Normally this would mean figuring out what summer camps Bug-a-Boo is going to participate in. Over the past several years she chooses 2 to 3 week long day camps, either through the Columbus Metro Parks, the Hilliard Recreation Department or Girl Scouts and then usually one 2-night overnight camp with Girl Scouts. This summer though we are changing things up.
Bug-A-Boo had only 2 requests for this summer's camp options. She wanted to do the 2-night overnight TaeKwonDo camp with her TKD school and she really wanted to do a Harry Potter themed camp. TaeKwonDo camp was easy, but the only Harry Potter themed camp we found was a week long, overnight (in tents) with Girl Scouts and she just wasn't quite ready for that.
We decided that the only thing we could do was to create our own Harry Potter Summer Camp. As soon as we decided that we wanted to do our own, I got to work.
There are 12 weeks of summer this year so I thought the easiest way to organize the camp was to have each week be a different "class". Determining the classes was the first step and finding places around town to visit for field trips was step two.
Week One: Welcome to Hogwarts
It made sense that you take the Hogwarts Express to Hogwarts so I thought a great field trip would be the Ohio Railway Museum (aka Hogsmeade Station).
Week Two: Charms
We are taking a different approach to Charms and we are using it more in it's literal meaning. A charm - as in jewelry, gems, crystals. I thought the Ohio Caverns combination tour to go mining for gems and fossils was a good fit.
Week Three: Transfiguration
Transfiguration is another class we are loosely interpreting. I immediately thought of art. You take a canvas or a piece of clay and you "transfigure" it into a painting or a sculpture. We will be taking a couple of field trips this week. The first trip will be to the Topiary Park in downtown Columbus to do some outdoor painting. Our second field trip will be to the Columbus Museum of Art.
Week Four: Potions
This is one of the only weeks that I couldn't think of anything. Maybe a trip to COSI. Any suggestions would be very welcome!
Week Five: History of Magic
For our History of Magic week will be visiting the Ohio History Center and Ohio Village to learn about the History of Ohio. We will also be visiting Weasley's Wizard Wheezes aka the Be Amazing Magic Shop in Columbus.
Week Six: Astronomy
We will be visiting COSI's planetarium and the Be An Astronaut exhibit.
Week Seven: Herbology
The best place for our Herbology field trip is the Franklin Park Conservatory and a trip to the Park of Roses in Clintonville.
Week Eight: Defense Against the Dark Arts
This is the week of TaeKwonDo camp. There is nothing better than learning to defend yourself with the tenants of TaeKwonDo during Defense Against the Dark Arts week.
Week Nine: Flying Lessons
Off we go into the wild blue yonder! We will be visiting the US Air Force Museum in Dayton for our Flying Lessons field trip.
Week Ten: Care of Magical Creatures/Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
The Columbus Zoo is home to all sorts of Magical Creatures and Fantastic Beasts.
Week Eleven: Divination
We will be reading tea leavess and celebrating Bug-a-Boo's birthday at Madame Puddifoot's Tea House or as we like to call it the Cambridge House Tea House in Upper Arlington. We will also be visiting Honeyduke's (aka Fuzziwig's Candy Factory-Easton).
Week Twelve: Muggle Studies
Some favorite pastimes of Muggles are our focus this final week of camp. We will be visiting the Early Television Museum in Hilliard and attending a Columbus Clippers baseball game.
After establishing all of this it was fairly easy to come up with how to fill the rest of the time. I looked around our house to see what types of things we already had, I consulted our Girl Scout manual to see what badges we could incorporate (Gardener, Flowers, Jeweler, Scribe and Digital Photography) and of course I explored Pinterest.
On the very first day of camp Bug-A-Boo received her Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Summer Session letter as well as a list of supplies. Hedwig delivered the documents to Bug-A-Boo s room and she got all her supplies together. We start this week.
Be sure to follow us this summer to see all the cool fun stuff we are going to be doing and maybe you can get some ideas for your own Harry Potter summer camp. Let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions for field trips for our Potions week.
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