Facing fears

Our holiday to Heron Island is drawing nearer! We are all very excited but the girls both have great fears of sharks and are quite worried about encountering some when we are there.  In an effort to help them past their fear, we took a trip to the Australian Sharks and Rays Centre not far from here.  Here we found a huge number of Fiddler Rays, Estuary Rays, Black Rays, Southern Eagle Rays, White Spotted sharks and Nurse sharks.

All suited up and ready to go. The sticks are used to feed the rays and sharks.

 A Black Ray

 Fiddler Rays

White Spotted shark aka gummy shark

After three hours feeding and patting these beautiful animals, we all agreed that our favourites were the sharks.
The girls say they're not afraid anymore and were both very proud of themselves for facing their fears.

Lately H has been absorbed in books. R lamented that H was "becoming just like mum and dad - always with your nose in a book!"  I told her that in a few years time when reading wouldn't be hard anymore she'll be just the same, but by the end of that sentence R had already run out of the room. Sigh.
Anyway, H has discovered Shakespeare and is loving reading his plays.  Well, when I say reading his plays I don't mean his actual plays, but a series of Shakespeare's play rewritten for kids.  They are written by Andrew Matthews and have wonderful illustrations by Tony Ross. So far she's read The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing and The Tempest.  And by sheer coincidence her uncle P is performing in Hamlet soon, so we'll definitely take the girls to see that.