Testing Week at School

Where I teach in Texas, we are at the end of a grading period which means nine weeks' tests were this week. My twins (7th grade) also had a field trip - yes, a field trip during testing week (whose bright idea was that?), which caused some of their tests to be post-poned.

So, as it turns out, my daughter has to take 5 - five - FIVE! - tests in one day - tomorrow! Her language arts teacher, on a whim, decided to post-pone her test. They're designated a certain day to give tests by subject. She can't just change the test day. But she did. And she missed the science test Thursday due to the science field trip today, so she will have to take that on Friday. And her PE teacher is giving them a test on their tennis unit and health issues. Last, social studies is giving her TWO tests, a nine weeks' test and a chapter test, on the last day of the grading period. It boggles my mind!

It's almost midnight, and my twins finally went to bed. We were slowed down after school by the torrential rain, had errands to run, piano lessons, and dinner - then it was on to crazy-busy review sheets and studying. If they're asleep soon, maybe they'll get 7 hours. It's not enough, in my opinion. Me? I don't know when I will wind down enough to sleep. Could be 30 minutes, could be two hours. I never know. Needless to say, I will be tired tomorrow, but thankful that testing week is over for nine weeks.

Journal Buddies

Recently I received an autographed copy of Journal Buddies: A Girl's Journal for Sharing and Celebrating Magnificence. As a mother of tweens and teens and a teacher of this age group for 20 years, I realize how big an issue self-image can be. This Journal Buddy book is a unique and entertaining way to help develop a positive self-image. I am glad that I have this book to share with my 12 year old daughter.

Journal Buddies takes the diary concept and makes it interactive. The journal starts with an introduction to the concept of journaling as well as examples, ideas, and reasons why people journal. Each journaling section has a place where a buddy can record qualities she admires in the writer, and a place for the writer to do the same. Each journaling entry has a prompt such as "beauty" or "confident," or "amazing." The author concludes with a section for reflection of the journal entries. The process of completing the journal is an adventure! It a great confidence-booster and a place to examine a girl's own thoughts and beliefs. I even got some great ideas to use in my classroom with girls and boys.

The Dove Foundation's review of Journal Buddies states that it is "a very creative way to help encourage self esteem in young girls. It is so important in this day and age tohelp children with their self-image. This delightful ingenious journal will show them a way to capture their imagination, ideas and thoughts and share them withothers. Giving the diary concept a different look. This is a perfect gift for young girls." Journal Buddies interactive journaling systems are winners of the 2008 Mom's Choice Awards.

Journal Buddies: A Girl's Journal for Sharing and Celebrating Magnificence can be purchased from Amazon.com for 16.95. And, they have one for boys, too, called Journal Buddies: A Boy's Journal for Discovering and Sharing Excellence. Amazon also has the "look inside" feature enabled on these two books so you can take a look before you purchase them.

This post was written on behalf of Family Review Network and Journal Buddies.

Related Posts:

Real Girls, Real Pressure

Tweens' Back-to-School Concerns

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Dove Self Esteem Fund - Real Girls, Real Pressure

If you have a daughter age 10 or higher, I hope you'll take the time to read this post.

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty was developed after the brand commissioned a global study that found only two percent of women around the world describe themselves as beautiful. A program was developed to challenge beauty stereotypes and invite women worldwide to join in a discussion about beauty.

Real Girls, Real Pressure: A National Report on the State of Self-Esteem was conducted nationally online among 1,029 girls 8 – 17, and is representative of the U.S. based on census indicators (region, ethnicity and parental education.) An additional 3,344 girls 8 – 17 were surveyed in a targeted study that was conducted in 20 major U.S. cities representative of each DMA based on ethnicity and parental education. As a result of this report, the Dove Self Esteem Fund was founded.

Key findings:

Seven in ten girls believe they are not good enough or do not measure up in some way, including
their looks, performance in school and relationships with friends and family members.

