ohbloodyhell8

This evening, against my better judgement, the boys and I left the house at 7:10 to go to Toys R Us to get gifts for this weekend’s birthday parties and Pokemon cards for them.  They each had their allowances and were desperate to get more cards.  The plan was to stop at Burger King on the way home.  All went well on the trip, but we didn’t get home till 8:30…their bedtime.

We ate, we had a great family dinner, filling our tummies with Whoppers and our ears with tales of the day.  Then the boys started getting ready for bed as I reviewed their school work and homework.  That’s when I discovered my youngest still had reading to complete.

The oldest went off to brush teeth and do various bedtime stuff.  My other son and I sat down on the couch so he could read me “Snakes”, a non-fiction story.  In my mind, I was thinking, ‘okay, read it quickly, you need to brush your teeth, I’m going on the field trip with your brother tomorrow, we need to get to bed, read quickly…” which goes completely against every fiber in my being since I’m a reading specialist.  But…

Then a beautiful thing happened.  My son brought me into his world and I was living at the speed of a six year old.  He found something interesting on every page.  He pointed out the egg tooth on the baby snake.  He pondered which would be the better pet-a snake or a bearded dragon.  He wondered if he would ever have both.  He examined the scales on the skin.  He questioned where the snake’s ear was hidden (since we can’t see them).  He admired their eyes.

We studied the snakes…at his pace, in his time.