The workshop is a 4-session group workshop where students work on the basic foundations of Algebra and get the chance to work through the first sections of the material, so that they are prepared and ready for the class once school begins.

The workshop dates are as follows:

Session 1: Monday, June 17^th – Thursday, June 27^th from 3:30 – 5:30pm (Mon – Thurs Only)
Session 2: Monday, August 5^th – Thursday, August 15^th from 12:30 – 2:30pm (Mon – Thurs Only)

This workshop is a small group workshop, so space is limited. To sign up, click here!

Below is an post that I wrote for my blog on PsychologyToday.com – enjoy! ~ Ana

Last year, I ran a group for eighth grade girls at a local junior high school. We met every Wednesday during lunch to discuss topics like organization, time management, social media, stress, friendships, nutrition, sleep, and overall wellness. At this school, the designated Wednesday hot lunch option was pizza—greasy, gooey portions so large that each slice could easily have been one-fifth of an extra-large pie. Week after week, I watched the girls come in with these huge pieces, and complain about feeling sluggish, tired, and overwhelmed. When I asked the girls how many of them ate at least three servings of vegetables daily, they sat frozen and unresponsive. It was clear that their nutritional habits were lacking, and their response correlated with 2011 CDC survey data suggesting that fewer than 15% of students ate three or more servings of vegetables per day. The recommended daily allowance is five or more servings per day.

When working with teens, I focus on recognizing each girl’s personal motivating factors. In this Girls Group, I knew that some of them were athletes with intense sports practices after school, and eating grease-laden pizza a couple hours beforehand could be an uncomfortable fuel choice. Most of the girls openly expressed concern about their academic performance, and weren’t making the connection between their morning breakfast choice and low concentration level in class. When I mentioned how better nutritional choices could potentially help the girls improve their energy, focus, and stamina, their interest piqued. They started asking questions about how to improve the nutrient density of their food choices. Over the next few weeks, they implemented changes, and noticed significant improvement in their energy level, mood, and overall sense of wellness.

Here are some tips on how to encourage teen girls proactively engaged in their nutritional choices:

Have girls come up with their own health and wellness goals. The media often presents us with single-focus view of healthy. Have girls think about their own wellness initiatives – do they want to have more energy? Feel better? Then have them reflect on their own choices and cause/effect – for instance, does eating sugar or caffeine-laden options cause a major crash? TIP: This can be a great opportunity for Parent/Daughter collaboration as everyone reflects on each person’s own food choices.

Collaborate to find easy morning options. Over 13% of high school girls report not eating breakfast, and I often hear complaints that students don’t have time to eat before school or don’t feel hungry when they first get up in the morning. TIP: Have girls come up with two or three different options that would work for them, one of which is a simple grab-and-go option that they can eat later if they are not hungry first thing in the morning, like coconut milk yogurt.

Focus on long-term sustainability. One of the most convincing factors for the junior high girls was when they realized that food choices had an impact on their energy levels. Some of them had personal athletic goals they were working towards, and the correlation between hot lunch and after school performance motivated them to make good choices. For many of them, being tired and sluggish also made it seem as though their homework was taking longer to complete. TIP: Have girls complete a food/mood journal for over a week, and track how their eating affected their mood (and vice versa!)

Come up with active ways to promote whole food engagement. Having girls research what nutrients they need and evaluate what vitamins and minerals they are missing in their current food patterns encourages them to be proactively involved in their food choices. Farmer’s Markets and weekly cooking and baking time can be both relaxing, creative, and fun ways to incorporate better choices. TIP: Have girls find a few nutrient dense foods (e.g. kale, broccoli, quinoa, sweet potatoes) and come up with several different ways to incorporate them into their daily or weekly life.

Don’t forget healthy fats. Oftentimes, girls go on a diet and restrict or eliminate all fats (adults do this too!). As pre-teens and teenagers, healthy fats are important for brain development and overall growth – not to mention healthy skin, hair and nails. Healthy fats help to deliver fat-soluble vitamins, keep our skin smooth, and provide a source of energizing fuel, according to Kathleen Zelman, a Director at the American Dietetic Association.

