New Moons and Frog Guts
This is a magazine you need to know about if your life includes an 8-to14-year-old girl, whether she's your daughter, granddaughter, niece or young friend. New Moon is an advertising-free magazine that is also a six time winner of the Parents' Choice Gold Award for Best Children's Magazine. Quite the recommendation on its own, but if you need a little more, read on.
Jennifer Jones, a researcher in the department of psychiatry at the University Health Network in Toronto, has completed a study that shows more than one in four teenaged girls in Canada are exhibiting signs of eating disorders. Symptoms begin to show themselves in girls as young as 12, says Jones, adding "there is no doubt that constant bombardment with media images of stick-thin models places temendous pressure on girls and is creating unrealistic expectations." Since we share basically the same life-style, stats in Canada and the U.S. are usually similar. An alarming stat, indeed.
"The situations a girl faces everyday can leave her feeling confused, insecure and alone. Remember what it was like for you at that age? There is even more pressure on today's girls. And all those ad-soaked magazines filled with super-thin celebrities don't help." That statement from the editors of the magazine, echoing Jennifer Jones as it does, would seem to suggest that these people do indeed know how to put together a magazine with a young girl's best interests in mind.
It takes just $34.95 to put a girl's name on the subscribers' list, a price tag lower than the one attached to many "hot label" clothing items, and one likely to give her much, much more in return. If you're not completely satisfied with the magazine, you can cancel at any time and get a FULL refund. How many fashion mags make that offer?
This magazine is "written for girls and by girls" and encourages all kinds of reader input, in written form and in art work. Regular features in every issue include "Herstory", "Global Village" and "Science Side Effects" as well as the fun challenge "Find the 10 Luna Tics". When my daughters were that age, there was always an issue of New Moon topping the coffee table.
Following the link above will allow you to add your name to those who receive the e-newsletter, bringing you "news & info for adults who care about girls". There's a daughters' newsletter too and a pen-pal club already boasting more than 40,000 members age 7 to 17 from all over the world. The system is self-contained with filters and parental controls, set up to allay all fears about privacy and safety.
Phone 1-800-381-4743 or follow the link included here. If this magazine helped to boost the self-esteem of the girl in your life, what better gift could you give her?
If you've got $75. to spare and progeny of either gender in the grade 9 to 12 age range who are interested in biology, this is a site you want to know about. Froguts is the six-year-old pet project of Rick Hill, a teacher/software developer and David Hughes, infrastructure and software architect for the University of Wahinsgton School of Nursing. Their mission is to provide schools with a virtual "way out of dissection" while still allowing their students to learn nearly everything they would by dissecting a real frog, squid, starfish, cow eye, owl pellet and fetal pig. "Point-and-click versions of scalpels, scissors and even saws allow students to find, remove and examine organs without ever smelling formaldehyde."
Since many schools are located in districts with laws requiring such an alternative, they avail themselves of a $300./year license to use Froguts' software. Of course, there are other companies offering the same type of products, like Digital Frog and DryLab, but with a marvellous moniker like Froguts,I'm betting a lot of people go to them first. The Ontario Ministry of Education has secured a province-wide license for Froguts, the 2005 winner of the Technology & Learning Magazine Award of Excellence. The NASA Learning Technologies Advanced Technology Applications for Education Benchmark Study gives Froguts the nod as a "notable company with respect to innovation".
With credentials like that, AND that name, Froguts definitely seems to be on the cutting edge of virtual dissection.
Jennifer Jones, a researcher in the department of psychiatry at the University Health Network in Toronto, has completed a study that shows more than one in four teenaged girls in Canada are exhibiting signs of eating disorders. Symptoms begin to show themselves in girls as young as 12, says Jones, adding "there is no doubt that constant bombardment with media images of stick-thin models places temendous pressure on girls and is creating unrealistic expectations." Since we share basically the same life-style, stats in Canada and the U.S. are usually similar. An alarming stat, indeed.
"The situations a girl faces everyday can leave her feeling confused, insecure and alone. Remember what it was like for you at that age? There is even more pressure on today's girls. And all those ad-soaked magazines filled with super-thin celebrities don't help." That statement from the editors of the magazine, echoing Jennifer Jones as it does, would seem to suggest that these people do indeed know how to put together a magazine with a young girl's best interests in mind.
It takes just $34.95 to put a girl's name on the subscribers' list, a price tag lower than the one attached to many "hot label" clothing items, and one likely to give her much, much more in return. If you're not completely satisfied with the magazine, you can cancel at any time and get a FULL refund. How many fashion mags make that offer?
This magazine is "written for girls and by girls" and encourages all kinds of reader input, in written form and in art work. Regular features in every issue include "Herstory", "Global Village" and "Science Side Effects" as well as the fun challenge "Find the 10 Luna Tics". When my daughters were that age, there was always an issue of New Moon topping the coffee table.
Following the link above will allow you to add your name to those who receive the e-newsletter, bringing you "news & info for adults who care about girls". There's a daughters' newsletter too and a pen-pal club already boasting more than 40,000 members age 7 to 17 from all over the world. The system is self-contained with filters and parental controls, set up to allay all fears about privacy and safety.
Phone 1-800-381-4743 or follow the link included here. If this magazine helped to boost the self-esteem of the girl in your life, what better gift could you give her?
If you've got $75. to spare and progeny of either gender in the grade 9 to 12 age range who are interested in biology, this is a site you want to know about. Froguts is the six-year-old pet project of Rick Hill, a teacher/software developer and David Hughes, infrastructure and software architect for the University of Wahinsgton School of Nursing. Their mission is to provide schools with a virtual "way out of dissection" while still allowing their students to learn nearly everything they would by dissecting a real frog, squid, starfish, cow eye, owl pellet and fetal pig. "Point-and-click versions of scalpels, scissors and even saws allow students to find, remove and examine organs without ever smelling formaldehyde."
Since many schools are located in districts with laws requiring such an alternative, they avail themselves of a $300./year license to use Froguts' software. Of course, there are other companies offering the same type of products, like Digital Frog and DryLab, but with a marvellous moniker like Froguts,I'm betting a lot of people go to them first. The Ontario Ministry of Education has secured a province-wide license for Froguts, the 2005 winner of the Technology & Learning Magazine Award of Excellence. The NASA Learning Technologies Advanced Technology Applications for Education Benchmark Study gives Froguts the nod as a "notable company with respect to innovation".
With credentials like that, AND that name, Froguts definitely seems to be on the cutting edge of virtual dissection.
1 Comments:
New Moon is certainly money well spent -- and since it's coming up to Christmas time, I think it would make a great Christmas present. Of course, it would be good to start as young as possible ... I'm afraid that by age 14, girls would find New Moon way too uncool to spend their time on.
Froguts -- now that's cool! Coupled with some time out in nature, studying icky stuff, but also learning to care would make a great study program. I wonder how many schools however, take students on real "field" trips. There are too many kids growing up that have no idea of nature.
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