A girl’s self-esteem is more strongly related to how she views her own body shape and body
weight, than how much she actually weighs.

The self-esteem tipping point happens when the transition to teenage years results in loss of trust and communication with adults.

Parents’ words and actions play a pivotal role fostering positive self-esteem in girls.

Read the full, detailed report here.

Also, you can point your girls to this website (part of the campaign) that is targeted especially for them.

Low self-esteem among young ladies has reached crisis proportions and can have critical consequences. We need to do our part to make sure our girls grow up with a healthy self-esteem and healthy, realistic expectations for themselves. Here's a start: A tee-shirt Dove sent me for my 12 year old says it all:

Please pass this post on to someone you know with an adolescent girl in the family. Thank you.

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Thursday Thirteen #38

Thur-"TWEEN" Back-to-School Concerns

It's that time of year already! I went back to work Monday, and my children start the 25th, college student, 10th grader, and 2 seventh graders.

This will be my 21st year of teaching the middle school age group. My twins will be in seventh grade this year. So, I am all too familiar with tween's back to school concerns.

1. First and foremost - clothes! Gotta be fashionable without being too preppy or too goth. A lot of acceptance in middle school rides on clothes.

2. Hairstyle - straight, curly, gel, ponytail, clips... Second only to clothes.

3. Shoes - related to clothes and hair. Gotta have the perfect shoes.

4. Lunch - The most important part of the day! Where will I sit? Will my friends have the same lunch? Will I have enough time to eat?

5. Bullies - In the back of their mind is the worry about bullies and getting picked on.

6. Lockers - Remembering the combination is a high priority. What will I do if I forget it?

7. Schedule and Books - When can I pick up my schedule (and textbooks) so I can see what period I have each class?

8. Classes - They worry about being able to find their classes and get to each class on time. They worry that their friends won't be in their classes.

9. Teachers - Who are they, what do we know about them, and will they be mean or nice?

10. Gym Clothes - Oh! Those are awful!

11. Supplies - What do I really need to bring on the first day? What else will be on the supply lists for the remainder of the year?

12. Homework - They worry about having too much, particularly on the first day of school.

13. Tardies and Detention - What happens if I'm tardy? What is detention like, and how can I avoid it?

I remember worrying about all this and more! My top 13 concerns from the perspective of a teacher would look quite different!

Join us at Thursday Thirteen here!

Another Party

My Daughter's Twelfth Birthday Party.

I continue to experience the many joys of having twins - another birthday party within the same week! If you didn't see the pix I posted of my son's baseball-themed party, click HERE to go to that post.

My daughter had her party Saturday night, complete with games, giggles, gifts, and great fun! She wanted a sleepover party, so I had to come up with lots of activities to keep them busy in order to avoid the almost-inevitable hurt feelings/tears/drama of 12 year olds. I'm happy to say it worked, and we had an awesome time! I don't think anyone felt left out at any time, and the only tears were those of my daughter when she thought her friend lost her shoe... I'm not going to go into any particulars about this part, but let's just say I'm glad we didn't get caught!

We did have a run-in with the police. We were playing truth-or-dare (more about that in a minute), and one of the girls had to shout, "I'm a nerd" at three passing cars. Wouldn't you know it? The third car that just happened to be going by was a police car. The girls ran back to the house, and I sheepishly explained what we were doing and assured him all was well. He was actually very nice about it.

Just a tip if you ever have a party where the kids will be doing games in teams... Change the teams every time you change the game and make them draw numbers for teams. This was a lifesaver. The girls didn't fall into cliques or gossip about each other or make anyone feel left out.

Here's what we did:

The girls signed a poster for my daughter as they arrived.

Two Truths and a Lie - We did this while we ate pizza.

A scavenger hunt in teams while it was still daylight.

The candy name game - they thought this was hard! We played a scaled down version of the one in the link.

The toothpick game - they were quiet for almost three minutes!

