Breaking Books

A few weeks ago Thomas began ripping up his books. He would never do it when I was around but when he was alone. When I noticed he'd say: "Broken" like he had no idea how it could have happened. As a result Rob and I call this act of tearing up books "breaking books" because that is what Thomas understands best. We've tried to teach him to be gentle with his books. He's also been punished, but nothing seems to make a difference. So I removed all of his books, which is pretty sad because Thomas really enjoys paging through all his books for long periods of time during the day.

This evening Rob was sitting on the couch reading and Thomas was playing on the floor of the living room. Rob ripped a piece of paper to insert as a bookmark and Thomas immediately went over to Rob and said: "Book broken." Rob told him he wasn't ripping the book but a piece of paper. Thomas then looked at him because it was clear he did not believe Rob and then said, "Naughty!" I was watching all of this and thought it was pretty funny!