Adolescence is the time to build the foundation for nutritional wellness, and so many of our teen girls are currently on shaky ground. Parents, educators, and girls themselves have a responsibility to promote better nutritional habits so our girls have the energy, ability, and momentum to keep dreaming big and working hard without running out of steam.

Sources:

Anna S. Mueller, Jennifer Pearson, Chandra Muller, Kenneth Frank and Alyn Turner. Sizing up Peers : Adolescent Girls’ Weight Control and Social Comparison in the School Context
 Journal of Health and Social Behavior 2010 51: 64 DOI: 10.1177/0022146509361191

Center for Disease Control (2011). Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System: Selected 2011 National Health Risk Behaviors and Health Outcomes by Sex. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/yrbs/factsheets/index.htm

Zelman, K. Clearing up confusion on fats. United Health Care. Retrieved from http://www.uhc.com/source4women/health_wellness_tools_resources/n… February 16, 2013.

Our Green Ivy Summer 2013 Workshop Schedule is now available to view on our website.  We offer many wonderful workshops for Middle School and High School Students in a range of different subjects.  Each workshop is done in small group setting to maximize the individualized experience for each student. Because space is limited in each workshop, they fill up fast; so if you are interested in signing your student up, please don’t hesitate! Sign Up Today!

This Week’s Workshop Highlight:

Wellness Warriors: A Day Camp for Girls

This group workshop for girls focuses on all aspects of good health and overall wellness. The exercises are based Ana Homayoun’s book, The Myth of the Perfect Girl. The girls will reflect on their abilities and their interests, and learn different strategies for overall wellness and finding a sense of purpose and happiness in everyday life. We will incorporate fun and interactive activities, crafts, and discussions on the topics of organization, time-management, sleep and nutrition, the pressures of social media, and ways to create authentic friendships, and their own sense of personal wellness.

Workshop Dates:

Monday, June 24^th – Thursday, June 27^th from 12:30 – 3:30pm

Monday, July 15^th – Thursday, July 18^th from 1:30 – 4:30pm

Ana is now an expert blogger on Psychology Today, and one of her recent posts is below. She discusses The Games of Threes from her new book The Myth of the Perfect Girl: Helping Our Daughters Find Authentic Success and Happiness in School and Life.

“Simply reframing a resolution can help. For example, if we want to lose weight in the coming year, we can reframe our resolution to focus on the positive notion of being healthier, and come up with three new habits (i.e. drink more water, eat more vegetables, and take the dog on longer walks) that will help us get there. Focusing our efforts on incorporating those habits into our regular routines rather than beating ourselves up over not achieving strict numbers goals can promote better long-term results…” Read More Here

Want to make 2013 your best year EVER?

Join us as we redefine New Years Resolutions and play the Game of Threes based off my upcoming book, The Myth of the Perfect Girl: Helping Our Daughters Find Authentic Success and Happiness in School and Life. We want to shift the focus from achievement to a focus on personal enjoyment, fun, and fulfillment.

We will be having a Game of Threes drawing – all entries received between now and February 1, 2013 will be randomly entered to win a wellness package that includes an iPod nano, a signed copy of the book, and lots of other goodies. Let us know if you have any questions, and email your submissions to perfectgirlmythpr at gmail.com.

The Game of Threes is simple:

1. Make three lists: one list of things you like to do, one list of new things you would like to try, and one list of things you would like more time to do.

2. From these three lists, pick three things that you want to commit to finding time for in the first three months of 2013 (a crazy tongue twister, we know, but it works!!). Our book is filled with ways to find time to incorporate more fun, and this is the first step

3.Let us know what your “Game of Threes” is and we might feature you as our “Person of the Day” on the blog and Facebook pages for The Myth of the Perfect Girl. Send us a photo and your name, age, and city, as well as your “Game of Threes,” to perfectgirlmythpr at gmail.com.

Here’s an example:

Name: Justine

Age: 18 (optional-ish

City: Portland

Three things I am going to make time for in 2013: ice-skating, baking, writing.

Why these things are important to you (optional): I used to love ice-skating, and I really want to get back on the ice! I also want to learn how to bake and take more time to write, because I love writing articles and I really want to either do that more or start a blog.

