Beacon Street Girls

My eldest niece is 11 ... going on 15. During a recent trip to the bookstore, she immediately went to the teen section in search of a book she wanted. To my dismay, on the cover of the book was a picture of teenagers kissing, raising the concern that this book, and others like it, might be a bit mature for her.

I know, I'm trying to hold onto my nieces' youth and innocence as long as I can! But I figure it can't hurt to encourage her to read books that don't involve make-out scenes.

The Beacon Street Girls is a series of books for tween girls. The books relate to issues preteen girls can relate to without delving into more mature teen topics. Here's a note from the author, Annie Bryant:

"The Beacon Street Girls books are inspired by all the preteen girls I've ever known. I wanted to create a world where girls can go to have fun and learn about who they are, while modeling real-life experiences. The first book, Worst Enemies/Best Friends, explores creating and testing friendships, skewed first impressions, and being the new kid at school. In the end, true friendship conquers all. Welcome to the world of the BSG!"

The Beacon Street Girls also have a website tweens will enjoy. beaconstreetgirls.com  has games, a journal, and talk, based on the girls from the books. Regarding body image, the site stresses staying healthy, and playing sports. A parent's e-mail address is required for sign-up and parents can cancel at any time.

This is one I will share with my nieces to see if they will enjoy!

Body Image and Preteens

As an auntie to two young girls, I am aware of the body image issues they may deal with in the coming years. My eldest niece entered middle school this year and suddenly, fashion and appearance are more important to her than ever before.

I hope that my nieces remember who they are, and don't get caught up in worrying about what they look like, or what others think of them. Of course, I know, in today's world that's a big challenge.

I came across some great blogs that I think send the message I think all young girls need to hear:

Already Pretty - Where style meets Body Image - This blog talks about fashion as well as beauty and body image. Some will enjoy the daily outfit posts and fashion advice from Blogger, freelance journalist, communications professional, style and body-image writer, Sally McGraw. I particularly enjoy posts like this one on body image and this one on flaws. Another post that was a big hit with me is this one about being kind to yourself.

You'd Be So Pretty If... This blog is directed more toward moms (and aunties!) The way we view and talk about our own bodies impacts the way the young girls in our lives view their own bodies. The blog is based on the book You'd be So Pretty If...Teaching Our Daughters to Love Their Bodies -- Even When We Don't Love Our Own (Da Capo Lifelong Books, May 2009), former Shape magazine columnist Dara Chadwick's guide to breaking the mother-daughter cycle of bad body image.

Here are some additional resources related to tweens:
What Your Tween Sees in the Mirror - This article on Scholastic.com identifies the signs of body image issues in tweens and how you can help.
Tweens and Body Image: The Real Deal - This Huffington Post article is a brief survival guide for adults dealing with tweens and body image.
TweenParent.com -Your Parenting Source for the Preteen Years -  This website is a great source for all things related to preteens including helpful articles and even a dictionary to help you decipher tween lingo.


Confidence is a lifelong tool that is just as important in their youth as it will be in adulthood. I hope to help promote positive body image and instill the message in my nieces that they are beautiful, smart girls.

Keeping the Magic of Santa Alive

Do your nieces and nephews still believe in Santa Claus? Or are they getting to that age where they are beginning to question his existence?

At some point, children start hearing talk at school, on the bus, or on the playground, that Santa Claus isn't real. Often they will turn to their parents, or aunties, to find out the truth. Nowadays, kids can easily get online and start Googling for answers.

So what do you do if the little ones in your life come to you asking questions? There are a few ways to handle it.

One of the big questions kids may ask is how does Santa do it all by himself? With Santas at every mall posing for pictures and delivering gifts to children all over the world it couldn't be just one man going to all those places and making all those gifts! Of course Santa doesn't do it alone, he has LOTS of helpers! Those Santa look-a likes in the mall are helping Santa make his list and check it twice. He has Elves who help build the toys and watch over boys and girls to tell if they've been naughty or nice.

