"Who is Barton King?"

Last night as I struggled to put Collin to bed (his usual stall tactics plus he was really tired from the day), I read three books to him. As I have done in the last few months, I stop at words and have him help me read them. This is not the smartest thing to do because I am asking a tired and cranky kid to read which is not his favorite thing to do. I had no idea how bad last night was going to be.

I was reading the book That's not my Dad which is about a little polar bear trying to find his daddy. The animals point him in different directions along the way to help him find his dad. At the very end, he does find his daddy and says "That's my Dad." Collin does know all of these words in this sentence. So when I asked him to read the entire sentence, you would have thought I asked him to pull his pants down in front of everyone in school. He freaked out and started to cry really hard. I wanted to read the sentence to him and stop him crying but I knew that he would use crying again if he did not want to do something....and win. He really would not win in the end because he would not be learning. So....I thought I would try to calm him down first by talking about his day. He told me about playing with Saige and Linden and then asked "Who is Barton King?" I asked if this was someone in school or someone else he might have met today. He said, "No, the guy they are talking about, Barton King??" I then thought he must be asking about Martin Luther King, Jr. It was MLK Day and school was closed which is why he hung out with Saige and Linden before Mimi picked him up to watch him. I explained that Martin Luther King was a popular guy that many people really liked. "Was he president?", Collin asked. I said he was not but there are lots of people that would have wanted him to be president. He wanted to know why he was not president and I explained that it was a long time ago and now he is dead (not wanting to explain when and how he died). Collin seemed satisfied with that response and moved to his next question. I answered that one and then asked him about the sentence.

The crying began again. I stopped asking, laid the book near him and then walked out stating I would be back when he settled down.  After 10 minutes, I walked back in.  He had the lights on and was looking at his book.  He then looked at me and said, “It says “That is my dad”.  I told him that was correct.  He said he knew that he knew the words and that he loved me.  I gave him a big hug and told him that I loved him too.  I could have gone on about parents are here to teach their kids and not be just fun people….but I knew this tired little boy was too tired to hear that.