Song Charades - I had "regular" songs and baby songs to choose from. Team game.

Of course, we ate cake and ice cream! This is one of the cakes - the one we DIDN'T eat because they thought it was too cute, and NO, I didn't make this myself!

Pass the Gift game.

Foot Writing Game.

Drama in a bag (just for fun) in teams. They like to write skits. The bag had props they had to use in their performance.

Truth or Dare with pre-selected questions and activities.

Pajama Contest.



And they also made bath salts and cute flip-flops (see them in the picture above?) and talked and sang and laughed.

Throughout the night they could earn "money" which they spent at an "auction" for inexpensive prizes like candy, gum, nail polish, journals, and so on.

We ended with a movie, and they fell asleep.

I need to recuperate now! I'm getting too old for this!

(I got lots of ideas at the links above and at Birthday Party Ideas 4 Kids.)

Thursday Thirteen #27

13 Fun-Filled Birthday Party Ideas for Tweens

My twins will be twelve in a few weeks, and we have run through every birthday party idea for tweens that we can think of. Here are 13 of them.

1. Skating Rink Party. Most of them will reserve tables and time for opening presents and eating cake. The one near us also gives all the guests pizza, a drink, and a coupon for free skate time. The birthday boy or girl gets to choose a favorite song and gets extra treats.

2. An Event Complex such as Main Event. They have bowling, glow golf, laser tag, ride machines, and games galore. There is a party room that can be reserved, or you can just wing it. I think this is what my son is going to do this year.

3. Putt-Putt Fun House. This place has miniature golf, laser tag, games, and bumper boats. Very similar but not as “cool” as Main Event.

4. Hawaiian Luau Party. All you need is a swimming pool (in your back yard or in your neighborhood), some Hawaiian music, a limbo stick, a piñata, and some fun prizes. We did this last year, and the kids loved it.

5. 50’s Party – Have a sock hop. You can do a bubble-gum blowing contest, hula hoop contest, and a twist contest. You can also have an ice cream sundae making contest and “cool” prizes for the contest winners.

6. Shop Till You Drop Party – Especially for girls. A trip to the mall with a set amount of money to spend. Lunch at the food court.

7. Putting on the Glitz – Especially for girls. Girls can make jewelry, eat snacks, have cake and ice cream, and make more jewelry. You can buy a variety of jewelry-making kits at Michaels or Hobby Lobby.

8. Lights, Camera, Action – Guests can write scripts and film movies to watch and share with their families. You could even vote on the best one and give it the Academy Award for home film-making.

9. Someone’s in the Kitchen – Especially for girls. Guests spend most of their time in the kitchen making and eating fun recipes such as personal size pizzas, cookies, smoothies, and so on. There are lots of kid-friendly recipes here.

10. Movie Party – Take the guests to see a new movie, then go back home for pizza, cake, and ice cream.

11. Beach Party – If you’re near the coast, have your guests hop in the car for a trip to the beach. Sunning, swimming, giggling about boys or girls, Frisbee, volleyball, or whatever you are up for.

12. Paintball Party – Especially for boys. Pile the boys in the car and take them out for some sweaty fun at the paintball park. Then, treat them to CiCi’s pizza or a food court meal and birthday cake.

13. Girlie-Girl Sleepover – Yes, this one’s especially for girls. The guests come over for pizza and cake, presents and goodie bags, and while they’re there, they do “girlie-girl” stuff like painting fingernails, fixing each other’s hair, gossiping about boys, watch a DVD, make ice cream sundaes, color fuzzy posters, and made beaded bracelets. All of these could be contests in which they win play money and get to go “shopping” for their prizes. You get to set up the “store” and decide what to put in it and the prices. And, of course, this is a sleepover/slumber party. I think this is what my daughter is going to do this year.

You can get fantastic ideas at this web site!

You can visit other Thursday Thirteeners at The Home of Thursday Thirteen.