pretend Archives » Nurture for the Future

Rhino’s Sleepover

G2 brought home “Rhino” – the class mascot – to stay over for the night. His responsibility was to look after Rhino and to write in a diary about the things they did together. So here’s how he entertained Rhino…

Let’s go to Africa!

First they “flew” off to Africa to visit the waterhole where they met lots of other animal friends (yes, I realise that some of these animals don’t belong in Africa). They stopped by a waterhole and had fun diving into it and making big (imaginary) splashes.

Campfire Night!

After all that fun at the waterhole, it was starting to get late, so they had to set up camp for the night. G2 and Rhino roasted marshmallows over the camp fire and they were delicious!

After a tasty dinner, they both felt so tired, they went to sleep in the tent…

Journal Records

Wow… I thought encouraging G1 to practice handwriting was giving me nosebleeds. Getting G2 to practice handwriting is like… well, a lot worse. I didn’t take a photo of his diary entry, but at least his teacher will have photos to help her decipher the text…

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Advanced Potion Making Class

by Shen-Li Lee 1 Comment

We like playing pretend and exploring the countless magical worlds we can be a part of in our minds. Sometimes we invent them, sometimes we borrow them, and sometimes it is an amalgamation of various worlds we have heard about. Yesterday, G1 decided he was going to attend an Advanced Potion Making Class from Harry Potter and create a few potions for school…

G1: I have extra homework today. I have to make potions. I’m going to make Felix Felicis, a love potion, and a dream potion.

Since he wanted to be able to taste the potion, we used drinking water, food colouring and Super Sprout powder for flavour.

This was one of the potions G1 made…

Felix Felicis

A.K.A “liquid luck”. Imbues the user with unlimited luck for a duration of time after consumption of this potion.

It is meant to be used sparingly, however, as it causes giddiness, recklessness, and dangerous overconfidence if taken in excess. Felix is highly toxic in large quantities and is also a banned substance in all organised competitions, such as Quidditch, along with all other methods of cheating. It is very difficult to make, disastrous if made wrong, and requires six months to stew before it is ready to be consumed. – Harry Potter Wiki

G1’s ingredients for Felix Felicis:

10 parts red “dragon’s blood tears” (red food dye)
10 parts yellow “sulfurous ash” (yellow food dye)
few drops of midnight blue (blue food dye)
a dash of carrot
a sprinkle of lemon

Combine the ingredients into a cauldron and stir it up.

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Good Ol’ Fashioned Fun: Let’s Pretend!

by Shen-Li Lee Leave a Comment

Pretend Play and Role Playing offer many benefits for children. They help develop:

Social and Emotional Skills
Language Skills
Cognitive Skills
Imagination
Motor Skills

Role playing with fantasy games can also help children to manage their anxieties. Through imaginative pretend play, children can explore ideas and emotions in a “safe” environment.

So here we are playing Harry Potter with our magic wand, remembrall, book of Advanced Potions Making, cauldron, and potion ingredients – blood moss, spider’s silk, nightshade, mandrake root, black pearl and sulphurous ash…

We’ve also been recycling the Hobbit costumes I made for Book Week. Our Elven blades were a little worse for wear after the boys did battle with evil Goblins and Orcs so Mama the Smithy had to “reforge” the swords with Mithril sourced from our Angry Birds Go race track.