Boa Constricter Bedtime Stories

Orginally Posted January 13, 2009
Every night I let Calvin pick a book or two, or when he does his little pout, 4 or 5 books to read as bedtime stories before he does his Quiet Time. He knows the drill, he picks his books and brings them to me right when it's time for him to go to bed. Tonight he chose a non-fiction book about Boa Constricters, at least it was children's non-fiction. First off, there was this map of the world that had the lands where boa constricters live highlighted. The moment I turned it to that page Calvin asked, "Where does Aunt Mary live?" So, we pointed out France. Then he wanted to know where we lived. I thought it was pretty impressive that a 3 year-old got maps well enough to know that you could point out where people live on them. Of course, he is Jerrid's son, and is Jerrid is pretty map crazy. We read a list of the different kinds of animals that boa constricters eat; bats, rats, and birds. Calvin was like, "They eat birds!!! But birds aren't bad!!!" I tried to explain that they were animals and some animals eat other animals. Then next page was a picture of a boa constricter squeezing a rat before eating it. This was about where I started to wonder if this was the best choice for bedtime book. But still Calvin wasn't afraid, he was just curious about how all this happened; How big were the birds? But snakes are on grounds? But birds can fly? What kind of birds? The nice ones? Are some of the birds mean? These are just some of the various questions that he didn't actually ask, he was just kinda saying these things to himself. I could see his eyes concentrating very hard, trying to sort it all out. The next page had a picture of a boa constricter swallowing it's prey whole. As I REALLY began to think this wasn't the best bedtime story, Calvin asked, "Will it really swallow it whole? His ears, too?!" I don't know if he thought the boa was just going to swallow up the rat and leave the ears there or what. Finally on the last page there was a picture of a boa constricter "resting" on a tree branch. Then Calvin said, "Oh, I get it! They climb! That's how they get the birds!" We did the Quiet Time next, read his Bible Verse, and then there was a picture of rainbow for him to color. Each stripe in the rainbow had the color word for it to be colored. He knew without even being told what he was supposed to do. He didn't actually color in the stripes but carefully drew neat lines along the arch, in the middle of each stripe. He is really growing up, it is so cool to watch him change and learn. When he was done with the Quiet Time, he tried to talk me into letting him watch Harry Potter while he fell asleep. Now, I drew the line there. I think he could handle the boa constricter book, but I do think he would have nightmares if he watched Harry Potter til he fell asleep.