We’re still in vacationing at the lake house — ahhh. Today dh, dd, and I went out in kayaks for a paddle – a loon landed near us, we saw lilypads, fish jumping, it was great. Sunny, peaceful…I was so happy even the waterbugs seemed cute. And I’m no nature-queen, believe me. Thing 1 has been having a ball — miss formerly-petrified-at-swimming lessons is jumping off the end of the dock, going underwater, and coming up smiling. She swims until her lips turn blue and then turns her attention to other pressing matters like swinging on the hammock with me and catching unsuspecting dragonflies and caterpillars in her bug house. It’s really wonderful, not only because were all having such a great time, but because she’s at her boldest in the outdoors and it just makes me feel like a kung fu fighter to see her like this. Today as I was drifting away on my flotation device (with the baby, no less), she swam and towed us back and actually said, “Thing 1 to the rescue!” Glee. Not to mention that her naps have been 4+ hours long. Double glee. And I am not making it up. In her favorite words as of late, “I’m serious.”
I just checked my email (roughly a billion messages from work trying to coordinate search committee meetings and interview times), and saw a welcome one in the batch, the New Moon newsletter. If you have a daughter between the ages of 7 and 12, you may already know about New Moon Magazine - a magazine created by girls (the creators are between the ages of 8 and 14), for girls, about girls (and women). It’s really a breath of fresh air in terms of positive media (for girls, in case somehow you missed that part…). I get their email newsletter even though I don’t have a girl in the target age range (yet) primarily because it cheers me up — offering a moment of optimism to periodically disrupt my grumblings about sexism in media. At any rate, the most recent newsletter had an alert about their current campaign that I thought I would put on your radar, in case you aren’t already aware of it.
It’s a campaign to find the 25 Most Beautiful Girls and what I love about it is that the girls are required to self-nominate. In other words, if you encourage your daughter, niece, friend, granddaughter, neighbor, or student nominate themselves - they reap the self-esteem benefit whether or not they are selected. Genius! And, of course, it would feel awfully nice to win as well.
But, whether or not you have someone in mind who you would like to prod along - New Moon is a great pro-girl organization, well worth a look. Here are a few of my other faves:
Also, I am excited to see that this blog is finding some friends! I was beside myself the other night when I saw that I have had visitors from over 39 cities and 6 countries. My husband asked me what I was doing just now when he saw me getting out the laptop, and I said, “Well, now that I have an international readership…” I love to be fresh. Anyway, please keep visiting– and when you feel comfy - share your ideas. I love it. Thank you so much.
Academama
August 31, 2007 | 4:35 pm1
Thank you so much for the NM reference! I’m absolutely going to check it (and the others) out with H this weekend. She’s 8 going on 18, which means we’re in desperate need of something like this right now
C'tina
April 9, 2008 | 3:39 pm2
I need to send this to my brother, my niece is 7. Great resource!