"I sometimes look back nostalgically at the simpler times when my kids were all in Core and Love of Learning.
While we still do family devotional and kidschool, my little ones
aren't having the same experience as the older ones did at their age.
We never had evening commitments back then. Our house seemed so peaceful and controlled."
"But, -just think!-
at the same time, my older ones didn't get what these young ones are
getting, either. Like Eliza being used by Emma to drill her in Latin
vocabulary. And all the younger ones being versed in Shakespeare and
Austen because of their older siblings' passions. And Ammon's
late-night one-on-one talks with Oliver (when they're both supposed to
be asleep) about honor, power, chastity.
"Like Meri, Hyrum and Abby having not
only Mom and Dad to dote on them and think they are the cutest things in
the world, but also having all the other ones up the line from them to
come running when Meri's stuck up a tree, or when the ants crawl up
Hyrum's shirt, or when Abby's scared in the night.
"Things were simpler before, yes. But better? No way. I wouldn't trade for anything."
~Rachel DeMille, "Homeschooling a Large Family, 2"
Youth as Mentors 
