February Fun

We started off the month with separate sessions on emotions and a look into the mirror. Our mirrors allowed us to look at our natural beauty.

Just this week we enjoyed a beautiful evening of skating at the McKellar Park rink. We played tag and follow the leader and enjoyed a night together on the ice.

Jen Charbonneau Joins us Jan 25th

We will have a guest speaker, Jen Charbonneau at the end of the month. Jen joined us a few years ago and we thought it was time to have her back for an encore. Jen will lead a session that will focus on the tough emotion of stress. At our first session the girls talked about the stress of school, dealing with yelling parents, getting out the door in the morning, and other day to day stresses they have experienced.

Jen will help them identify the emotion of stress, provide some words to better communicate it, look at coping mechanisms and more. She will do a craft with the girls, a relaxation visualization (she will have CD's to purchase if your girls are interested) and she even has a small gift for them.

Looking forward to the session at the end of January.

Happy, Confused, Excited and Sad

These are just a few of the emotions we felt during our individual sessions this month. The younger girls looked at different emotions and described when they felt them, how their bodies reacted during these emotions and who they confide in to deal with emotions. We played games, drew strength from each other and our individualism and the rocks that Anne gave us will help remind us of the strength we draw from both.

The older girls put their emotions into motion by putting together artistic representations of their emotions. One group used a musical approach to tell the story of feeling an array of emotions, another put on a play with a narrator and background sounds and the last wrote a song and included guitar playing from one of the girls. At the end of the session, the girls shared their emotions. Most were happy and content and a few were excited and tired.

We are but a spectrum of emotions. We are emotional beings after all.

Tween's Are Back at McKellar Park

Our first meeting was held in the McKellar Park Field House tonight. The youngers arrived looking eager but slightly apprehensive. Anne Walzak and myself lead the group tonight because we are having a bit of a problem finding a new instructor. We should have the problem resolved by the end of the month.

We played name games, picked figurines to play in the sand with and designed poster that were all about us. We then proudly put them up in the new field house and claimed our territory as the Tween Club.

On October 26th the youngers will join the olders to meet and greet, mix and mingle. It was a great start to this year. The girls asked us to add some music and singing to the plans for this year. I can see some karaoke in our future.

A New Year For Tween Club

Ladies of All Ages!

We're getting ready to start Tween Club next month. We hear from our partners at Dovercourt that our younger group is full at 12 girls and the older group has a space or two left. So, we have a gang, now it's time for us to get the ball rolling. Our tentative schedule is posted and will be reviewed by us this week.

We will be confirming locations (we're planning on the field house at McKellar Park) and the instructor (looks like we will be introducing a new instructor to the gang) and I have a new partner in programming. Lots of change this year!

Updates will be coming next week.

You paddle like a girl. Good for you!

Here in Ottawa we are blessed with a downtown whitewater course and many natural rivers close-by that are great for whitewater paddling.

We are also lucky enough to have a summer camp so that urban kids can learn how to kayak in the city.

Leanne (pictured above) is one of our Tween Club members, who has attended the Ottawa River Runners Summer Camp.

According to her dad Roger: "The children develop technique, fitness, confidence, and self-discipline and have fun too! Of course this is true for many sports but I think there is a special element of confidence-building as children conquer their initial fears of going in rapids. The specific competitive sport that our club is involved in is called "Whitewater Slalom Canoeing and Kayaking" and it is an Olympic sport."

Sounds awesome.

Spoke By Spoke

Dominique Laroque is offering a new biking program called Spoke to Spoke at Creative Wheel Centre in Vals-des-mont. Dom joined us this year for a bike orientation and lesson this year and hosted a Bike Rodeo a few years ago.

We love what Dom and Creative Wheel stand for..."The Creative Wheel Centre is founded on the belief that connecting with nature through physical, contemplative and artistic pursuits is the most potent medicine available to us all." As you can tell, her centre is about a lot more than just biking.

This year Dom is launching Spoke by Spoke. Please forward this info to girls that might be interested.

Bizarre Bazaar raise $430 for Project Tembo

The 4th annual Bizarre Bazaar: What an incredible success!

Tween Club raised $330 through a variety of activities including: a fantastic bake sale, garage sale, bouncy castle, apple bobbing, bean toss and a how-many-jelly-beans-in-the-jar guessing contest!

One of our Tween Clubbers won jelly-bean guessing contest. Sadie guessed 783 and there were 782 beans in the jar. Enjoy those jelly beans, Sadie!

We also received a generous donation of $100 from one of our Tween Club parents, Bev Cleary, which pushed our total raised to $430.

Thanks to everyone for all their hard work on Saturday!

Bizarre Bazaar - May 29th

Our Annual Bizarre Bazaar is schedule for this coming Saturday from 9-12PM at Dovercourt. The girls will be hosting a garage sale, bake sale and games for the kids. All proceeds for the event will be going to a charity of the girls choice.

