Week Two: The Magical Realm

In honour of Master Librarians Jack and Annie, we began our trip in the local library where we conferenced on things magical (wizards, myths and fairies). We spent mornings at The Orchard comparing the worlds of science and magic and covered topics such as changing states, chemical reactions and illusions. We came to the conclusion that there is a lot of science in magic but, as Houdini was so careful to point out, practice is the key to good magic. In the afternoons, we travelled through Trinity Bellwoods park to collect items to make our amulets which we worked on in studio at Artscape. The children also made a fabulous chalk mural depicting Coney Island from the description in Hurry Up Houdini! By the end of the week, each child had a spellbook and an amulet to take home. On Thursday, we were treated to a magic show by Amazing Dan. We spent Friday in High Park on a quest to find the singing tree. Upon entering the forest, we encountered a man sleeping on a log (one of our Dads) who suddenly woke up and told us the Ojibway myths of Nanabush and how the bald eagle lost his feathers and the turtle got his shell. At that point each child was given, based on their personal characteristics, the name of a magical “familiar” who lives in the forest and they set off to find the flags (and in some cases physical evidence) to indicate that their familiar was around. We spent the afternoon on the fairy trail, looking for signs of magical little people and quite amazingly, as we were leaving the park, we came upon a tree with the face of Merlin carved into it. After much walking through trails, climbing walls and rolling down hills, we eventually found the singing tree as well. It truly was a magical week.

Next week, we set sail for Egypt!