So we watched Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone the other day.

We actually watched the first hour of the movie one night after we had ordered pizza and the next day, Richard and myself were peppered with questions about the characters, why this had happened, who was that again, why did he say that, is he a good guy or a bad guy and on and on.  The scene with the troll was quite vivid in their minds and even Ethan talked about it the next day.  The playing took a sharp Harry Potter turn also, as before the boys even went to sleep that night they had already each made a Harry Potter character out of Lego with a wand and a broomstick.  They breathed Harry Potter for days, continuing to ask questions, play Potter Lego and their own version of wizard’s chess.

James’ creation. It is Ron, Neville, Harry and Hermione in a Hogwart’s classroom.

We few days later we watched the second half of the movie.  It was a little scarier because He Who Must Not Be Named shows himself and anyone who drinks unicorn blood is just horrible!  We kind of used the movie as an introduction to reading the first book aloud to James and Matthew as part of our daily routine.  We also did some journalling about Harry Potter and their favorite scenes from the movie.

Gryffindor bedrooms where Ron and Harry sleep. Can you spot the owls?

We will see how long the Potter Lego lasts.  Their playing definitely reflects what they/we input into their brains either via playing a game or watching a movie or even reading a book.  After viewing each of the Star Wars movies, out comes Han Solo, Chewbacca and Luke Skywalker.  We also have several Darth Vader’s as well and we now own the Millenium Falcon.  They build pod racers and have small armies of droids.  After playing a game of Agricola, they create vast and complicated farms and trade for resources, all out of Lego.  James created a photo journal of Dominion cards made from Lego.  And after reading a Beverly Cleary book about a boy named Henry and his dog, Ribsy, we have a dog stuffie named Ribsy as well!  They also play a Lego set up of “bad team always wins and the good team always loses”.  I’m not quite sure where that came from, but it sure sounds interesting!

Hogwart’s; complete with the library, Gryffindor dormitories and a classroom.

L