An Evening With Dominique

Come and join Dominique Larocque, founding director of Creative Wheel and LaRoccaXC Mountain Bike School for an educative evening about the health benefits of cycling. Dominique will tailor a program for participants and will cover the ABC to guarantee a fun and safe season on our bikes. Dominique will incorporate inspiration, art and some physical challenges into her session. We will not be leaving the property on our bikes and bikes can be shared in pairs.

To know more about Dominique, visit her vision at www.creativewheel.ca.

Dominique joined us two years ago for a Bike Rodeo. This session will not be as physical for the girls. We are limited by the park. I'm thrilled to have Dom back to spend time with the girls. She's an amazing influence for girls of all ages.

Meet Brittney - our new leader!

Tween Club welcomes Brittney Black as our new leader!

Brittney loves working with children and youth, singing along to Carrie Underwood and the colour pink!

We're thrilled to have such an enthusiastic and energetic leader for our girls.

Brittney is anxiously waiting for the arrival of a new niece or nephew, so she may or may not be at our annual fundraiser, the Bizarre Bazaar on Saturday, May 29th (rain date: Sunday, May 30th).

Welcome Brittney!

Bollywood Dancig

Erica McCulloch joined us to help with a Bollywood dancing lesson. She started by giving us some of the background of Bollywood then she let the girls try on saris and scarves which the girls loved.

We learned a variety of movements with our hands including lotus and deer. We then learned a few moves and finally Erica challenged us to put together our own routines. Then it was showtime.

All About Bullying

Shauna joined us earlier this month to say hello to the girls and also to cover the topic of bullying for us. She did an amazing job. Shauna has a magical way with the girls and many of past members of Tween club were thrilled to see her.

The activity focused on a paper cut out girl. In each session, she was named and put up on the wall. Before we knew it, Shauna was targetting our cut out friend. She was leading the girls into a circle of bullying behaviour before they even realized it. The girls even physically lashed out at the cut out and in some cases projected bullying that had happened to them or they had seen in the past.

Shauna then turn the tables and showed the girls how easy it was to follow along. Join the gang and ignite bullying behaviour. Although it was good for the girls to get some of the angst out, they also realized how quickly a group can take on the wrong personality.

When the girls realized what had happened the discussions began. How do we stop and stand up for other? How do you diffuse a bully? How does it feel to do the right thing? They then as a group repaired the cut out. At one point, I even saw one of the younger girls holding the cut out 'Allison's' hand.

Cool News: Leading Women, Building Community award for Patti and Janis

We invite all of our Tween Clubbers, past and present, to join us at an event hosted by our local MPP Yasir Naqvi.

Patti and I are honoured to receive a Leading Women, Building Communities Award, presented by Yasir Naqvi, on April 10th.

All Tween Clubbers your family are welcome to attend. Here are the details:

When: April 10, 2010

Where: Carleton Heights Community Centre, 1665 Apeldoorn Avenue

Time: 2 pm to 4 pm

We'd love to see you there!

Real girl power: Saluting Canada's Olympic and ParaOlympic athletes!

>Congratulations to the Canadian women on both the Olympic and Paralympic teams for their outstanding performances!

From hockey, curling, speed-skating, bobsleigh and snowboarding, to name just a few, you wowed us all.

You inspired us, delighted us and entertained us. We couldn't ask for better role models.

Thanks for making us proud.

Girl Power Movie Night -- Kick Like a Girl

One of our most popular activities is Movie Night for the girls. We always on the lookout for great films about great girls. This year we found a gem of a short documentary; it's called "Kick Like a Girl" and it had our Tween Clubbers cheering, laughing and wanting more.

"Kick Like a Girl" is the real-life story of the Cheetahs, a girls' soccer team who are undefeated in their division. After two seasons of winning every game, their coach decided to enter them in a boys' division so they could test their mettle.

The DVD blurb sums it up perfectly: With humor and honesty this documentary reveals the reality of the boy-girl issues and what "Kick Like A Girl" really means on and off the playing field.

The film is narrated by 8 year old Lizzie, a self described soccer girl, who doesn't let juvenile diabetes, elbow blocks or grass stains interfere with her desire to compete.

In just 23 minutes, this film gets you thinking about fair play, good sportsmanship, and why sports are important for raising self-esteem of both boys and girls.

What keeps this film light and charming are the candid comments from the girls who play on the Cheetahs and the boys they play against. One of the film's best line comes from a boy: "If someone told me that I kick like a girl, I'd say 'thank you.' "

Now that's progress. Check out the trailer. Enjoy!

Healthy Skin with Magdalena

Eat well, sleep well, wash your face daily and make funny faces!

That's the secret to healthy, natural skin, according to holistic skin care specialist Magdalena Tomczak.

Magdalena encouraged the girls to eat well. That means lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish (for their Omega 3 oils, which are great for your skin and hair).

She also recommended getting a good night's sleep. Skin needs to regenerate (rebuild itself) overnight, so getting enough sleep is key to having healthy skin.

