Well, my research in preparation for any questions my kids may ask me about Harry Potter kind of back-fired on me. Collin (my 3rd grader) saw me reading the books, his teacher has a poster on her wall of Harry, and the first book is on her bookshelf. So, of course, the first week of school Collin came home with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (the 1st book in the series) after checking it out of the school library!
I told Collin to pray about whether this was the right time to read the book and I told him that I would be praying about that also. My instinct when I first read the Sorcerer's Stone was that Collin could probably handle it well, but I would want to read through it with him. As we prayed for wisdom and discernment regarding the book, we felt that it would be appropriate for him to start reading it as long as we have a good discussion after each chapter.
As I started to work out what that would "look like," I decided to type up some questions for Collin to guide our discussions. I thought that this would be good to post here since several folks I have talked to seemed interested in it. There are so many themes to discuss such as reality vs. fantasy, breaking rules, making friends, making enemies, death and orphans, peer pressure, and much more. These questions are not necessarily all that we will discuss obviously, but I think that it is a good starting point.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Reading Guide
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Reading Guide -- update
Disclaimer: This is just one Dad's attempt to guide a discussion of the book with his kiddo. I do not have a degree in either literature or childhood education/development so take this with a grain of salt! If you do want to use it with your family, please copy these questions and personalize them or change them to your own purposes. If you use this for anything other than for your family (as if . . .), please provide appropriate credit consistent with copyright and intellectual property provisions.
If you have any trouble downloading these reading guides, then please e-mail me.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Get posts via RSS feed
1 comment:
Hey Chris! Just found your blog thanks to facebook...anyway I was wondering if you have read Looking for God in Harry Potter by John Granger? It's quite fascinating. Some of it is probably over Collin's head but I think you would enjoy some of the things he has to say, and I'm pretty sure he gives some ideas for talking about the books with your kids...if you're interested I'll happily loan you my copy!
-Suzanne
Post a Comment