This was an actual journal entry written by me, a few years ago, about my now seven-year-old middle child: “He ripped up the other kids’ papers, and broke all the new crayons (by scribbling on and then jamming them into the underside of the dining room table). He purposely scribbled on and poked holes in their assignments while they were “thinking” just to get a scream out of them. He nearly cut his tongue off with the scissors. He ripped pages out of the scriptures, climbed on the table and walked all over everything, slammed the French doors over and over, and threw anything he could get his hands on at the boys while they were working. He took two bites out of each apple in the kitchen (three boxes waiting to be canned). This was all in just 45 minutes today!!!” Having toddlers in the house wasn’t a “problem” until my third child came along and my older children began more formal studies. I didn’t want to consider any of my children to be a problem, especially at such tender ages. Homeschooling was supposed to bring us together, not tear us apart! There had to be a way to homeschool the older children without it being at the expense of the younger ones. And there had to be a way to include the younger ones, without it being at the expense of the older ones. Now, a few more children later (still in the toddler stage), we’ve come a long way and figured some things out. I’m here to share my experience and ideas with you, to make those terrible twos terrific.