Magdalena stressed that most young girls do not need to use special skin care products. However, it is important to wash your face in the evening before going to bed and in the morning when you wake up.

So why is making funny faces important? Well, first of all, it's fun. Second of all, it helps get blood flowing to your face and releases tension. But save your funny faces for a home activity. Teachers may frown on classroom practice!!

For more information on Magdalena, visit her website at: www.womandivine.ca

For information on what's in personal care products, visit: www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php

Healthy Skin Naturally

In the workshop this week, Magdalena from Woman Divine will cover the following:

-the skin and why it is important to take care of it

-what to do if your skin breaks out

-skin care products and advertising - what to watch out for

-how to care for the skin in simple ways and how to choose a healthy product when necessary.

The girls will be offered the chance to experience mini organic facials as she talks. Magdalena's goal is to support the girls by providing information about healthy ways to care for oneself and introducing them to organic aspect of skin care. Her hope is that it will make their future choices a little bit more informed and easier.

Finding beauty in imperfection

The needles were flying in our last Tween Club meeting of 2009!

The girls were hard at work creating their own tiny "ugly" dolls. Okay, they weren't truly ugly, they were fantastic fleecy beasts that were made out of fabric, buttons and lots of imagination.

The goal of the workshop was for the girls to create something using their own hands. Something that they would find beautiful, despite the creatures' imperfections.

The "ugly" doll project borrows from the Japanese concept of wabi sabi -- finding beauty of things imperfect, modest and humble and unconventional.

Although most of the girls didn't finish their dolls by the end of the workshop, we packed them up with materials to finish them off at home. We hope to see their completed creatures at our first meetings in 2010.

Happy holidays to our Tween Club friends. See you in 2010!

The Art of Joy

November is always our art project month. This year we are focusing on decorating different objects (boxes, frames, and mirrors) with images, textures and words that bring the girls joy. The younger girls brought along plenty of decorating materials that displayed hobbies, interests, and words and pictures that bring them joy. By the end of the night, there were many dazzling picture frames, boxes, and mirrors, all plastered in bits and pieces of the girls personalities! A reminder to the older girls, be sure to bring an avalanche of pictures, words, memoirs, funky papers, maybe even fabric, to personalize your own art project!

Our Joy Workshop

This was our agenda for the evening. The girls talked about their essence, what brings them joy, the role of their bodies when they are joyful. They had a good time and Debra was so positive and a great influence on the girls.

Joy Workshop with Debra Isabel Huron - Oct 27th

Joy in your heart, joy every day

How often do you ask yourself: What’s my level of joy today?

When is the last time you spent an hour wondering how you could feel more joy, spread more joy, enjoy more joy? What makes you feel joyful, deep down in your soul?

Our first guest speaker for the fall session is Debra Huron. She is a JOY workshop leader and certified costume therapy fairy.

She has told us that the workshop goals and agenda will only be revealed to those who attend. She has promised to deliver two guarantees, but she won’t say what they are. She has promised to show up. And she has told us we should be grateful she is giving us something new and interesting to do on Tuesday, October 27 from 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

We All Know Each Other Now!

Our first two meetings are under our belts and the girls are already starting to feel like part of group. The first meeting was all about introducing Valerie, the idea of Tween Club and the girls to each other and us.

Our younger group is about 10 girls and our older is 6. We're definitely a smaller group this year but everyone seems to feel good about the small size for different reasons (new leader, new location, new girls, more time to talk, etc.).

On to the group meeting....

LOCATION CHANGE - Again

Looks like Dovercourt has had some problems securing a location at the Churchill Seniors Centre for us. We will be meeting in the Boardroom at Dovercourt on the upper level for the time being.

Sorry for the confusion!

Introducing our New Leader - Valerie Trenholm

I am extremely excited to be a part of Tween Club this year. I feel it is important for tweens to have a safe, non-judgemental space in which they can feel comfortable expressing themselves. I hope I can encourage positive self-talk, positive self-esteem and create opportunities for the girls to empower themselves.

A little about me:

~ my family and friends mean the world to me

~ I love the outdoors, animals, music, dancing and bowling

~ my greatest achievement was graduating college

~ my goal professionally is to work in a hospital

~ I am still scared of the dark and snakes

I strongly believe that everyone has a purpose and that everyone you meet will teach you something. That includes children and youth. I know that children and youth are our future but they should also be our present. They can be major contributors to our community if we give them the opportunity.

- Valerie Trenholm

Valerie graduated from the child and youth worker program at Algonquin in May 2007. She has also worked in community health organizations, facilitated after school programs for youth, drop in programs, homework clubs and taught babysitting courses.

Janis and I are looking forward to working with Valerie and Dovercourt Recreation Centre on this year's Tween Club.

NOTE:

The McKellar field house is being replaced over the next year. Our new home for the 2009-2010 year is the Churchill Senior Centre, 345 Richmond Road, parking is available just off of Churchill Ave, north of Richmond Road.