Summer Reading

Yep! Here I am going on about getting kids reading again. Well, while there are still children out there who say, "I'm no good at reading." I am going to keep giving out ideas to encourage and inspire them.

I came across a website today with some good ideas of how to get children reading over the summer holidays. Click here and be inspired!

If just one person (apart from me) looks at it, then it will have been worth posting.

Very Surrey

We really wanted to get away for a week in the campervan this summer, preferably to Devon or the Wye Valley, but money is short and although we could probably scrape enough together to pay for the petrol to get us there and back and to pay for the pitch, we would not have enough money to do very much and would not enjoy constantly having to worry about how much things cost. So, we decided to stay at home this year and do some jobs around the house (mostly tidying) and have a couple of trips out to visit people.

Yesterday, we took a trip to Hersham in Surrey to see my Aunty Di. It is only an hour or so from here and we have been saying for a long time that we should visit her, but she was very ill last year with breast cancer and was not particularly keen to have visits from family so we didn't go. She is in her 70s so it is pretty impressive that after lots of treatment with some fairly unpleasant side effects, she has made a good recovery and is now looking very well indeed.

We arrived about 11am and had a short walk around the retirement village where she lives. We then went out of the village and walked about a mile and a half down the road to a garden centre for lunch in their restaurant. It was a lovely walk and the children enjoyed it, although Big J is not too good at walking very far as he has always been taken everywhere in the car and has never had to walk far. Unfortunately, when we got there the restaurant was closed due to no water supply and so we had to turn around again and walk back to the village. We were all worn out after the walk back, which was slightly uphill (why is it always uphill on the way back?!) and so were relieved to get to the club house back in the village where Aunty Di ordered lunch for us all. Little Z and Big J had immaculate table manners as usual (for an ogre). After lunch we had a look around the church and then took a walk to the lake where Big J warned a man to be careful of the dinosaurs. Then it was time to drive home.

We will definitely visit again and hopefully next time we will take my mum with us as she would love the village.

After this week, I feel exhausted. I need another week off school just to rest. I had wondered if it was such a good idea going away for the whole of half term. I had reports to write and it was not giving me much opportunity to get any planning done and I would not have the chance to go in to school to tidy my classroom ready for the new half term. However, I am glad I did go away. It was good not to go into school all week. My classroom is a mess and will need a couple of hours one evening to get it sorted, but it is worth it.

We had a fantastic week away. We went to Elvaston Castle camp site again and visited Sarah, Ben and Toby. Toby hid under the sofa most of the time (Z & J were too noisy and lively - I almost got under there myself!), but Sarah and Ben managed to stay out from under the sofa so we had a lovely catch up albeit for only an hour as we had to be at the campsite by 7pm.

From there we went to Seany's. We stayed at a campsite down the road from him for a couple of nights and then camped on his drive for the other 2 nights. He was happy for us to stay at his house, but we like sleeping in the van and it made more sense than Seany having to move furniture around to accommodate us. It worked out really well at the campsite. We were able to put the awning up for the first time and so we had more space. That also meant that Seany & my mum could come and visit us and had somewhere to sit. There was a large grassy area for the children to run around and so there was no need to worry about whether they were touching something they shouldn't.

The main reason for the visit was my mum's 70th birthday. She had a fantastic day. Actually the celebrations sem to have lasted a whole week as various people have taken her for a drink or sent special gifts.

At the end of the week was Larry's birthday. He's not 70, but I think he feels it sometimes. He enjoyed his day and we spent a lot of it playing Seany's Nintendo Wii.

I managed to get 5 reports written while I was there (although had a day off for Larry's birthday!) so I did not feel like I had loads to catch up on when I got back.

So there it was. Half term break came around quickly and was over almost as soon as it arrived. How long till the next one?

Happy Campers!

We have just got back from our first proper holiday in the campervan. We have never been away for more than 2 nights in the van before, but decided it was time to do it properly. As members of The Caravan Club we get preferential rates at some sites and exclusive access to members only sites also at very good rates.