Please SHARE and spread the word -  use the hashtag #gameofthrees. We want to get as many girls as possible participating!

Ana appeared on NBC Bay Area last night, to discuss Ann Curry’s challenge to do 26 acts of kindness in honor of the Newtown, CT tragedy and our donation of children’s book to local shelters and homes in need through the Children’s Book Project. Watch the video below.

Every December, Green Ivy Educational Consulting holds a book drive benefiting the Children’s Book Project, a local non-profit that delivers children’s books to shelters and other places in need. Read my latest contribution to the Los Altos Town Crier below, and bring your new and gently used books to Green Ivy between now and December 19, 2012. Feel free to contact us if you need more information.

Parents Can Instill A Love of Reading Despite Technology – from December 5, 2012 Los Altos Town Crier

A few weeks ago, I was talking with an eighth-grader attending a new school because of her family’s recent move. Most eighth-grade girls would agree that navigating the social and academic challenges of a new school environment is rarely easy.

As this young girl recalled a particularly stressful week, she mentioned how she had enjoyed spending a Saturday afternoon at a bookstore perusing new titles and escaping into the trenches of her latest book purchase. The girl’s experience highlights how reading a good book can be a relaxing elixir and healthy distraction from stressful times.

I should note that this junior-higher, who is technologically savvy, spends her fair share of time on various social networking sites. In truth, her ratio of reading books to spending time on Instagram is likely pretty low, and she is still developing a love of reading.

Many times, parents worry that their children don’t like to read, and I understand their concern. For some children, finding books that inspire and enamor can take time – especially when there are so many beeps, tweets and blurps potentially interrupting their thoughts. The quiet space to carve out time to discover and devour books for pleasure has become seemingly limited, though it has never been more important. It is one of the edifying distractions often overlooked in our frenetically paced world.

Over the holidays, finding ways to make a good old-fashioned book as popular as technological toys may seem daunting, but students whose eyes light up at the discovery of a new author or genre always encourage me.

Finding titles to read as a family and discuss over dinner and creating an online way for students to review books are two simple strategies to promote engagement.

Following are a few book recommendations for the holiday season.

Ages 6-8

• “Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters” (Schwartz & Wade, 2009) by Lenore Look; illustrated by LeUyen Pham

• “A Ball for Daisy” (Schwartz & Wade, 2011) by Chris Raschka

• “Harry & Hopper” (Feiwel & Friends, 2011) by Margaret Wild; illustrated by Freya Blackwood

Ages 9-12

• “The Magician’s Elephant” (Candlewick, 2009) by Kate DiCamillo; illustrated by Yoko Tanaka

• “When You Reach Me” (Wendy Lamb, 2009) by Rebecca Stead

• “Emma Dilemma: Big Sister Poems” (Clarion, 2011) by Kristine O’Connell George; illustrated by Nancy Carpenter

Ages 12-18

• “Serendipity Market” by (HarperTeen, 2009) by Penny Blubaugh

• “The Dream Keeper and Other Poems” (Knopf, 2007) by Langston Hughes; illustrated by Brian Pinkney

• “The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman” (Dutton Juvenile, 2011) by Meg Wolitzer

• “Space, Stars, and the Beginning of Time: What the Hubble Telescope Saw” (Clarion, 2011) by Elaine Scott

Each year Green Ivy Educational Consulting sponsors a book drive and sends donations to the Children’s Book Project, a local nonprofit group that distributes books to shelters and children in need. To contribute, bring new or gently used children’s books through Dec. 20 to Green Ivy, 302 Main St., Suite 201, Los Altos, on the second floor above U.S. Bank.

We love the holiday season here in our office, so when we saw this amazing video of Jimmy Fallon, Mariah Carey & The Roots preforming All I Want for Christmas using instruments found in the classroom, we knew we had to share it. Enjoy below!

In anticipation of the release of Ana’s upcoming book, The Myth of the Perfect Girl: Helping Our Daughters Find Authentic Success and  Happiness in School and Life, she will be having 30 Days of Parent/Daughter Conversation Starter Questions on the Facebook page for the book. To learn more, like the page on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MythofthePerfectGirl.

Have some questions to contribute? Let us know! Comment Below or Leave a Post on Our Facebook Page