Monday Memories Our Family and Books

One morning when Junior was eleven years old, I noticed that he seemed rather sleepy at breakfast.  We had the following conversation:

"Are you alright?"

"Yes Ma'am"

"Did you sleep well?"

"No Ma'am"

"Were you ill?"

"No Ma'am"

"Did you stay up too late?"

"Yes Ma'am"

"How late were you up?"

At this he looked a little sheepish and finally confessed, "I think it might have been until 3?"

"THREE a.m.???!!!!"

"Uhm.  Yes Ma'am?"

"Why in the world were you up until three o'clock in the morning??!!"

"Uhm, well, remember when we went to the library yesterday?  I found a book."

"Oh.  Okay."  What could I say at this point?  He was being just like me!

"Well, what book was it?"

"Ben Hur"

"Ohhhhhh.....I see!  How many pages is that book?"

"I think it is about three or four hundred pages.  I didn't start reading it until after supper and I just couldn't stop and then it was really, really late, but I thought I could finish it, so I did.  And you said I could not watch the movie til I finished the book......"

"It is a good book.  Did you like it?"

(grinning now) "Yes Ma'am, it was great!"

We talked about what he had learned, which included things like,

1. Was that really what things were like then, or was that just what the author thought things were like back then?
2. The issue of slavery during the time of Jesus and in the Roman Empire
3. As a nurse, had I ever had a patient with leprosy?
4. What was leprosy anyway? 
5. Could such a story really have happened?
6. What was the plot of the book (you get that answer by saying something innocuous like, "Tell me about the book; it's been a long time since I have read it....")  

And so we had covered for that day lessons in History, Literature, Health, Social Sciences, and Bible.  He went back to bed until lunch time.  I really couldn't fuss at him too much considering how many nights I have stayed up to do the exact same thing.  I was rather proud of the fact that my son had read Ben Hur in one sitting at the age of eleven.
Just for the record, it is still not that unusual for someone in our house to be up until midnight ~ or later ~ to finish a good book.  We do have a few of them!

Photo Courtesy of Designed To Improve Life.  I just WISH it were my library!