As I mentioned earlier in the week, this week marks the last week of blogging here on TweenBeat. However, we’d rather not think of this as the end of TweenBeat, and in reality it’s not.

Instead of saying goodbye to your favorite TweenBeat authors, you can say hello to them, and four other new bloggers, on JustKiddin, our new blog for moms of elementary schoolers. You’ll find a great new look and more of the exciting conversation you’ve come to love.

You can also say hello to two new bloggers – and the same great new look – on Middleville, a blog for moms of middle schoolers. We all know there’s never a dull moment when middle schoolers are involved!

Thank you very much for you readership here at TweenBeat; we hope you will continue to visit us on the two new blogs!

Best,

Theckla

Dear Readers,

I wanted to take a moment and let you know about some big changes we will be making to MomTalk to improve the overall experience for you.

This Tuesday, March 8, we will unveil a new look for all of our blogs. The new design has several exciting features, including:

• Author spotlights
• Improved search
• Improved navigation
• Monthly themes
• More health information you can use
• Shorter posts on the homepage, meaning visibility to more posts on one page

We will also be introducing two new blogs: JustKiddin’, a blog for moms of elementary schoolers, and Middleville, a blog for moms of middle schoolers. Debuting Tuesday, these two blogs replace TweenBeat, which as you know currently spans both school age ranges. We hope that each blog will better align with your children’s educational experiences and be more relevant for parents in these different stages. Not to worry – your favorite TweenBeat bloggers will still be here, they’ll just be blogging for JustKiddin’ instead. Look for them Tuesday!

Additionally, we will be extending TummyTime to cover pregnancy through the first year. We hope this will help moms who are expecting share experiences, conversation and dialogue with moms who are going through the first year of baby’s life. This change means CuddleBugs will focus exclusively on Toddlers and Pre-Schoolers.

Later in the week we will be unveiling a new look for MomTalk. The updates will place more emphasis on groups, as well as the forums & discussion threads. By focusing the experience on the conversations happening between moms, we hope MomTalk will become a better place for moms in the area to connect, share and discuss.

Please note that in order to bring you the changes each of the blogs will be down for an hour or two starting late Monday afternoon and into Monday evening. We apologize in advance for this disruption, but hope that when you return to the blogs on Tuesday morning you will be as excited about the changes as we are.

If you have any questions or comments about the changes, please feel free to email us.

Enjoy the weekend!
Theckla & the entire MomTalk team

Good news!  A long-standing concern among parents and researchers has been that young people who are exposed to violent video games may become desensitized to violent acts and images, but a new study suggests that may not be the case.

Canadian researchers comparing gamers to non-gamers found that in the long run, gamers were just as likely to recall negative images in memory tests and to report the same levels of emotion in reaction to the pictures as the non-gamers.

“People who play video games didn’t differ in memory, and physical arousal wasn’t different between gamers and non-gamers. And there was no difference in how each group felt after seeing negative or violent pictures,” said study author Holly Bowen, a doctoral candidate in the department of psychology at Ryerson University in Toronto.

The findings were published in the January issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology.

Read the full article >

In 2008, dog bites sent an average of 866 people every day — nearly 40 percent of them children and teens — to emergency rooms throughout the country for treatment. Twenty-six patients a day required hospitalization, the report noted.

Only a small percentage of the spike is attributed to population growth of both dogs and people during the same period, said study co-author Anne Elixhauser, a senior research scientist with the federal agency. However, the data didn’t give any clues as to why biting injuries are on the rise, she said.

Frequently the attacker is a family or neighborhood pet, researchers say.

“A lot of people think dog bites are from some [stray] running around, and no one knows where it lives,” said Nancy Hill, who sits on the board of directors for the National Animal Control Association. “That happens to some extent, but to a greater extent it’s the owned dog.”

In the case of Kelly Voigt of Palatine, Ill., a neighborhood dog was the culprit. In the spring of 1999, Voigt, then 7, innocently walked up a neighbor’s driveway to pet their resting dog, a Siberian Husky. She was immediately bitten in the face and throat, suffering injuries so severe she needed more than 100 stitches to close the wounds. She also required psychiatric counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

“It affected me in such a big way that I just didn’t want anyone else to get attacked like I did, so we decided to do something about it,” said the now 18-year-old.

She and her mother Kathy formed the nonprofit organization Prevent the Bite to teach elementary school children how to stay safe around dogs. The presentations focus on a basic understanding of canine body language, simple safety techniques, and responsible dog ownership. “Dog bite prevention education cannot begin early enough,” she said.

Understanding canine body language and behavior is an important part of the puzzle for keeping kids safe.

Dr. Ilana Reisner, a board-certified veterinary behaviorist at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, examined more than 100 medical records of dogs that had bitten children in order to better understand why these incidents occur.

Click here to read the full article for more information and great tips on how to teach kids how to stay safe around dogs.

Whopping portion sizes are a big reason for why people overeat. But if you teach your children about appropriate portion sizes, they may be more likely to stick to healthy portions into adulthood.

The Nemours Foundation offers these suggestions:

• Put meals on smaller plates so that the portion appears larger.
• Divide snacks into small portions, instead of sending your child off to snack with the whole bag.
• Separate leftovers into small portion sizes, instead of storing them in larger containers.
• Serve food away from the table, which may limit family members from going back for seconds.
• Produce single-serving foods to help your children visualize what an appropriate serving is.
• Eat meals slowly, and make sure they contain plenty of fruits and vegetables.
• Split orders at a restaurant.
• Skip the plus-sized value meals at fast-food eateries.

Want to learn more?

Here are a few articles to consider:

• Helping picky eaters expand their palate
• How to help an overweight child

Enjoy!