A Harry Potter Game Idea

FROM SIMONE - If your child likes Harry Potter, or even if your child doesn't exactly know Harry Potter but enjoys big movements, funny words and slapstick you could use this game idea.

You could dress up with a wizard hat made out of a cardboard cone and use anything as a wand that it is safe to use with your child, a drumstick, a plastic drumstick, a chopstick or even a wand made of paper. For the ones who enjoy creating things, you can even have fun creating and decorating together the wizard hat and wand.

This is a wikipedia list of spells in the Harry Potter books and movies, choose the ones that you think your child is going to enjoy the effect of or the ones you think you can enact in a funny way such as Alohomora, which opens doors, so that you could dramatically open for example a cupboard door and have some toys fall out in a funny way, or Densaugeo, which causes the teeth to grow too much, so that you could place some huge cardboard teeth in front of your teeth for a slapstick effect.

Print, cut out and preferably laminate for prolonged use, cards with a few spells with a short description to remind you what they do. Place them in a sack or shoe box, that could be decorated as a magic box, and have your child draw out for you the spell you are going to cast. The trick is, your wand is broken just like Ron Weasley's in the story and whatever spell you cast it goes back on yourself. Make sure you keep all the props you need at hand to get some really funny stunts from the spells falling on yourself so that your child is inspired to take the next card.

The challenge here is stretching your child's attention span and getting him/her to participate in the game. The more he/she participates the more you can add on perhaps ask your child to use language or to look at you in order to fix your wand.

Have fun and throw some magic into your playroom today!