Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Harry Potter Month: Harry Potter and Kids' College

Harry Potter Month is hosted by Faith at Geeky Zoo Girl and Micheline at Lunar Rainbows Reviews. This awesome event runs all through July, and you can find more information about it here.

During the summer between my sophomore and junior year in high school, I volunteered with an organization called Kids' College. Kids' College is basically an educational yet fun summer program for young children. There are tons of different “classes’ that the children can choose to sign up for, such as dance class, sewing class, and Harry Potter class. I obviously jumped at the opportunity to volunteer for the general Harry Potter class and the Harry Potter trivia class.

The general Harry Potter class was designed to be like Hogwarts. There were four houses and the teacher of the class was the headmaster. There were eight high school volunteers for the class, and the Headmaster allowed us to be the “prefects” for the four houses. I was a Slytherin prefect and I absolutely loved it. It was so funny because the kids who were designated to each house kind of fit the qualities of their respective houses. My Slytherin kids were a snarky, competitive bunch, and I adored them. I know that we had to compete for a House Cup but I honestly can’t remember who won. That’s probably because Slytherin lost and I blocked it from my memory lol!

There were different challenges that the kids and prefects had to go through to gain points for their houses. For example, we played a Quidditch tournament which was so awesome and intense. It got to the point where the teacher of the class had to make all the kids sit out because the volunteers for the class were getting so aggressive. I was a Seeker superstar and I caught the Snitch multiple times!

The Harry Potter trivia class was much more laid back. The kids were broken down into teams but they weren’t sorted into any specific houses. The other volunteers and I were equally distributed to the teams, to give the kids some additional help. We just played different types of Harry Potter themed games, such as HP Jeopardy, and whichever team gained the most points by the end of the week was the winner. Again, I believe my team lost, haha. This class was kind of embarrassing because a lot of the little kids were hardcore fans and knew every little detail from the books and movies. It was actually pretty hard competing with the kids and they would get so mad at the volunteers on their team if the volunteers got any question wrong. So, yeah, I had a lot of little kid enemies in that class, lol.

Overall, my experience at Kids' College was a lot of fun. It was so awesome to see how much these little kids loved Harry Potter, and I enjoyed being a part of those classes. I definitely wish I would’ve had a summer program like that when I was little.

10 comments:

  1. I would have LOVED to attend this as a kid, although I have to admit I would definitely have been one of those angry trivia children...

    I'm not so sure about Quidditch, because I'm like the least athletic person ever, but it sounds like you had an awesome time volunteering. I love that the volunteers got so involved that the kids had to sit out a bit; if there's one thing you can guarantee about us HP fans, it's bucket loads of enthusiasm!

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    1. Haha, I would have been an angry trivia kid too! The Quidditch tournament isn't as athletically challenging as it seems. It mostly consisted of people hurling rubber balls across the room and swinging brooms through the air lol.

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  2. I SO WISH we had stuff like that around here, be it as a kid or an adult I would have totally been game :D And like Faith^^ I think I would have been one of those angry trivia people LOL I love the idea of competing for the House Cup 'for real' and playing Quidditch and everything! Sounds like a blast!

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    1. Yeah, competing for the House Cup was definitely intense and a lot of fun. The Quidditch tournament was my favorite part of the class though lol! :)

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  3. This sounds like it would have been an absolute blast to be in as a kid, but also to volunteer at as well. We didn't have anything like this at all when I was a kid. Though I did play Harry Potter trivia with my cousins quite frequently growing up. This makes me want to test my knowledge again. (It might be time to break out the old trivia questions!)
    I'm glad you got to have an experience like this! Thanks for sharing. :)

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    1. Aww, that's awesome that you were able to play HP trivia with your cousins. I'm sure my siblings, Lee, and I would have a blast playing trivia together, although I'm sure it'd get a little ugly, seeing as we are all super competitive and big Potterheads lol!

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  4. This sounds so fun =D!!! Why didn't this exist for me? I loved that you even got to play Quidditch. That sounds just so fun :D. Although I probably would have been incredibly terrible and my whole team would have hated me because I kept blowing the games, but I would have had fun!
    I love how competitive the kids where in the trivia class. I would have been better at the trivia than the Quidditch, but I'm still the greatest Trivia player ever. I haven't re-read the books in a while and so I've forgotten a lot of the little details and so that would have been another team that would've hated me, lol =D

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    1. Haha, yeah, the Quidditch teams were super competitive. I had some skills when it came to Quidditch but I was definitely not the best trivia player, lol! :)

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  5. That sounds like so much fun! Although the trivia games sound a bit dangerous.lol
    I think it's cool that the kids personalities seemed to match with their house. I think that the Pottermore Sorting Hat was right putting me in Slytherin. I would have fit in with most of the houses, but once I was placed in Slytherin I accepted it as truth and embraced it :D

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    1. Yeah, the teacher in charge of the class did a great job sorting kids into houses. Lol, that was how I was when I was sorted into Slytherin. I love being a Slytherin now that I've embraced it! :)

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