Reasons 2B Cheerful - Hogwarts And Other School Magic

1
We are reading Happy Potter! Well I am reading Harry Potter to DD. I put it off for ages because I didn't want to get to the end of book two and have to stop for five years while she caught up with Harry in age, school years, and maturity. And I also wasn't sure if she'd understand it yet - we are otherwise reading those silly and endless fairy/princess books that all have the same plot repeated on different days of the week in different colours.

But last week we saw a picture of HP and DD said casually: Oh look, it's Harry Potter. Mummy who is Harry Potter?

So I thought we'd try it.

A bit of background. In 1998 (or maybe early 1999) when the first two books came out, a friend bought them in London and read them to her two young children. They all loved the books so much that she lent them to me, as I was the local English teacher for that age. I read both books in one weekend. When I gave them back I said, "Caroline, these books are going to be bigger than Peter Pan." Was I right or was I right? Anyway, I bought my own copies (not first editions alas) and now have five out of the seven books.

DD is loving it. She gets a chapter a night but today did extra pages of Hebrew and Maths to earn another chapter after lunch. And I get to read Harry Potter again too. Over the years students of mine have been obsessed with HP and tried to discuss various parts of the plots but I could never remember the details of what happened in each book and why. So I'm rediscovering the excitement all over again.

DD doesn't know that there's a film of this book. I can feel a big movie night coming up....

2
In other school news apart from Hogwarts, a friend from DD's class who was here for the year but, sadly for us, is returning to the US this summer, came round with four t-shirts and four sweatshirts with the school logo on them (even two white shirts which they have to wear on special days). This is our school uniform which they can wear with any kind of bottoms they like, so we are set for September and the winter.

3
The final school in this post is the swimming school at the local pool where DD is having her annual set of summer swimming lessons. The course is 11 lessons in very small groups at whatever level you need. We've had four lessons so far but there's something going on with the secretary so we've not been able to pay yet. They don't seem to mind and they keep saying to pay next week. I'm happy to pay and I know we will eventually pay but meanwhile my credit card gets paid on Sunday so I've just got myself a whole extra month before the money goes out of my account. It's the summer, every little helps.

A flash might have been good here. 

4
On Tuesday evening DD suddenly came running in to tell me that outdoor movie night was starting, she could see it from her bedroom window. We first went to this three years ago when she was 4 1/2 but she found it hard to follow the movies in Hebrew. And so did I. So we stopped going.

For the past two years we've had swimming lessons on a Thursday evening, which is when the outdoor movie night usually occurs. Coming home tired and not really being interested in movies in Hebrew, we gave it a miss.

However, as it was on Tuesday and we were at home, we went down. Some of DD's school friends were there so she ran to sit with them. The movie was Inside Out and DD really enjoyed it. Next week I'm taking my folding deckchair and a bag of popcorn.

I hope you're all enjoying your summer. I'm linking up to the other R2BC posts
which are back with Mummy from the Heart for July.