What do you think the youngest age is suitable for watching the 1st Harry Potter ?

[Lardlizard]

?

DH is currently reading the fourth book to our 7 year old. He has watched the first two movies, has an excellent understanding of them, and is not scared. Our nearly 5 year hated the films and found them too dark.

My ds wanted to watch it again the other day, he’s 7 now, but probably first saw it when he was 5.5. Dd watched it with us too for the first time this time and she’s 4.5. This is probably a bit young and I probably wouldn’t have let her brother watch it at this age but she seems to do/get things at a younger age as I expected a lot of younger siblings do. She enjoyed it and has been fine since. She understands it’s made up.

If your children watch HP as pre-schoolers what are they going to watch when they are 12?

Hopefully still HP it's been 19 years since philosophers stone came out and I love it.

DD1 is 7 next week. She's obsessed with HP thanks to her friends at school so over the last year we have read the first 3 books.

I let her watch the films finally last week. She was fine with the first one, she had to stop the second one and mentally prepare herself for the basilisk scenes and she abandoned the third one half way through.

I love being proved right, I knew they were too scary tbh she struggles to keep track of all the characters, I think it's a bit complex for her.

My DCs watched the first two about 6 months ago. They were 5.5 and 3.5yo at the time, although it was DD1 we'd put it on for. Both absolutely love them (they regularly act them out) and DD1 is constantly on at me to watch the third film. I re-watched it a couple of months ago myself to age check it and have said not yet as I think the dementors will be too scary for her (although they wouldn't be an issue for DD2 who is as tough as nails). I can see us cracking fairly soon though, as the pressure is constant and I'm not sure it's a battle I want to expend a lot of energy on! They have also seen all but episode 3 of the first 6 Star Wars films, and have enjoyed those without being scared, so perhaps I'm over-thinking HP3? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think it's a shame if kids come to it too young, or via the movies first, they'll miss a lot of the detail and imagination. It's also tricky as the later books get a lot older and again there's a lot that they wouldn't appreciate.

My eldest just started reading the first at 8, I'm glad he got to wait.

The first one...6 or 7?
The second one more like 8 or 9 tho due to the big ass snake. So maybe best hold off a bit until they can watch them all. 8 or 9 should be fine for them all.

Interesting question as we just watched it. DS is 6 and tbh I thought he was too young. The troll is scary! The dog is scary! Hagrid is scary!