H Discovers Harry Potter

I’ve been looking forward to the day H would start to borrow my books, and while the majority of them won’t be borrowed for several years yet, my Harry Potter set has been sat waiting for the right opportunity to be read.

H reading Harry Potter

Last year at school on World Book Day, all of H’s teachers dressed as different Harry Potter characters which was awesome – I was laughing out loud at them as they looked fantastic. We had started to read the first Harry Potter book, ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’ together, but if I’m to be honest, I didn’t enjoy reading it out loud – I never have enjoyed reading out loud. We got some of the way in, then I decided it might be easier to watch the film. We did, and left it until we knew H would ask to read more.

Bearing in mind she’s almost six and a half, so still quite young, I’m having to remember what happens in which books, although she has seen parts of the films (there’s nothing quite like spoilering films for your young child so they know which characters make it to the end by catching bits on television!). At the moment I want to stop around Book 3 and see how she has managed with the Dementors, which I think is around the time things start to get quite dark. We’ll wait a  little bit for Book 4, I think.

A week or two ago she picked up Harry Potter again – and read The Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets in record time (and has since asked for a Nimbus 2000 broom, and some Hogwarts robes) and is now settling into The Prisoner of Azkaban.  We bought the Box Set (affiliate link) of all the films on DVD over Christmas too.

Harry Potter DVD collection

For the Harry Potter films the same rules apply as Star Wars – The Force Awakens – she can’t unsee something bad, and the Harry Potter films jump from being PG’s to a 12A from the Goblet of Fire film onwards, so it’s a tricky ground to walk on to make sure she sees the film if it’s appropriate, without scaring her!

It has been quite interesting too, as I felt like the very first Harry Potter movie was identical to how I imagined it reading the book, whereas she sees it differently. I pointed out to H there is no right or wrong way to imagine things, as everyone has their own unique vision of how it is. I love it’s getting her imagination going!

We’re planning on going to the Harry Potter Studio Tour on my birthday in April this year, so this was another reason to encourage H to read the books, mainly so she didn’t ask too many questions – and I’m already seeing she’s become a cross between Hermione and Karen from Outnumbered, so I suspect she’ll be telling me what things are.

I showed H the inside front of my copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, as Shaun bought it for me as a wedding present, and wrote in the front – she’s loving that I got a book as a present, and I’m loving that she’s get as much enjoyment from them as I have.

But yes, at this point in time, maybe until she’s seven, we’ll start the fourth book, but talk about it. It will be read in the daytime rather than last thing at night, and we’ll see how we go. From September H has to wear a tie to her Junior school, so I’ve ordered her a Gryffindor one – I’ve told her if she can manage to work out how to tie it, then I’ll order her those Hogwarts Robes – there’s nothing like a bit of bribery to get her working a bit harder!

Project 366 – Week 1

Friday 1st January. As has been tradition since I was pregnant, we headed to the sea for New Year’s Day. It was a quiet New Year’s Eve at home, and in fact I fell asleep until Shaun woke me up at five to midnight! We saw the New Year in and then I probably fell asleep again. We chose Brighton this year (we seem to alternate between Brighton, Bognor and Eastbourne, with occasional Portsmouth trips) and it was suitably freezing, there were big waves, and several shops open where I made the most of the sales. We stopped at Ed’s Diner where H was amazed there was a jukebox at our table and put loads of 20p’s in, to choose songs she liked!

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Saturday 2nd January. I bought myself Bridget Christie’s book, and have finally started reading it. (See, reviews and doing my own stuff took a back seat over Christmas and New Year, but I’m putting it right) Anyway, most of the first chapter is about farting. I went to get some sneaky chocolate so H wouldn’t notice and put my book down. Then it amused me I’m reading a book about farting and I placed it next to a whoopee cushion.

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Sunday 3rd January. We’re Amazon Prime members so I ordered the Harry Potter Box Set from their Prime Now service which generally gives you one hour delivery if you spend over £20 within London. So we watched the first two films with H, mainly to prepare her for my birthday trip to see the Harry Potter Studio Tour which I’m planning! Plus of course ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ is released this year!

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Monday 4th January. Inse(c)t day. So we went to Chessington to meet with friends and to pick up our renewed Merlin Passes. H and her friend had fun and it was REALLY quiet as most other kids were back to school. The only ride open was the carousel which we had to ourselves for one go, it was that quiet!

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Tuesday 5th January. Back to school/work and so on. I was greeted by a pile of boxes on my desk which had all these goodies inside. It’s great getting deliveries at work, but not so great having to bring them all home on the train!

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Wednesday 6th January. Back to knitting – and back to tackling the Mollie Makes crochet daisy I managed to complete last time. It isn’t quite right this time, but I’m able to unpick and work things out which is progress. This is the start of it.

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Thursday 7th January. When we went to Brighton, I was a bit disappointed you can’t buy the individual Lego characters from The Force Awakens. We don’t need any new Lego kits right now, but H wanted a Rey. They directed me to Bricklink which is completely unofficial but meant I could buy a Rey for H. She arrived, anyway. She eventually made it to the Millenium Falcon and H spotted within an hour!

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Friday 8th January. I love that H’s school have some Shakespeare books for younger readers, and that she chose it of her own accord. I don’t love that H forgot to bring home a Free Reader sheet – she has to answer questions about the book once she has read it, but it’s all good in the end.

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Saturday 9th January. The laziest day of 2016 so far. H and I stayed in our pyjamas all day, the first week back was tiring, and her activites don’t even start until next week. So we were extremely lazy. H was happy The Voice has started again, was amazed that Boy George was that “Karma Chameleon singer from Absolute Eighties” and quite liked Paloma Faith.

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