do a flashlight egg hunt? With a bit of planning. Here's ours:
 
We round up all the flashlights in the house: one for each tween (if your neighborhood or church group were super organized, it looks like you can also get these personalized).

Then the Easter Bunny hides the eggs (during daylight). He choses glittered eggs that are easier to spot when a light shines on them and stuffs others with a glow-in-the-dark bracelet so that they glow. (These you'll have to hide strategically to make them harder a spot.)

Since the hunts on Sunday mornings are primarily for the younger set (and in our family, the tweens must help the littles, not hunt themselves), we're having fun stuffing these eggs especially for tweens with LipSmackers, sticker sheets, hair ties, Cadbury eggs, and Peeps. We're even making a few braces-themed eggs that contain cherry flavored braces wax, those mini Wisp toothbrushes, and mini M-and-;Ms (which melts and doesn't stick so is safe for those sporting orthodontia).

We will end the festivities with the Hop movie screening and serve (what else?) Peeps fondue. After the sugar rush, the girls will have fun giving each other colorful Easter egg manicures - perfect for sporting with her dress on Sunday.

Hoppy Easter!


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Infographic on Girl Scout Cookies

We came across this fantastic infographic on Girl Scout Cookies and just had to share:

From: Top-Business-Degrees.net

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Hunger Games Bling For Tweens

"The Hunger Games" movie coming out today isn't for every tween. (The rule in our house is that we have to read the book before seeing the movie. In this instance, our eldest tweens have read "The Hunger Games" trilogy, so they are being allowed to see the movie so long as they're accompanied by an adult. The youngest tween will need to wait a few more years before she can see the movie.)


That said, we are HUGE fans of Katniss Everdeen as a positive, strong heroine for tween girls. And while we enjoyed reading the "Twilight" series, Bella Swan's self-pity and helplessness made mom flinch - a lot. In honor of Katniss, we stumbled upon these fun talismans of a bow and arrow on Etsy. They remind us of her strength and talent - two qualities that we're looking forward to seeing portrayed and celebrated by a girl on the big screen.

$6.50 on Pier7Craft's Etsy shop.

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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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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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