A Little History

A freezing hike at Rainbow Pool

Before I get into some of the nitty gritty info on taking care of little ones while homeschooling I wanted to give a little history of how I came to care so much about taking care of the toddlers.
I started out like most young moms, excited about parenting but without much experience taking care of children. Because my husband and I wanted to raise children who loved the Lord, we took a Christian parenting class to help develop some skills. Although the course helped us in many ways to teach our children good behavior, for example; obedience to parents, respect and politeness to adults, it failed to address child development. The problem with this was that when my second child was struggling with temper tantrums, speech delays and problems with motor planning, I attributed some of these behaviors to disobedience when they were in fact problems with development.
The parenting class put such an emphasis on outward behavior that I can remember being terrified that my child would throw a tantrum when we told her it was time to leave, or with other transitions, and her problems with low blood sugar made dealing with her when hungry or tired an exercise in frustration.. and an opportunity to learn patience.
I know there lies the other end of the spectrum, which I have experienced myself, where in an effort to make sure all the developmental needs of your children are being met; such as meals on time and sufficient rest, that you create a self indulged monster. This is not what I am advocating, my message is that child care is a two way street, we teach them to obey and honor, and yet we don't provoke them to wrath by ignoring their reasonable needs.
The realization that my child did need extra help has driven me to study children and their development, in an effort to partner with God in equipping them for life and Godliness. Although my journey has had some sharp turns as I work to correct a tendency to swing too far on either side of the pendulum, I have picked up some useful information on this journey that I would love to share with you on this blog.