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.

Getting Ready for October 2009

We are finishing up the schedule, looking for a new instructor and waiting to see where we will be meeting this year. Our old stompin grounds, the McKellar Park Field House, is being taken down and rebuilt over the fall and into the spring so we will have a new home this year.

A few things are up in the air but rest assured that Tween Club will be pulled together with a new leader, a new location, and a new schedule of activities starting in October.

Janis and I would like to thank Shauna Pollock for being our Tween Club leader for the past 3 years. Shauna has been an incredible roll model for the girls. She has inspired them with her strength of character and confidence and has been a wonderful friend and mentor to the girls. Although she will not be our regular leader this year, we are planning on having Shauna in as a guest speaker.

More soon, Patti

Another Fabulous Bizarre Bazaar!

The girls did a wonderful job! They took control of setting up, pricing and selling all our marvelous things. The bake table was filled with cookies and treats and everyone walked away with incredible deals.

In the end, the girls raised $500 for Help Lesotho!!!!! We're very proud of their efforts and had a great time with them this year.

Pictures will be posted shortly and a schedule for next year will be posted by July 15th.

Enjoy the summer!!

It's That Time Again!

Parenting Seminar

We have often talked about setting up some parenting sessions for the parents of our Tween girls but we just haven't gotten around to it, yet.

Someone in the neighborhood forwarded this on to me and I wanted to share it with you all.  I can't make it but I wish I could.

Patti

The Kitchissippi Times

The picture on the right will be the photo used in our upcoming Kitchissippi Times article. Lisa Wallace from the Times has been chasing Janis, Shauna, me, and a few of the girls for a few weeks now. It looks like Lisa has all the information she was looking for and we will be in print this week.

Aren't they beautiful!!

Asking Questions and Filling Buckets

The focus of April's meetings was all about questions, goals and doing your part to make others feel good. Shauna posed several questions to the girls and just let them run with things. In the younger meeting, the girls were in prime form to chat.

I want to be ________ because _______.

For the purposes of this blog I will just outline some of the things they want to be without the because;
an olympic diver, equestrian rider, World Wildlife Federation worker, help animas. professional soccer trainer, a teacher, marine specialist, published writer, a TV host, a dance teacher, a pinao player, a synchro teacher, to make a move, etc.

As we discussed our upcoming event, the Bizarre Bazaar, the girls talked about the charities they were interested in supporting. The ranged from water issues, animals, disease and finally girls in third world cultures. The last was the topic of most interest to our girls. They are hoping to sponsor a young girls education. We are presently doing some research to find the right charity.

Shauna also read the girls a pictures book called, "Have you filled Your Bucket Today?" It was a simple but wonderful story about how everyone has an invisible bucket filled with good feels and how important it is to fill others buckets. By doing so, we will out own. I have used the analogy at last 6 times with Erin since our meeting. I would recommend it even if you think they are too young for pictures books.

Patti

April Showers Brings Back Tween Club

We missed you all during March but we're ready to get back into the Tween Swing of things.  

Our youngers will be meeting Tuesday, April 7th and the olders will be together on the 14th.  The group meeting this month is on April 28th and will include a Tye Die Workshop.  More news on that shortly.

PJ Party and Movie Night - This Tuesday, Feb 24th

The movie has not been decided yet.  Remind your girls to come in their jammies, bring stuffies if they want and we will provide snacks, entertainment and girl bounding opportunities.

Patti

Drama Workshop With Paula from the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama

Change of Plans for January 27th

Instead of a PJ party we will be having our Skating night on January 27th.  Please make sure your girls are dressed warmly and bring their skates along.  

Let's hope the weather changes in the next two weeks.

Patti

Happy Holidays to All!

We will start back with Tween Club on Tuesday, January 6th for the younger girls. The older girls will follow on January 13th. The topic is media awareness. It's time to help educate the girls on the messages that are coming at them at lightening speed. With information comes power and Tween Club is all about empowerment.

At the end of the January (the 27th) we will be having a PJ movie night.

Hope you all enjoyed the holidays!!