We started our holiday in Somerset visiting Larry's family as it was his mum's 60th birthday. It didn't cost us anything to camp there as we were on their drive! While we were there, we visited Minehead and Cleeve Abbey. From Somerset we went to Combe Martin, where we stayed at a commercial and rather expensive site. Combe Martin was nice, but nothing special, however, we did meet some lovely people on the campsite and there were loads of children for Little Z and Big J to play with. As newcomers to this campervanning game it was great to talk to people who had been doing it for quite a while as we picked up some helpful tips. We also quickly found out that it is almost impossible to eat your breakfast in peace and that if you want the other kids to go away from your door, you have to tell them straight!

The following day we headed for Woolacombe. On the way to Woolacombe we were driving through Ilfracombe and decided it looked so lovely that we wanted to park up and have a look around. After being given a ticket by someone who had paid to park all day but was now leaving and didn't want it to go to waste, we phoned a local farm campsite and booked in for the night. We spent the rest of the day on the unusual Tunnels Beach.

We spent the next day on the beach at Woolacombe where I got very sunburnt despite having put sun cream on. Big J spend most of the afternoon in the sea with Larry and Little Z stayed with me on the beach after attempting to go into the sea, getting scared and then wandering off by herself through the thousands of other people on the beach. I'm just glad I had "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" to take my mind off what could have happened had Larry not caught up with her in time.

Having passed through Lynton & Lynmouth on the way to Combe Martin, we wanted to stop there again on the way back so after spending the morning shopping in Ilfracombe (we hadn't had time to see the shops when we had been there the first time as we had spent all day on the beach) we spent the afternoon in Lynton & Lynmouth including taking a ride on the cliff railway before travelling back to Somerset to see Larry's family again. We stayed two more nights on their drive before driving home to Southampton.

Glad to be back? Well, yes, I suppose so, but Larry & I are thoroughly hooked on campervanning now and I don't think it will be long at all before we go away again!

Did I finish Harry Potter? Yes, I did. Did J.K.Rowling finish Harry Potter? You will have to read the book to find out or cheat as "some" people have suggested!

The Walking Week!

Little Z and I have been very healthy this week:

On Monday we walked about 3 miles from near to Little Z's school (where we parked our car after dropping Big J off at Nursery) to Shirley Library and back.

On Tuesday, as the weather was supposed to be the best we have had for a long time, we drove to Bournemouth and walked 1.5 miles along the seafront from Bournemouth Pier to Boscombe Pier. We then got the train back as it was too hot to walk, stopped in a cafe for a healthy lunch and then went to the beach!

On Wednesday, we walked about 4.5 miles from home to Shirley and back.

Having read Seany's post on his trip to "the pictures", I decided it was about time I went to the cinema too, so on Thursday, feeling tired and not wanting to walk anywhere, I surprised Little Z by taking her to the Odean Cinema at Leisure World to see Shrek the Third. We both thoroughly enjoyed it. I really wanted to go to see Harry Potter, but although I know some poeple have taken their children to see it, I know Little Z would be frightened by it and would either want to leave part the way through the film, would hide her eyes for the whole thing or would not sleep for weeks! I will probably wait for that to come out on DVD unless I can get a babysitter so Larry and I can go together to watch it.

Today we are preparing for our trip to Bridgwater in Somerset to see Larry's family. His mum turns 60 on Saturday so we are all getting together to make it a special birthday for her. I am not looking forward to it very much as lots of family invariably means lots of bickering and petty arguments and lots of diapproving looks about the way people choose to live their lives.

After that the plan is to take the campervan off to North Devon for a few nights. Not sure where we are going to stay yet, but I am looking forward to the four of us spending some good quality family time together.

We will enjoy ourselves no matter what the weather does!

Leaving School

This week has been very busy, although I have not done any supply at all.

