Jumping in the Deep End

Jumping in the Deep End

And so begins the very first week of the summer holidays with my darling daughters.

On Friday, my curly girly and I signed up for the Summer Reading Challenge at our local library.  She collected her Creepy House record card, chose some books, and away she goes.  The challenge is to read 6 books over the space of the 6 week summer holidays.  As they progress, they collect stickers from the library and there is a website that runs in tandem with the challenge.  

For me, this is about keeping my little girl switched on to reading throughout the holidays.  It's not meant to be a chore, but something she enjoys and so far, so good. 

For the last 2/3 months I've been reading The Far Away Tree by Enid Blyton as my little girls bedtime story.  I remember reading this for myself as a child and I loved it.  We have a 3-books-in-1 edition and so it's taken a while to trawl through, but we've finally said goodbye to Moon Face, Silkie and Saucepan Man.  

Next on the bedtime story agenda is the Finn Family Moomintroll.  This is a classic that I missed as a child and so far, we're loving it.  Before we started the Faraway Tree we were reading Pippi Longstocking, so we are really into our Swedish literature at the moment. 

Last week I laid out my rough plan for surviving the summer holidays with our Summer Holiday Top Ten Hit List.   We are linking up with The Play Agenda and Get Good Summer over at Clarina's Cantemplations.  Together with other bloggers we are sharing our ideas for entertaining our little darlings over the school hols. Stay tuned and see how we get on.

 I have my 'Not A Sh'mum!' badge on at the moment, as I actually took the girls swimming and to the park yesterday!  I cannot emphasise enough, just how much I detest swimming but the girls had such a lovely time, that I am determined not to be such a grump about it.  My curly girly has term time swimming lessons that thankfully don't involve me getting wet and I am grateful for the talents of her lovely (patient) swimming teacher.  I am more than happy to pootle around in the pool whilst on holiday somewhere lovely and hot, but that is more about cooling off before a cocktail at the pool-side bar.  I don't even remember liking swimming as a child; call me a weirdo, but public swimming pools fill me with dread.  However, apart from hurting my elbow on the water flume, I almost had fun yesterday!  

We have teetered on the precipice of the pit-of-bickering-and-despair, but haven't fallen in yet!!!

What are you reading as your bedtime stories?  Any recommendations?

GAL x

PS  The photo above is a clue as to where we are going on holiday this August - Eeeeep!  As my daughter-in-law to be would say; can't wait!