Saturday May 2, 2009 promises to be an exciting night of fun and self-esteem building for girls of all ages.  Hosting a sleepover is easy and there’s still time…. so, gather a few of your daughters closest friends for the second annual Dove Sleepover for Self Esteem.  The event’s website has everything you’ll need to plan the evening, its easy and a great opportunity for moms to join forces and share positive messages with their daughters.  The Dove Sleep Pants, available since March, include three designs this year, including a creative light blue design by 9 year old Riley Matwick from Surrey, BC.  Riley’s design was chosen following a national contest which asked Canadian children to submit designs that expressed what made them feel beautiful.

Last year my daughter hosted an event and as a mom I have to say the sleepover is an amazing opportunity to speak to girls about what is important - discussions that you would not typically have with them if they were visiting any other time.  We found the website to be very helpful, from the printable invitations, a sleepover guide, games and activities, there’s even some fun online games that can teach about image and media!  You can even register your sleepover on the site and get some free mp3 downloads!  We did a bit of brainstorming to come up with some other creative ideas as well. The sleepover guide is a great tool to help with setting up discussions and activities that support the evenings theme so be sure to download and print a copy.

Like last year, the 2009 Sleepover for Self Esteem offers a selection of movies for the girls to watch. The commmercials are replaced with creative and interesting chats with self esteem experts who explore some of the issues of the movies and self-esteem issues in general.  Our group of girls really enjoyed this part of the evening because it opened up discussions on various topics.  We were lucky to have a PVR, so we could pause the tv and let discussion continue. This year’s event offers programming on both YTV and the W Network.

Be creative and make it fun - and most of all just do it.  A simple evening with snacks and friends and REALLY POSITIVE MESSAGES is what it is about!

Not sure where to start?  Here is a collection of photos from our event in 2008.

We covered our table with paper and blue stickers (Dove colours) and wrote postitive messages on the table.  We attached self-esteem bubbles to the table, one for each girl attending. You can find the bubble on the website and of all of the exercises this is one of the best because it gives the girls something to take home - and with a group they learn how to protect themselves from negative and harmful messages.  We cut the circles off at the end and the girls took them with them.

We thought, since it was a sleepover, that pillowcases would be a great art activity.  We used washable crayola markers and the girls took turns tracing each others hands on the pillowcases. At the end each girl had a pillowcase with their friends handprints and messages from each of their friends.  The messages were personal and self-esteem boosting!  Pillowcases were purchased at the local dollar store so the activity was inexpensive!

Be sure to get a photo of the girls together - they will remember this sleep-over for a long time!

For more information about the sleepover visit www.dovesleepover.ca

Posted on April 22nd, 2009 by admin
Filed under: Events