Little Z has left infant school and will be going into Year 3 in September, so I bought cards and gifts for her teacher and LSA. I did not buy a gift for her headteacher, (I refer you to an earlier post!). Buying gifts for teachers, especially as Little Z's teacher is retiring, is difficult. I try to find something which they will not just put onto the car boot sale the following weekend, yet do not want to spend a lot of money. I am afraid I decided to buy chocs for the LSA and found a lovely gift book for the teacher. Little Z also painted them a mug each and put a message on the bottom. I think they liked the gifts, although you can never tell, as they are hardly likely to say, "I am afraid you can take these gifts back, because I just don't like them. What were you thinking?"

Now we have six weeks ahead of us with no getting up early to take Little Z to school. I am looking forward to spending some quality time with her while Big J is at nursery.

And relax...

A Long Day

What a fantastic day out. We spent the day today at Longleat Safari Park and although it cost us £56 for 2 adults and 1 child (we don't pay for Big J) it was worth it. We only managed to visit half of the attractions in the main grounds before driving to the Safari Park. Luckily, the "Passport Ticket" we bought allows us to go back within 12 months to visit all the attractions we did not manage to visit today.

There is no way we could have crammed any more into today. We got to the park at 10.30 (it only opens at 10am) and left at 6.30 (it closes at 5.30 - not sure how we managed that!)

By far, the highlight of the day was seeing an outgoing, confident (words never previously used to describe Little Z) Little Z running around the adventure playground, climbing rope ladders, walking across high bridges and going down long tunnel slides. These are all things which a few months ago she would not have contemplated doing. The mere thought of going down a big tunnel slide or climbing apparatus by herself filled her with fear. I never used to see the point in taking her to these adventure playgrounds as she never wanted to go on anything by herself. Now, I will definitely take her to theme parks etc as she seems to have gained some courage to try things out even if she's not quite sure if she's going to like it.

Other great moments of the day included feeding some fallow deer. We bought a cup of deer feed (looked like rabbit food) and let the deer eat out of our hands. We also gave a ride to a monkey (other than Big J) as he jumped onto the campervan and climbed up onto the roof taking a little peek in at the top window.

It was all too much for Big J and by half way around the Safari Park he fell asleep. He missed the Rhino (his favourite animal at the moment!), and the deer and woke up just as we got to the lions and tigers. I would have been more comfortable if we'd had a childlock on his door as we went through the lions enclosure, but luckily he was too sleepy to try to get out and play with the lions.

The only disappointment was that the traffic queues at the Safari Park were very long and we had to wait quite a while sometimes to move onto the next area. It usually takes about 1.5 hours to drive around the park. We were there for about 3 hours. It did not spoil the day though and it's a day out I would definitely recommend.

Holiday in The Sun

This week was half term, which would be more relevant if I had actually found a teaching job by now (okay, I know this is getting tiresome - I will stop going on about it!) but for little Z it means she does not have to go to school this week. PP had also booked the week off and so we all went off to Brixham in Devon for 5 days. We had collected our tokens in the Sun newspaper and booked our holiday online (a privilege allowed only to those who have been on a Sun Holiday before as we have). It cost us £9.50 each and then £10 for linen & services. So, for less than £50 we got to stay at Pontins' Wall Park Holiday Village in Brixham for 4 nights. It was great. The accommodation was a little on the small size and PP and I had to sleep on a sofa bed, which was not all that comfortable, but we had loads of great days out and spent some quality time together as a family. The best day out was undoubtably our trip to Dartmouth. We travelled by steam train from Paignton to Kingswear then took the passenger ferry across to Dartmouth where we then took a lovely walk for just over a mile to Dartmouth Castle. Dartmouth was really beautiful. I would love to go back there and spend some more time looking around, but have been warned that it is better explored on foot rather than by car.

So, a fantastic week was had by all, particularly the credit card company, who will probably have benefitted most from our day trips and visits to various tack-filled souvenir shops! I would definitely recommend collecting the tokens and trying out one of these holidays.