Welcome to Hogwarts

My first internet love was not parenting communities, though I’ve dabbled in them sporadically over the years. Nor was it blogging, per se, or homeschooling communities. No, my first home online was the Harry Potter fandom. I was heavily involved for several years, and still pop in and check on it from time to time. I made friends in those years with which I still keep in touch on a regular basis. In short, I’m a great big old Harry Potter dork.

Which is why, naturally, I want The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook, and own this gem: Charmed Knits.

I was perusing my knitting books last night (looking for a hat pattern I could knit up quickly for FB, as his old hat is getting small), and as I looked through the section featuring House-themed mittens, scarves, socks, hats, and jumpers (sweaters, to us non-Brits), I had a horrible, but wonderful idea.

EG is turning eleven in August. Wouldn’t it be fun to knit her a bunch of things in her “House colors” for her birthday and/or the start of school next year? Even better, what if I made next year a Hogwarts-themed year?

The first task, of course, is to determine EG’s house. I don’t think she would go anywhere but Ravenclaw, though of course she is brave enough to tackle all those roller coasters she loves. I’ll have to (subtly) make sure she agrees with Ravenclaw enough before I commit too much time and yarn to the project.

A Hogwarts-themed year, though. Some classes have analogues that immediately spring to mind.

Potions: Chemistry
Herbology: Botany
Care of Magical Creatures: Zoology
Astronomy: Astronomy
Arithmancy: Mathematics
Ancient Runes: Foreign Language
History of Magic: History

Like Professor McGonagall, I see little to no need for Divination.

Other subjects get a little murkier. I don’t necessarily want to have such a science-heavy year, and of course some of the classes are electives in third year at Hogwarts, but I’m not leaving out mathematics or foreign language.

The remaining Hogwarts classes are Muggle Studies, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Transfiguration.

The remaining mundane/Muggle classes I’d want to be sure to cover are literature, language arts, fine arts, logic, and possibly some kind of computer class.

Muggle Studies would map well to computers, and possibly logic; most wizarding-raised witches and wizards seem pretty illogical in JKR’s portrayal (which, admittedly, does seem biased at times). Alternatively, logic could be termed Defense Against the Dark Arts! Obviously, literature & language arts can be combined into one class. My first thought is to make Transfiguration for English as a class; Minerva seems like a strict teacher requiring a good deal of reading and writing, so while it’s a stretch, I can make it work in my mind. That leaves Charms for fine arts, which doesn’t really match at all, except that it’s somewhat amusing. I mean, fine arts can be charming, right?

Flying & Quidditch obviously would cover physical education.

Obviously, I think this could be a fun conceit, not to mention give me some direction in terms of birthday presents for this coming year. I could even introduce cooking and knitting under the guise of training her up like Hermione, to avoid oppression of the house elves. I mean, me. ;)