Patti

Words of Wisdom from Our Mandalas

- My mandala for me represents the mother of all things -

- "For someone who is no longer with us - I wish you were here -

- Peace in the world! -

- My Mandala is a bright, colourful, unique painting.  It represents ME! -

- Shows peace, love and creativity. Just believe and inner peace will come -

- My mandala reminders me of Christmas ornament and it makes me happy because I like Christmas.  It gives me a warm nice feeling -

- Shine bright among the others -

- We Remember -

- Shows silence, comfort and love.  Trust yourself -

- The magical flower -

- Look over the hill and see the lights -

- The Kaleidascope of dreams - Follow Your Dreams -

- I find I'm able to let out my feelings, letting me fianlly live, letting me shout, letting me yell, letting me cry, letting me laugh -

- Happiness has many colours - Be Your Favorite - 

- My mandala painting reminds me of the land becuase ther's blue for ocean and green for land -

From the older girls, November 11th, 2008

The Art of Mandalas

Barbara Brown joined us this week to help the girls create mandalas. Mandalas come from ancient Tibetan and Indian cultures.  These beautiful pieces of artwork focus on the circles. Circles being a shape that is represented in life and many forms. Mandalas are also considered a form of meditation.  Barbara explain the beauty of circles throughout our everyday lives.  The girls expressed their favorite circles in their lives and we talked about the art and form of a circle.  Using compasses and water colours the girls created circular works of art that reflect their interests and lives.  Barbara will be laminating the mandalas and which will include a affirmation the girls wrote that was relected in their artwork.

Boy these girls love to chat and share what's going on in their minds and lives.  At two different times we took time during the session to be silent and focus on the process of creating the art in front of them.  Afterwards they reflected on this quiet time and what came to light during this time.

As always the girls wanted to play at the end of the session.  I'm anxious to see their final creations at the end of the month and the girls will be happy to have Shauna back.  Jenna and Shauna are in Florida visiting family this week.

A special thanks to Barbara Brown for sharing her time and talents with her.  Barbara was also kind enough to bring her daughter Willow, a Tween Club graduate, along to assist with the project.  Thanks ladies!

The Gang is All Here!

This week was our first meeting together, younger and older girls. We are 30 in total with Shauna, Jenna, Janis and myself.  Our young leaders spent a large chunk of the time mixing the girls up so we could all get to know each other better.  The theme of the evening was getting to know each other but we also spent considerable time talking about rumours and how they get started plus how they make people feel.  Later on, we broke into small groups and discussed the girls mentors in life.  Everyone had a chance to explain who their mentor was and what quality in that person they admired the most.  In my group, friends, mothers and grandmothers were mentioned.  Redeeming qualities included kindness, thoughtfulness, and having the confidence to be true to themselves.  They also really wanted to talk about boys and the rumours that fly around school.  These girls really enjoy having the time to talk about 'their' issues.  

Next week month (which is next week for the youngers), Barbara Brown will be coming in to help the girls design and produce mandalas.  

Patti

New Teen Program Starts

When your girls are ready to graduate from Tween Club, they now have another alternative. Together with Dovercourt, I am starting 4 new month long programs that cover the areas of dance, drama, cooking and self-defence. We're starting with dance - Girls Gotta Dance (for 12-14yr olds). The progam starts this Saturday. Click the link to see the details.

Patti

Younger Girls: Welcome to a new year of Tween Club!

The Younger girls group had a wonderful meeting this evening.  It was great to get to know our new Tweens.  It was especially exciting to see new members who have been watching their older sisters take part in past years and are now Tweens themselves.

Welcome to all our new Tween families, we are so happy that you are joining us in our third year of operations!  We look forward to an exciting year.

The Younger girls met with Patti and I and a lovely alumnus, Kayla, this evening.  We started off with some quick get to know you activities and then quickly turned our attention to more serious matters.  We read a kids' book.  We enjoyed seeing what aspects of our personalities we share with Ian Falconer's Olivia.  She's not afraid to be herself and dream big.  Neither are we.

Journals were distributed and we discussed the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How of journalling and self-reflecting.

We talked about goals and each started making three for this year's club.  I shared some of mine with the girls:  I want to learn and use each of their names every single meeting; I aim to use the blog more often as a communication tool with them and their families; and I want to use our journals more regularly this year, both in and out of our meetings.  The Tweens who did not finish their goals are encouraged to do so at home.

Tigger from Winnie the Pooh was our example of someone with a good self-image.  Sara sang his song for us:

"The wonderful thing about Tiggers,

Is Tiggers are wonderful things!

Their tops are made out of rubber,

Their bottoms are made out of springs,

They're bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy,

Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!

But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is...

I'm....

The only one!"

We charted out some wonderful things about ourselves.  These were placed in the front of our journals so we can remember these things every time we open them up.  Each girl was encouraged to start with at least four items, and is strongly urged to add to this as she wishes.

As some work at home (not homework) before the next time we meet (Tuesday, October 28th 6:30-8 p.m.), Tweens have been asked to answer the big questions about a role model.  They must choose someone who is a human and a female, someone who they look up to, a personal hero.  They can do some research and reflection to answer Who, What, Where, When, Why and How about their role models.  We will discuss role models more next time we meet.

The girls gave some amazing flying, slipping and leaping high fives before they headed home.

It was a great start to what I'm certain will be an outstanding year.

Youngers, we'll see you on the 28th of October for an activity where we'll gather with the Older Tweens as well.

