Wild About Harry

Despite some logic flaws, some "forced" plot devices, and all of the hype, I will happily admit to being a long-time fan of Harry Potter.

I love the richness of the wizarding culture, the depth of the characters, especially the minor ones, and above all the detail. I LOVE detail! And the Potterverse provides plenty.

I also love the messages that flow throughout: you have choices and they are more important than other people's expectations, the true value of a person has little to do with their ancestry or finances, doing what is right isn't always easy, people aren't "good" and bad" but there are many shades of grey, love is the strongest of all magic, tolerance and acceptance of those who are different than you is important if not vital.

We had the pleasure on Friday of attending the opening day of the Harry Potter exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre. While I found the admission price a bit hefty, I have to say I was truly impressed. The presentation was nicely done, truly bringing the wizarding world to life. The detail was phenomenal. We spent about two hours in the exhibit in all. I especially enjoyed the books, magazines and newspapers, as well as the candy presentations. Hagrid's hut was also spectacular. My sons enjoyed the dark magic and quidditch sections. The portraits, some moving, were also lots of fun, and the costumes were incredible, esp. the dress robes and the Bloody Baron's costume.

We have had lots of fun with Harry Potter. I read the entire series aloud to the family, and a couple of books I re-read aloud. We have held two HP themed birthday parties. We even made the trek to "New Hogsmeade" (New Hamburg, transformed) for the release of book 7. We stayed at a campground on that trip, just like in the quidditch tournament in book 4.

We are planning a 3rd HP themed birthday party soon. This one will be a sleepover with less "pretendy stuff" but lots of themed candy and drinks. I have enough unique ideas for several parties still! From firewhisky (gingerbeer spiked with hot pepper sauce), to homemade Bertie Botts jellybeans (dill, salmon, lavender, onion, cayenne pepper, clove, brewer's yeast and basil flavours), there should be some interesting conversations happening. I also designed a chocolate frog box loosely based on the ones used in the movie, and adapted a wizard card idea from another I found on the web, changing them from rectangular to pentagonal, editing the information to make it fit better on the cards, and adding several new wizards to the mix. Since I did use someone else's work for that part, I will not be sharing those on my site, but I will try and share the ones I did myself. Here is a link to the original:
http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.minionsweb.com/images/frog/cards1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.minionsweb.com/frog.htm&usg=__1OsagBsOjPRJXQzU6IzsHMNKinc=&h=1391&w=1550&sz=759&hl=en&start=5&itbs=1&tbnid=M82A1UU0omBVTM:&tbnh=135&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwizard%2Bcards%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1B3GGGL_enCA260CA261%26tbs%3Disch:1

One other set of cards I found are here:
http://www.sewhooked.org/crafts/pdf/hp_wizardcards.pdf

Other things I found already done were the butterbeer labels: http://www.costumes.org/tara/photoalbum/potter/butterbeerlabels.jpg
and Bertie Botts jellybean bag template (a bit of a colour ink pig!): http://www.sewhooked.org/crafts/img/ref/bertiebottsbag.jpg

I am also planning to add many new ideas to my wizarding page, and divide it into party ideas and educational ideas. I will add links to knitting patterns, candy templates (like the ones above), and all of the party ideas we have tried thus far (refrigerator box maze, growing jellybeans, talking sorting hat, making your own "Moaning Myrtle", and much, much more! Since I have been searching the net, and creating my own materials, activities and resources for several years, this may become one of the larger sources of Harry Potter related "stuff to do" found on the net.


Currently, the wizarding page has experiments, ideas for further research, games for older kid/teens too), a novel study and some recipes and wizard-theming ideas.
You can see my current wizarding page here. don't forget to check back in May!

Zen and the Art of Paper Mache

I love paper mache--the warm goey paste, the satisfying tear of newspaper and the calming, repetitive action of placing strips to create new from old.
My youngest son has just recently joined me as I yet again add a paper mache component to the birthday party decor. He now appreciates the quiet I think, which is a first for this otherwise very "actionful" guy. I just enjoy his company doing something we can share together.

I didn't always feel so kindly about paper mache. I had a long-term occasional teaching position for a grade 5 class once. I was their 5th teacher that year, and I will not elaborate much more on that other than to say that doing uncooked flour and water paper mache with them during near the end of the year did not work out well! Most of them went mouldy over the weekend. After that, I swore off of paper mache until my own kids were young.

I priced out train pinatas for my son's 3rd birthday party and decided we'd try it out again. This time I tried using a cooked cornstarch paste. I just used the gluey paste my grandmother and I used to make for crafts, but added less cornstarch and more water. I cut out a frame for it from cardboard boxes (cut out most of the panels leaving only the edges and corners behind) and covered the whole thing. It worked out wonderfully well, but I did learn that 4 layers of paper mache creates a strong material reminiscent of the likes of kevlar (you know, the stuff they use for bullet-proof vests and lightweight canoes!). Next time round we made two layers, then cut a couple of round holes in it and just did a single layer over the holes. This worked better, although it was still quite challenging!

Since then we have made a few batches of dragon's eggs, a dragon, a troll mask, some paper mache jar vases, paper mache pumpkins and several other things I'm sure I'm forgetting!

This year it's another batch of dragon's eggs. Bring on the cornstarch!

For the basic paste, see here (below the recipe are instructions for dragon's eggs, and making creatures too)
For paper mache jar vases, see here