Guest post: "Home schooling & parenting tween-teens from my new perspective"

The following is a guest post by my friend April Atwater (@sweetlifeinthe) from Sweet Life in the Valley. If you haven't discovered her fabulous blog and sister sites like the new Out & About with the Family then you're in for a real treat! April is amazing and I'm so excited to have her write something for freshly baked. Enjoy!

Home Schooling & Parenting Tween-teens from My New Perspective

I prided myself in being a great mother to my children when they were younger. I was the mom who made crafts, took field trips, made the cupcakes for the class parties and more. I was involved with everything. Now that my kids are in the tween years and more independent I have been bit thrown. What does a good mom to tween-teens look like?

Not too many books out there help you with or talk about being a cool and effective tween-teen parent. After a lot of trying to figure it out I came to some exciting conclusions. I want my children to live a full life. I want to teach them to love living and learning. Since I home school my three tweens and I own my own business we have a lot of flexibility with our time. My kids are now old enough to share all my loves and to explore the world at a monuments notice. I am planning to take them to the pottery studio to show them how to throw a pot. We are going to make some pinhole cameras then develop the film in our make shift dark room in the pantry. We are going to explore their interests from apprenticing with a pastry chef to trying their hand at web design to indulging an interest in history and dates.

My tween twins are now writing their own blog for tweens, Cool Stuff 4 Us, which will teach them hands on writing and business marketing skills. We are planning a lot of traveling to see this beautiful country. After all, those tween-teen years are to prepare them for adulthood. Our more formal education will be centered around preparing for college classes. We are exploring their talents to help them figure out what they would like to study after the high school years.

If you were to ask someone to tailor your tween-teen years to help you become a successful adult today with all the advantages you could have used, what would that look like? This is the question I am asking myself for all three of my kids. I am excited! It will be fun! This is what I will look like as a tween-teen mom. I think I love what that looks like. ~April