The First "Official" Day of Summer (to me)

I am at least three quarters of the way through the Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. OMG… what a great story!!!! Great is not the right word… how unimaginative of me! This story has beautiful writing... words, sentences. Pulman is an artist of prose. The Golden Compass is RICH with characters, imagery… another world. It’s constant action… a page turner. This young adult DOES NOT disappoint. My son is on chapter 2. We started yesterday by me reading chapter 1 and him chapter 2. Those first chapters are complicated because you are just being introduced into this world, reading new names/terms. He got tired reading his chapter aloud and took a break so I kept reading. Reading it aloud was his idea. I loose my voice if I try to read anything of significance that way.

I do believe I will not read another book until I’ve completed this series. I love the summer… so that means probably in 4 or 5 days ;)

This is (to me) the first official day of summer. The first weekday (not included the holiday yesterday) without school.

I do have plans for the kids this summer… it’s the summer of diet and exercise… learning how to read a label knowing what to look for. What to eat and why. And also we are doing math and summer bridge workbooks each day to keep their minds stimulated with things other than TV and Gamecube games.

Some may disagree with me… but I pay my kids a penny a page of reading. They don’t pick up books willingly so I bribe them over the summer. I wish my mom would have done that with me. I was a tomboy and lived outside. I never read books (by choice) when I was a kid. The school requires them to read at least three books from a reading list which I’m not too impressed with. I got permission for my oldest to use the Pullman series instead of the books on their list. We have a lot of great young adult books. I’m going to try to work my way through some this summer myself. I still have two Harry Potter books to read and the new Children of the Lamp story.

I do plan on working on my novel today once I’m finished with the Golden Compass.