More than half way there! We're on to celebrating book four, The Goblet of Fire, when things get serious. Now, you might be disappointed to hear there is no TriWizard Cup tournament. And, I probably could have gotten some people to be on board- come from other schools, but that just seemed like a lot of coordinating I wasn't up for doing- so instead I focused today on the first part of the book- The Quidditch World Cup!
Now, how do you ask, do I get my 14 year old to wear a scarf (when it's 75 degrees) down to the park and carry his broom with him? Well, that's easy. The kids out this time of day are the home schooled kids in the neighborhood, who wouldn't think twice about what we're are doing (and in fact find our projects usually pretty awesome). All the public school kids (who might possibly judge, being more susceptible to peer pressure)-- well, they're in school! So, Calib didn't seem to mind. In fact, he's ready to play again sometime!
I put today's board up last night, we were back to four lessons for the day.
And we had TWO howlers AGAIN in owl mail this morning.
Calib even got one (poor sportsmanship when he lost the House Cup last night)
We decided to head to the park to do Quidditch after lunch and before our lessons. If you don't know how it works, look it up! It's a sport played in the wizarding world on broomsticks with a quaffle a bludger and a snitch. I had to adapt it as best I could with four participants. I originally was going to tie some hula hoops from the trees, but Calib found it actually worked ok just sticking them up on the branches of one.
Calib was the first Keeper. (everyone got to do one position once, we just rotated every round) He had to guard the hula hoops with his broom. He wanted to deflect the Quaffle (football) from going into the hoop. Each time he blocked it, he got 25 points.
Peyton was the first Chaser. He had to ride his broomstick and throw the Quaffle (football) through one of the hula hoop. If he got it through, he would get 25 points.
Asa was the first Beater. He had the bludger (a small nerf ball) and used the bat to try and tag Peyton by hitting the ball with the bat at the Chaser (Peyton), while Peyton tried to score (he had to stay a certain distance away though, to try and make it more fair). Every time he tagged Peyton with the ball, he got 25 points.
Hayden was the first Seeker . Previously to starting the match, I hid the golden snitch (a gold golf ball) somewhere in the playground area. He couldn't start looking until the first 25 points were scored (because the golden snitch isn't usually spotted right away), but once he found it- he would score 100 points! Since the first player to 100 points won, finding the snitch before the end of the game made you an automatic winner.
It actually worked out pretty well, and the boys had a good time. Peyton won once, and Asa won once.
But Calib won twice, once by being the Keeper and once by finding the golden snitch!! When we were done, we played one game of 'Everyone's the Seeker' and I hid the golden snitch and then they all went to look for it. Asa found it that time (after a few hints)
Sidenote from Harry Potter Week: When we got home we had this in our mail for our upcoming stay at Disney World!
It comes with a fun flashdrive (but really all thats on it is the stuff we access all the time as passholders to 'plan' our trips)
For transfiguration class, we're doing the 'naked egg experiment', so we put the egg in a cup and poured some vinegar in it.
Hayden used his wand and shouted 'eggshell disappear', so we'll see how it all works out.
Potions class was fun today, we did the Magical Dancing Newt Eyes (Raisins) experiment!
In Peyton's glass he put in some soda water and some raisins.
Then he watched them dance around.
Hayden put some gillywater (water) and a sloth brain (an alka seltzer tablet in his), and then added the newt eyes.
And Calib's was a mixture of gilly water, dragon spit (vinegar), and grated dragon teeth (baking soda) for his, and then added the newt eyes.
It's pretty cool what happens. The raisins 'dance' in the glass. The bubbles surround the raisins when they sink to the bottom, making them float to the top. When they get to the top, the bubbles disperse and they sink back to the bottom... and repeat. It's fun to watch.
We also checked on our crystals from potions class yesterday. They are coming along nicely.
While Herbology wasn't on tap for today, we did check on our Mandrakes (Calib took precautions in case he had some Mandrake sprouts)
And we also checked on our flowers to see how the colored potions were effecting them.
Up next was Divination class. Instead of reading tea leaves to determine our futures, the boys each made prophecies or predictions, and then we stained them with tea (so they would look old once they were dry)
Calib wrote this, and less than a minute later, ESPN was reporting Mariota will declare. We'll see what happens.
Peyton was confident but sad about his prediction.
Hayden's is much more optimistic.
And now they're all hanging up in my laundry room to dry.
The Waterstraut Weekly came out as the Quibbler today too. I told the boys whoever wrote the best article would get their picture on the wall as 'Desirable Number One'. Calib wasn't even in the running as he refused to write for the Quibbler, and even wrote IN his article it was for the Daily Prophet.
We had 'Dumbledore's Yule Ball Porkchops for dinner'
And some Yorkshire Pudding! Asa, once again, did a lovely job.
And we had the pop quiz and the House Cup once again tonight.
Our winner: Calib of Ravenclaw! (But it is worth noting Hayden did amazingly well on tonight's pop quiz about the two presidents we've covered so far. He was telling me all about the Fugitive Slave Act and Watergate!) Peyton came in a very respectable second for the house cup, too. He had a moment of poor sportsmanship, but pulled out of it pretty fast. We're not expecting any howlers in owl mail tomorrow morning- thank goodness!
Butterbeers to celebrate! Peyton kindly asked for Polyjuice potion instead and I happily obliged.
Up Next: And the Order of the Phoenix
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