My daughter was so excited to turn eleven. It meant that she was FINALLY able to read Harry Potter. For her birthday, she received a Hogwarts Acceptance Letter (obviously), a time turner necklace, and an illustrated copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.And on the evening of my daughter's eleventh birthday we began a magical journey together.
In the beginning I thought I would read one book each year to her, (DON'T JUDGE! That's how I read them back in the day) but as soon as we finished the Sorcerer's Stone, she begged me to read book 2. And well, except for a brief hiatus between books 4 and 5, we just kept going.
We had a few house rules:
1.We could not watch the movie until we completed the book.
2. My daughter experienced things when Harry did. (She had to wait to get a wand and be sorted into a house until it happened in the book.)
3. She could not read any blogs or watch any youtube videos about the books or movies.
4. This was just reading for pleasure. She did not have do any character analyses, book reports, or worksheets. (This was a little hard for me because I create curriculum ALL THE TIME! Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers page here.)
5. No talking about Harry Potter in front of her younger brothers! They will turn 11 someday, too.
6. We read 6-7 evenings a week. If we did not get home until 9:00 p.m. or later, we would not read that evening.
7. She was not allowed to read ahead without me.
It took roughly 275 days for us to read all seven books. I imagine that we read for about 320 hours total.
Some highlights and observations:
My daughter was so excited to be sorted into her house on pottermore... until she was sorted into Slytherin. At first she was crushed. "Slytherin! Why'd it have to be Slyterin?!" But as the books progressed, she really started to rock the misunderstood house. She proudly wears green and silver now.
I didn't require any work. We just enjoyed the story. But as we were reading, she started building her vocabulary, analyzing characters, and making connections. Sometimes I would read a character's words, and she would correctly guess the character who spoke them. She noticed parallels between Harry and his friends and enemies and James and his friends and enemies. Her writing has become more descriptive.
My daughter is experiencing the moods and emotions that come along with being eleven. On her particularly sad days, I would read earlier in the day, just the two of us, and it usually lightened her mood.
I started reading more bedtime stories and novels to her little brothers. Her brothers requested that I read to them at night, too.
We have been trying to figure out how to make our relationship stronger. We home school, and she gets tired of me. Harry Potter gave us a neutral place to just enjoy a story together.
This is the first time I think she has become friends with the characters in a book. She made fun of my tears when characters died, but secretly she was just as upset.
She did not appreciate the romance. "This is a book about magic," she exclaimed disgustedly, "not a romance book!"
She was floored by a major plot twist. Her reaction was perfect! "What!? I thought he was the bad guy! Everything I knew was wrong!!!!"
The two children's librarians at our library have watched this journey from the time I printed out the Hogwart's Acceptance Letter to our out loud reading of the epilogue. She has enjoyed sharing her thoughts with them.
I almost always read the chapters to her, but she wanted to read the epilogue to me. Here are some sweet pictures of her reaction to the ending of Harry Potter.
This is not some monumental thing we did. I know of at least 5 other families that have read the Harry Potter series out loud to their kids. Create some memories with your children. It's worth it.
We finished HP last night, and tonight we start Andrew Peterson's Wingfeather Saga. Book 1 On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness.
What are you reading?
