Raising Two Americans

Dylan reluctantly pets the dragon. Hagrid would be proud.

In yet another installment of  Daddy and Dylan Day, Dylan and I went all wizard last Saturday.

The Roper Mountain Science Center in Greenville County hosted “The Science of Harry Potter.”

The program, which is an excuse to get kids and parents into the science center, married its exhibits with themes from the Harry Potter series of books by J.K. Rowling.

The program, open from 9 a.m.-1 p.m., was a lot to take in. There was no way we would be able to see everything, and there was a lot.

Among the activities:

• Hold mice, snakes and a dragon.
• The chance to meet and hold these Hogwarts creatures … tarantulas, giant toads and a python.
• Quidditch demos … Well, this is as close as you can come to quidditch without being able to fly. There was a Harry Potter day camp back in the summer where the kids played quidditch, apparently. Some of the pupils were brought back to demonstrate the sport. There were hula-hoops suspended from trees branches for the rings. Soccer balls were used, and a tennis ball was the golden snitch. And did I mention there was no flying? Dylan was not impressed.
• Old-fashioned broom making
• The younger kids made bitty brooms from small sticks and yarn.
• Among several demonstrations at the planetarium, there was a chart showing how all the names of the Black family (as in Sirius) corresponded with astronomy.
• The kids could take a tour of the forbidden forest and discuss the botany of wands.
• There were readings from “The Tales of Beetle the Bard.”
• Wandmaking … using pretzels, chocolate and sprinkles.
• Learning to write with quills.
• Herbology … making your own herbal tea bag.
• Meeting a live barred owl.
• Photo opportunities with the Sorting Hat.
• Potions lab … activities such as making slime, smoke, etc.

Dylan loved it. Even if the ties to Harry Potter weren’t always so strong. Really, the whole point is just to get you into the science center. Once you’re there, there’s almost no choice but to learn. And it was well worth the $9 total it took for us to get in.

When Harry Potter camp comes up next summer, I think we’ll be there.

This entry was posted on October 19, 2009 at 12:27 am and is filed under Books, Family, Movies with tags Dylan, Greenville County, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, quidditch, Roper Mountain Science Center, The Tales of Beetle the Bard. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.