If you haven't heard of the Elf on the Shelf, the idea is that Santa sends the elf to watch the children to see whose being naughty or nice. Each night the elf reports back to Santa and reappears the next day in a different spot. I mentioned it in my blog of gift ideas here This is a great concept that gets kids excited about Christmas.

For another thing, how does Santa deliver packages to kids across the globe in a single night? Well, the answer is magic of course! Plus time zones help buy Santa a couple extra hours. On Christmas eve, follow Santa and his sleigh with the NORAD Santa tracker. You can see where in the world Santa and his reindeer are! Seeing his location may make it seem real for Santa skeptics.

For fun, visit NorthPole.com  to take a tour of Santa's village. This website is full of other fun and activities including recipes, games and coloring pages.

I personally like to believe that today's Santa Claus is our modern way of keeping the spirit of the real-life, historic Saint Nicholas alive. Perhaps a history lesson will help the skeptical children in your life understand where Santa came from and why gift giving is a part of our holiday season.


You can share with your nieces and nephews that its our belief in him that keeps him alive and delivering toys!

Last Minute Gift Ideas

I've always been a fan of children's gifts that are educational, or that encourage activity or creativity. In a time when most gifts for youngsters require batteries or monthly payment plans.... here are a few non-technological gifts your nieces and nephews can enjoy this holiday season.

  Journal - A simple and inexpensive gift, a journal makes a thoughtful gift particularly for tween and teens. As a long-distance auntie, I often struggle with feeling like I can't be there for my neices as they go through a transitional time in their lives - middle school, boys, cliques, school dances... a journal makes a nice outlet and a way to sort out feelings our nieces (or nephews) may not quite yet understand.

Scrapbook - What better way to capture memories than to create a scrapbook with your niece or nephew. Take photographs and mementos from a holiday or a special time you shared with your niece or nephew and create a scrapbook together! You can both look back on it and remember the occassion and the fun you had creating it!
American Girl Learn to Scrapbook Kit

Magnetic poetry - encourage creativity with magnetic poetry! These magnetic words let you piece words together to create poems or messages, yet another way our nieces/nephews can express themselves!

Kids' Magnetic Poetry

Elf on the Shelf - Another good one for youngsters that will help keep the magic of Santa alive! If you haven't heard of the Elf on the Shelf, the idea is that Santa sends the elf to watch the children to see whose being naughty or nice. Each night the elf reports back to Santa and reappears the next day in a different spot. The gift set includes the elf doll, hardbound children's book and keepsake box.

Elf on the Shelf

Easel - great for younger nieces and nephews to get creative! Kids can create art with paint, chalk, pens crayons and more. The two-sided easel allows two children to work at one time. Because it has a dowel to hold a butcher paper roll, just tear off once the child is done and pull the paper through to start on the next project! The downfall here is the paper and art supplies aren't included.

Melissa and Doug Deluxe Standing Easel

Turtle constellation night light - How cute is this? The Twilight Turtle nightlight lights up a nursery or child's room, creating a starry night sky. The nightlight displays eight major constellations (Big Dipper, Big Bear) and comes with an illustrated Star Guide and so has an eduational element as well. Also include a story about how the tutrtle, separated from his father, uses the constellations to find his way home. A soothing way to fall asleep and teach little ones about the sky above - love it!

Cloud b Twilight Constellation Night Light

Crayola Crayon maker - If I were a kid, I would want one of these! I love that crayola is continuously coming out with unique new toys to keep boys and girls creative. Kids can melt their favorite crayons and re-form them into their own one-of-a-kind crayons as they watch! They get to create their own creative color combinations and have crayons that are all their own! Best of all, this product is safe!

Crayola Crayon Maker

Rory's Story Cubes - I recently heard of this game, and I absolutely love the concept. Rory's Story Cubes is pocket-sized creative story generator. It comes with nine dice with different picture on each face. Roll the dice and use the images to create a story. The child can create a story on their own or play with multiple players so that each player adds to the story to collaborate on a story together! What I love about this game is that it promotes imagination and story-telling. Also seems like it would be a great confidence booster to help with literacy development. This game is great for all ages!
Rory's Story Cubes

War Horse - I love to give books as gifts and I've heard nothing but rave reviews for War Horse. I've heard its a great read for all ages and perfect for animal lovers.and it's unique because it's narrated by the horse. This book is on my wish list.  Would make a great companion gift with some movie passes to see the movie version with your niece or nephew!

