Tweens & Teens

Parenting a ‘tween’ (someone in the 8-13 age bracket) is one of the trickiest jobs in our ever-changing world. Today's young people are fashion conscious, technologically savvy, and growing up faster than ever. This has created an entirely new age group and advertisers know it; marketing to this group as much as to baby boomers.
This is a time of great curiosity, creativity and passion.

Kid with brush

As children approach adolescence there is a strong desire to establish one’s own independence and identity.  Children’s relationships with their friends take prominence, with the need for more privacy and peer bonding being of primary importance. During the pre teen years more risk taking and experimentation is happening at earlier ages. Taking risks is an essential part of growing up achieved through challenging and establishing personal boundaries.

How do we protect our children and let them express their autonomy?
Research into what makes children resilient, tells us that kids who are active, engaged and socially connected in their own communities do better and are better adjusted as they go into adolescence and early adulthood. Extracurricular activities can be a valuable way to develop social skills and may lead to positive lifelong interests for your child. In addition they may provide some insulation to the turbulence of the pre adolescent transition. Kinesthetic activities (sports, dance) and exposure to arts, music and other cultures, enhance sensory integration and learning and widen a child’s experience of the community they live in.

Since 2006 Council has worked with Local Government and community service partners to trial new approaches aimed at connecting with pre teens and giving them the activities they are interested in during vacation and after school periods. The Inner and Eastern Sydney Better Futures Supporting Young People 9-13years Connection to Activities Project (SYPCAP) helped and supported services to work in conjunction with each other to have an afternoon a week where either a special activity is arranged at a particular Out of School Hours Care Centres (OSHC), or the children are transported to youth services that set aside an exclusive afternoon for the 9-13 year olds or PCYC’s, or excursions and sports opportunities are co-coordinated between a number of OSHC’s.

Some OSHCs are providing vacation care programs that are either exclusively for tweens or part of split activities within Vacation Care. Participation costs are minimal and affordable for families on the tightest of budgets.

Tweens Poster  

Waverley Council's Autumn holiday program for tweens & teens 15-24 April 2013

Autumn holiday program for tweens & teens is jam-packed full of events for 9 to 16 year-olds.

Keep all ages happy with these fabulous holiday activities at Margaret Whitlam Recreation Centre, Bondi Pavilion and the Library.

To find out about other activities, workshops, vacation care and holiday programs visit our dedicated holiday program page here.

Please also have a look at our research and report documents listed below to see what has been achieved over the past 6 years. A significant achievement has been the production of the Tweens & Teens Support for the Middle Years service framework, which aims to help with the creation of other integrated service networks.

Please feel free to contact our Youth Development Community Worker, Tamara Killick, on (02) 9386 7926 (Wed to Friday) or email tamarak@waverley.nsw.gov.au with any feedback, ideas or enquiries about the project.