One thing I personally enjoy doing is meeting people.  I am very much a people person.  I enjoy my friends, enjoy learning about people’s lives and developing dear friendships.

I have found the same thing with my tween, he loves people, loves to be surrounded by people and thrives socially!!

I have also enjoyed the many things I have learned from different friends.  No two people are alike.  Some women are incredible Mothers, excellent sewers, incredibly intelligent, sweet as can be, funny and even inspiring!!  In my life so far, I have met women who fit in each of these categories.

The same goes for our tweens.  This past weekend, one of the neighbors brought his field hockey net and hocky sticks over for Lincoln to play with.  Lincoln LOVED it, he had never done anything like that before.

He was inspired by his little friend to try something new..and guess what, he loved it!!

This was a great learning experience for me.  The more things we expose our tweens to the better.  Whether it is bowling, ice skating or painting pottery they are trying things out.  Figuring out what they love to do, what makes them happy!!  Maybe your tween is destined to be an artist or a guitar player.  How in the world would they figure this out if they weren’t exposed to it?

Hit the museum, swim in the ocean or have your tween take a singing class.  Let them experience all there is out there and help them dig deep creatively and figure out exactly what it is that they love to do!!

How have you helped expose your tween to lots of different people and activities?

There are many times I see a baby and think “maybe….”  As quickly as that thought pops into my head….it pops right back out! Kerry and I decided awhile ago that we are done having babies. Jake and Sam are plenty for us. We had the boys just 17 months apart so we did a lot of the baby/toddler stuff all at once. Two in diapers, two with sippy cups……once they both moved on to feeding themselves and booster seats we made the call to never look back and move forward with the two we have.

How They Have Grown!

While I do miss things like the cute way they used to say certain words or four little feet in footie PJs, I am finding that there are new things about them as Tweens that I love just as much.

• I love that they love to watch Buckeye football with us and know all the cheers
• I love that they buckle themselves into the car
• I love that they can read
• I love that they can write
• I love that their art now looks like “art”
• I love that I now see how kind they are by their actions
• I love that they still want to cuddle with their mom on the couch

Things are different now, but not any worse….just different and I am excited to see what is around the corner when I have two Teens!

What do you enjoy about your tweens? What do you miss?

Last year my daughter and I started a Tween Book Club primarily with those girls for whom I had been a Girl Scout Leader for 3 years.  It was great, the girls learned leadership, loved furthering their friendships, gained a greater love of reading and improved scholastically.

As my tween gets older I am realizing how stretched I have become as a parent of 3 different aged children and how hard it is to give them each the individual time they need.  Last year I often heard some of the moms remorsefully state how they wish they had time to participate in a book club.

A friend had gotten me the box set to Mother Daughter Book club and this was the year to really get it going!  We invited tons of people, some we didn’t know that well, but all within the same grade and age level.  My tween said, “that was the BEST night I’ve had in a long time Mom, that was so fun!”  The moms organized, the girls contributed, everyone shared favorite summer or current reads, we created books titled to describe our relationship with our daughters and we left having a schedule for the entire year!  The best part of it was that we now all have a set weekend evening a month to spend with our daughters and entering “their” worlds.

Here are some tips for starting a tween book club:

* Organize and be detailed- how frequently?  what types of books? (we decided they had to be AR books so the children could use them at school too)

*  Limit the number of participants to between 6-10 tweens

*  Decide a location- we rotate based on which tween’s month it is, it could be at someone’s home, reserve a library room, a restaurant that is quiet enough to discuss, etc.

* Allow the Tweens to be the Leaders

* Make it Fun

* Have food

* Get creative- do crafts pertaining to the book, have food from the time period, come in costume

It has been fun seeing these girls pick their own books, lead their discussion on their month and introduce each other to different genres of books.  There are also book clubs at the local libraries, Barnes and Noble, the military base libraries or you could start your own!

“If you can read this, thank a teacher.”  Thank you Mom & Dad!  Both educators, both lover of books and both my examples to whom I owe my worth in books!  If I never travel I’d be OK with the many adventures and places my parents introduced me to through books.

How do you foster a love of reading with your tween?  As our tweens get older are you facing more resistance to read?  Have you read the classics with your tween?

I grew up in Jacksonville, FL.  It is where I went to school and where I call home.  There are so many parts of Jacksonville that are a part of who I am.

One of my favorite spots is the landing in downtown Jacksonville.  I have made some awesome memories there.  It is right on the St. Johns River and has lots of fun restaurants, shopping and live music.

This past weekend, we made a trip home to go to a football game.  One evening we drove downtown as a family to have some fun.  We had dessert, took a ferry ride and listened to music.

I loved showing this place to my tween.  I love that he got to enjoy a place that holds special memories to me.  I hope that as he grows up, we can visit the landing a few more times as a family.  I hope it becomes a place that he loves and looks forward to visiting.  Maybe someday we will even bring him and his wife and kids there.

I am a sentimental schmuck and I hope I am able to pass that on to my tween.  My parents are both quite sentimental and that is something they passed down to me and my sisters.  Memories, traditions and happiness are something I try and fill my tweens life with.

So yes, the Jacksonville landing is a way for me to ‘bring my tween home’ and allow him to experience something that I love and is special to me.

What are some things that are important for you to share with your tween?

Friday nights have such a different meaning now that school is back in session.

It seems that on the weekdays, my tween gets home from school, has a snack, works for over an hour on homework and then has soccer practice or a couple hours to play before bed.

Since last week was the first full week of school, I felt so happy when they got home from school on Friday.  Instead of my  typical , “let’s get homework done” phrase, I found myself saying, “let’s play…you guys can do whatever you want to do tonight!”.  Woo-hoo, I felt just as excited as they did.  Toss those backpacks aside for a couple days and lets have some fun!

I even noticed the buzz around the neighborhood, kids were out riding bikes and playing and our backyard was full of tweens.  Ahhh, I think I just like Friday nights.  The kids played outside all night and finished the day off with a fun movie from the Redbox.

I think our tweens need a break just as much as we do sometimes.  With our Saturday’s busy with soccer, I hope that Fridays after school will continue to be fun for the whole family…video games, trampoline, bike rides and dinner in town…that’s what our Friday nights will be this school year.

I think I just might have to say it one more time;

Thank GOODNESS it’s FRIDAY!!

How do you spend Friday night’s with your tween?