Summer holidays are officially over and it’s back to school, work, or the usual routine. Remembering back to my own childhood, this was also around the time when I would discover if all that summer fun had led to another growth spurt.

Well …  mum would find out, technically, because she’d swear a bit under her breath, “has someone shrunk the flipping laundry!” and have to look for some new clothes that would fit me – even though she’d done that just six months ago. Ah, good times. When I used to grow upwards, not outwards!

So, today’s theme is: growing ↑UP↑

Let’s start with a cute new board book about just that:

Link to Catalogue record for Now I'm big!
Now I'm Big! open page

The next two stories about growing up are interesting because they look at it from very different perspectives.

In the first, little Herb will try anything to grow up faster; in the second, Angelica wants to stop to the process entirely because becoming a big girl means more responsibility!

Link to Catalogue record for I want to grow
Link to Catalogue record for All grown up?

 

If you want to explore the topic in a way that promotes some thought and discussion, why not try something from our junior non-fiction collection, like:

Link to Catalogue record for My growing body

 

Or perhaps you want to make sure they don’t grow up too quickly and remember to just enjoy being a kid. If you’re lucky, they may even let you big kids in on the fun!

Link to Catalogue record for 101 games to play before you grow up

As this is a pram jam post I really want to finish off with a rhyme but, unless I’m missing something super-obvious, I can’t think of a “growing up” rhyme! The closest I can get is a classic rhyme that has been converted to a Christmas theme. 

It is about growth, though, so I think we’ll be okay. Here goes …

I'm a Little Pine Tree - rhyme