The teen years can be a very rewarding time for homeschooling parents.  Your youth are able to read, write and do basic math.  They have a good comprehension of the basics of the gospel.  And unless they get involved in the addictive behaviors of substance abuse, immorality in varying degrees or neglecting the Sabbath, their personalities will not change all that much. 

They are now at an awesome stage of thirsting for deeper knowledge, interested in developing real hobbies and skills, and can see the time when they will be moving into the adult world.  There are only a few years left to teach from your heart the important things of life. 

The push for teaching everything about science takes a back seat when you wonder how your baby, your young man will do on his mission.  Will he have courage when he is challenged, will he take initiative in service, will he have faith and trust the spirit even when everything seems new and frightening and home seems much further away than the few miles shown on the map?  Grammar takes a drop in importance when you realize that there is only a few more years to prepare your daughter for marriage and the rest of her life away from the nightly security of sleeping just down the hall. 

Math becomes secondary in your list of desired goals as you begin to wonder if you have presented the Gospel in all its known wonder and glory.  Does he have a testimony?  Will she be swayed by social pulls away from the important things in life?  What have you forgotten?  Have they noticed the joys of your living true to your deepest covenants?  How will they remember their childhood home?  How will they feel about you?  Will they be true, keeping themselves in the circle of family relationships forever? 

Suddenly you become aware of your relationship with your children.  Perspective changes.  The full time and sometimes exhausting task of watching over their well-being and guiding their steps begins to be replaced by something more, something you have quietly waited for over the many years.  You can feel that your children are only a memory away from being tiny babies and you can see that they are only a step away from being grown and gone.  And you pray that you have made the shift from full time mother to eternally close peer.  Always and forever their mother and again, as once before, their dearest friend. 

The teen years, they are abhorred by society, abused by the media and cherished by the Lord.  In this series of articles these incredible years will be explored through several important topics. 

I used to dread the thought of my children becoming teens.  When I had first told people that we wanted a large family, they told me to wait until I had one.  I had one and still felt the same way.  Then they insisted that we wait until there were two in diapers.  Then we would change our minds.  I had three in diapers and still wanted a large family. 

Then came the ultimate curse.  Wait until you have teens.  The only way to deal with that curse was with faith.  If I waited until I had teens to realize that we really wanted no more children, we would have wasted all those childbearing years.  That meant that if the soothsayers were correct, we would be in a living hell with a dozen children into or headed into the teen years.

Certainly the kind of sin and trouble that a teen can get into is far more serious and heartbreaking than a young child can fall into.  Certainly an argumentative teen is a headache while a disobedient teen wrenches the very souls of loving parents. 

People implied that the child we raised would suddenly become a person totally foreign in nature and personality.  My imagination created its own frightening thoughts.

As of this moment, I have one adult daughter, one adult teen son, three regular teens and one preteen.  Chani is twenty, Ben is eighteen, Chamrie is sixteen and a half...that half is extremely important, Chiya will be fifteen in a matter of weeks, Nathan will be thirteen in February and on the same day Ryan will be ten.  There are three younger daughters but this article isn't about them!  While I have experienced every possiblity of life with teens I can still plan for this life based upon the guidance of the Lord through his scriptures and prophet.  I can contemplate future events based upon the goals and plans that we have spoken of over the years. 

I have found that as my children enter their teens they don't develop foreign personalities.  Their personalities, which I believe came from before their birth, have remained solid and consistent.  The expression of that personality has become much more intense.  Youth become much more intense in everything connected with them.

I find that I love this unfolding, just as I have loved all of the steps through which they have progressed.  I am also painfully aware that all my loved ones have to do is to become addicted to a substance or a sin in order for that dreaded alien personality to appear.  It is through addiction, spiritual disobedience and sexual sin that Satan gains the hearts of our dear ones.  These are the things we feel we need to guard against.  Our goal is to give them the tools to always resist these monsters.

So that is the purpose of our rules for our teens.  We have built family traditions that we feel will bring our children to Heavenly Father.  We have built these traditions in the hope that they will feel most comfortable in atmospheres of real joy.  We have followed the scripture of bringing up our children in light and truth, knowing first that this cuts Satan's power over the hearts of our family by a very great degree.  We also have the wisdom to know that there will always be the ability for our children to disobey the Lord.  They might choose to walk away from that kingdom where we may all be together in the very relationships we enjoy here.  And we have the Lord's assurance that if they do, our faith and love will bring them back into our circle.

This series of articles will explore the variety of joys and challenges in preparing our youth for adulthood.  Any pertinent articles submitted are appreciated and will be added to the site.