To let dd15 simply read all summer

[OhLaDiDaDiDa]

Aibu to be okay with dd15’s plan to spend her entire summer reading?

She has GCSEs next year, and I strongly suspect she won’t follow up her plan of studying a few hours very day this summer.

She gets good grades and is a nice girl.

She updated her TBR (“to be read”) list of 100 books and that’s her plan! Some of them are non fiction and the fiction is a lot of “good quality” stuff (not junky AI romantasies!)

As long as she goes out with friends too.

My DD is at the same age, and as much as I'd like her to do a bit of revision each day, or even just an hour a week, it's not going to happen at the moment. I think she'll be more motivated next year when she feels the deadline pressure, but I'd be thrilled if she was planning to read this summer. For us, it will be enough of a battle to get her to come outside for exercise and eat proper meals.

Assuming she also does some exercising (getting out and walking etc) then that sounds fine to me

What’s the problem??

It’s a positive!

Reading is great and no one I knew who read failed their English GCSE!

But ideally, if she wants good GCSEs, some study of everything would be good. Just reading her text books/notes, as she like reading, would be more than a lot do.
Sports/social activities and a job (though it is no longer easy for most 15 year olds to get one, many friends say) are also important.

I would say that you have to insist that she still does her household chores in a timely manner (she does have regular responsibility for some chores, right?)

I would leave it up to her whether she priorities reading over socialising or exercising - that is her choice.

At 15? Not legal

This

Yep that was me age 15! If she’s happy, leave her be!

If she’d like to meet more bookish people, is she active in the online reading community - goodreads, booktok etc? Would she be interested in joining a reading group or volunteering at the library? Are there any good independent bookshops she can hang out at? If you’re in the southwest I can recommend some great, social, introvert-friendly ones.

It's perfectly legal.
Just not many employers take on 15 year olds these days.

I won’t even tell you what I was up to at 15!

I used to do this, I'd read, draw, paint, play my cello, listen to music, watch movies and occasionally try to cook or bake. It was great. I did have a some friends I'd go camping with or see a few times but I was pretty much quite happy to chill on my own. Same as now actually.

Of course it's fine! That's all I did each and every summer in my teens, and I'd say it has served me well for the subsequent 40+ years..... she's a lucky girl!

me too

That was (and is) me - but replace cello with knitting, sewing, attempting to paint furniture…bliss. Unsurprisingly, the majority of my friend were (and are) similarly inclined - sometimes we’d go off to a museum for the day and potter about in a state of nerdy joy.

This. At 15 she's old enough to make her own decisions about how much exercise or socialising she needs.
The last few weeks of Yr 10 are gruelling with mocks and the pressure will be on when they go back in September for more mocks, college applications etc.

Let her enjoy her downtime and go back well rested if that what she feels is right for her.

I adored reading all summer, what bliss.
Does she have friends op? I did see my friends most days around reading.

is this a stealth boast?

i mean - there are probably thousands of 15 year olds who will not do much other than scroll their phones or game on the playstation all summer

Why would it not be okay to read?!

Came here to say exactly this about the worthiness or otherwise of books. I’m an English teacher and a huge book-lover and, don’t get me wrong, I love literature. But reading is a very private experience and what’s worthy for you isn’t necessarily for me and vice-versa. I don’t like the idea of you looking at your daughter’s list of TBR and giving her permission to read them because they’re not “junky”. Nobody should be having their reading choices policed after the age of about ten, in my opinion. In my local authority library growing up you got given your adult library card aged eight and after that the world was your oyster (six books at a time, going up to ten once you were 12). That feels about right to me. Leave your daughter alone to read what she likes and don’t be the book police.

What a wonderful plan! She may not have such an opportunity ever again - with being busy at school, university, adult life. I still remember a summer like that at my grandparents'. Obviously, it was interspersed with walks, swimming and helping gran to clean the house and cook. Never again was I able to have luxury like that - life interfered all the time.

She's only 15!

And don’t make her get a job if she is generally someone with a good work ethic and common sense (hard to tell in a teenager!) and not entitled or getting into trouble. There are decades of work ahead of her.

Bliss! I would love this!

Does she have anyone she can talk to about what she's read? So she's thinking about it rather than just blissfully skim reading?

She could maybe add in a physical challenge too - run or swim or walk each day.

Sounds idyllic. Good for her - reading is such a fabulous thing to get into at a young age. I'd be more than happy!

Agree re books being ‘worthy’ reading is dropping in this country. Any book read is a good book for someone.
As long as for kids it’s age appropriate.