Older Tweens, see you next week (the 14th of October at 6:30-8 p.m.)

Shauna

The Labyrith Set UP

Thanks to the girls for coming out to help and to their parents for loaning them to us.  Together we filled 1000 bags of sand and placed them in the Labyrinth.  Many hands make light work!  

Labyrth Assistance - Sat. September 27th

We'd like to extend an invitation to all former, present and prospective Tween Club members to get together to help create a very special neighbourhood event. 

For the past three years, Barbara Brown, a local artist and former Tween Club parent, creates a beautiful candlelight labyrinth in the park. 

Barbara needs help Saturday afternoon setting up the labyrinth. This entails filling paper bags with sand, adding a tealight and setting them in the pattern that Barbara has laid out on the baseball diamond.

We thought it would be great if we could get all the Tween Club girls together to help out Barbara. It's a great way to meet new girls, rekindle old friendships and help create a beautiful piece of art together.

If your daughter is interested in helping out, please meet us at the baseball diamond at McKellar Park on Saturday, Sept. 27th at 1:45 p.m.

You are also invited to join us later that day for the lighting of the candles. That will start at 7:00 p.m.  The Labyrinth will be opened by the children of Dragonfly Dance Alternative, who will lead us into the labyrinth.

Looking forward to seeing you at the park!

Janis, Patti, Shauna and Jenna

Tween Club 

Registration Time

Just a reminder that registration for Tween Club starts August 12th through the Dovercourt Recreation Centre in Westboro.  On the 12th, you can register on-line or in person.  Telephone registration starts on the 13th.  Space is limited to 12 girls per age group (9/10 yrs and 11/12 yrs). Look forward to seeing all the girls in October.  See calendars for all the details.

Tween Camp at Dovercourt

Tween Camp was held last week at Dovercourt. Fifteen girls joined our summer leader, Katie Laird a full-time staff member at Dovercourt, for a variety of activities and fun. Katie first focused on the importance of friendship and connecting the girls together as a group. They started journalling, making friendship bracelets and played games together. Other activitites throughout the week included group yoga, swimming in the quarry in Gatineau, shopping and making a nutritious lunch, and holding the Tween Canteen at the wading pool on the Friday.

A special thanks to Katie for coming in to help and to the parents for giving her the opportunity to spend time with your girls.

Bizarre Bazaar -- A Bonanza!

Our final event was an incredibly successful fundraiser for Roger's House, a pediatric hospice in Ottawa. The girls raised $525! Congratulations!

Many thanks to everyone who baked goodies and contributed items to our garage sales. You set the bar very high for next year!

To the girls who are "graduating" from Tween Club, we hope you'll have great success in your teen adventures. To the girls who are returning in the fall, we've got some great activities planned and we're looking forward to seeing you soon.

BTW, Shauna Pollock will be getting married this July. But don't fear, she will be returning to Tween Club for the next session.

Best of luck to our other fearless leader Jenna, who is expecting her first baby this summer!

Have a great summer everyone! 

Bizarre Bazaar - JUNE 1st

We are using our rain date because of all the rain this weekend. Join us at McKellar Park on Sunday for the Bizarre Bazaar. If it's raining a little we will set most things up in the field house and under a few tents outside.

Patti

The Bike Rodeo was great!

Dominique Larocque of LaRocca XC Biking School took our Tween girls for a great ride. Danielle Cardinal of fitfleet fitness and our unicycler Eric came along with Dom to help get the girls going. Our 22 bikers were given a little orientation to their bikes, some safety tips, and taught some mountain biking skills. We also played some games and were inspired by Dominique's love of the outdoors, leadership and zest for biking. I especially enjoyed how she spoke of enjoying the outdoors and taking safe risks on our bikes. Risk taking isn't something we often inspire in our children especial when it comes to the outdoors and our girls.

Dominque offers a variety of mountain biking classes through LaRocca (www.mountainbikingschool.ca). We are hoping to arrange a 1/2day on her land in Vals-des-mont in the fall. This would be a mother and daughter event outside of the Tween Club regular schedule. More on that later in the summer.

Tween Club's Bizarre Bazaar - May 31st

The big day is fast approaching. Join the Tween Club at McKellar Park on Saturday May 31st from 9:30 to 12:00 for the BIZARRE BAZAAR. The girls will be hosting a garage sale, bake sale, and mini carnival for younger kids. All proceeds will be be donated to Roger's House in Anna MacDonald's name.

The girls are responsible for bringing in 12-20 items for the sale, baked goods package in $.50 sizes and they will all be given carnival duties. They must also wear a costume or purple to indicate they are working the event.

Please tell all your friends and neighbors about the Tween Club Bizarre Bazaar.