I've been reading Paul Revere's Ride to Danny again. The last time we read it regularly he was too young to really grasp the American history, but enjoyed it as a poem. Now, he's older.
We covered much of what the poem left out (like the fact that Revere never did quite complete the ride being captured just outside of Concord) and why the British were coming in the first place. We talked about Minutemen, and the Boston Tea Party, and King George, etc. Danny took it all in, but finally interrupted with a question:
"So what would have happened if we'd stayed a British colony?"
Sometimes...sometimes I think perhaps I shouldn't be a parent. At the very least, I probably shouldn't be homeschooling...and yet.
"You'd have bad teeth, be perpetually drunk, and have in-bred stupid children because you married your cousin."
Sometimes...sometimes when I think I've completely failed as a parent, as a teacher, that child does something so magnificent that any doubts I had disappear...
"So mama? Is Kansas still a British colony?"
I love being that child's mother.
I literally guffawed out loud! I tell ya, that kid.. future comedy writer if he retains the ability to express (and recognize) those brilliant thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThat's the thing-he knows he's being funny. He's also critical of my attempts at humour-ever have a four year old ask, "Was that supposed to be funny, or sarcastic?" Ouch.
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