War Horse






Happy shopping!!

Tis the Season...

The holidays are a hard time to be a long-distance auntie. It's difficult to spend the holidays apart from our nieces and nephews. Fortunately, this year I will be traveling to spend Christmas with my family.

But if you aren't able to be with your nieces and nephews this Holiday season you can still find ways to feel close to them. Consider sending tree ornaments as Christmas gifts. You can personalize them to reflect each child's personality or highlight something memorable that happened this year. Or get a photo frame ornament and fill it with a photo of you and your niece or nephew together.

This could become a yearly tradition and the ornaments can become part of their own collection that they will cherish!

Magazine Subscriptions

With Christmas around the corner, I've been trying to find a magazine that might be appropriate for both my nieces. While they're very close in age, they're two very different girls and different phases of their lives. At 9, Bailey is still into Barbies, and toys. At 11, Hannah is a tween and wants to do more grown-up things.

As I began searching for age-appropriate magazines, I found that while a 'tween' magazine seemed too mature for Bailey, other mags seemed like they'd be too young for Hannah. I started to realize that one magazine might not be appropriate for both of them.

Here's what I found in my research:

American Girl: Yes they still have American Girl Magazine! And it's just as you remember it from back in the day. I picked up a copy of the December 2011 issue and it's full of recipes, crafts and activities that I think are perfect for Bailey's creative side. I love that they featured art submitted by readers. A great feature in this issue is: "My Life on the Road," written by a 13 year-old girl who spent a year traveling Europe in an R.V. with her parents. The story of her family's adventures was complete with a map showing their route and the countries they visited.
I think this magazine is perfect for girls in the 7-12 range, though tween girls may find it "babyish."

Discovery Girls: I had heard of Discovery Girls but wanted to check it out for myself. I love that it features Real girls - there are no models - all over the mag including their: "Meet the Discovery Girls" section and "I'm in DG!" Readers will see girls, just like them, featured in Discovery Girls. The mag has an advice column, embarrassing moments, and fun quizzes just like teen magazines that might be appealing to girls, but that are more age-appropriate for tweens. This particular issue (October/November 2011) featured a lot about friendship, something that's very important to tween girls. I loved the "Be your Own Best Friend" article that advises girls on ways to stop putting themselves down.
Discovery Girls says for ages 8 and up, I think it will appeal most to tween girls.

Girls Life: The suggested age for Girls Life is 10-15. It has a similar look to teen magazines with fashion and beauty, and talk about guys. This magazine seems to have a more celebrity and appearance based focus, and seems more fitting for tweens and teens. Because of this I focused my attention on mags geared toward a slightly younger audience.








My first impression was that American Girl and Discover Girls were a bit thin, but for a good reason: NO advertisements! I like that both American Girl and Discovery Girls feature REAL girls and have a more down-to-earth feel. I think these are two magazines that my nieces will enjoy. I think there will be an overlap in appeal to both magazines, so that Hannah might appreciate American Girl and Bailey might find things she enjoys in Discovery Girls so that perhaps the girls will share with one another.

A magazine subscription is great gift that your nieces or nephews can enjoy all year 'round!

Three Women Win Nobel Peace Prize

Congratulations to all three women who won the Nobel Peace Prize. I wanted to share this story as it has only appeared briefly on the news and I love to share good news.

This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to three women - Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen. They were recognized for their "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".

"We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women achieve the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society," said Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland in Oslo.

The Committee said it hoped the three-way award "will help to bring an end to the suppression of women that still occurs in many countries, and to realize the great potential for democracy and peace that women can represent."

Only a dozen other women have received the Nobel Peace Prize among 85 men, as well as a number of organizations, who have won the prize over its 110-year history.

This is a victory for women's rights all over the world. Let's applaud these women for their achievements!