Our Favorite Things

My plan for last night was to get all the kids in bed early and have a really quiet, peaceful evening with The Mr.

In the middle of dinner the kids are making all kinds of crazy comments. Whose kids don't? So The Mr. sings a line from a song, modified, of course, "I am nine, going on 40..."

Said 9 year old looks up from his plate of mystery dinner and says, "Oh, I know that song. It's from the Sound of Music."

It's no understatement to say The Mr. and I had our heads on a swivel and our mouths hanging wide open at this point. We weren't even sure he'd ever seen The Sound of Music.

Thus began the discussion of the movie and it's time period. We're about half way through studying WWII in our history studies, and so the plans for the night rapidly changed. Suddenly the boys were all a buzz, wanting to know how soon we could turn on the movie.

And so it went. My quiet evening in the matching arm chairs with The Mr. was replaced by the group watching the movie together. In the end, it was declared a "cool movie even though there was a lot of that icky kissing stuff". It was also decided that the Rev. Mother sings way too loud and warblely for any one's liking. They thought her song could have been shorter and it would be no loss. Truthfully? I agree.

Last night and again this morning I wondered at the marvel of the whole night. 5 & 9 year old boys, willingly cuddled in with their parents to watch an "old" musical about history. Wow.

I'd love to somehow say it's a homeschool thing, but I'm not so sure it is. I think it wouldn't take much for any parent to recognize that there are movies that go along with the things their kids are studying in school. Being the teacher, I notice it a bit more than a non-teacher parent, but just the same, any parent that helps with homework ought to have some clue what their kids are studying. Any family could make their movie night worth a little more.

Not to say that there isn't always a time and place for some mental junk food. We all crave that once in a while, but this was good.

That's about the best way I can describe it. It seemed perfect to have a boy curled in my lap as we watched the Von Trapp family climb over the mountains in their final scene. It seemed right to have a boy wondering and asking new questions about a history that suddenly seemed a whole lot more real that what he read in the battle histories. It was good to tuck them into their beds while they mumbled about their favorite scenes and songs.