What do you do to make the world a bit more magical for your DC?

[overthemoonbymidnight]

AIBU in thinking we could do with some more magic?

What do you do for your DC?

I'd love to hear your stories...

I’m not sure if this is the sort of magic you mean but...

When my son misplaces his toys (happens on a weekly basis) if I find it, I never tell him immediately, I always do some crappy magic trick and just like that the little figure or car appears in the palm of my hand!

I also sometimes buy little bags of choc coins and they have been known to magic from behind my sons ear if he’s been a good boy.

Me and my husband sometimes play a trick on him where we both pretend he’s invisible too. He goes around and causes mischief for a while and we act like we can’t see him. I say a spell and everything! He thinks it’s hilarious! I bring him back with another spell... “eye of dragon, tail of deer, make this boy reappear” etc

He actually thinks I’m magic! He’s four so not sure how much longer it will last.

Green it is then!

I turn off and dim my daughters bedroom light using the app on my phone while she waves a magic wand and shouts abra cadabra. Sometimes I put pink food colouring in grated cheese to make princess cheese toasties.

When we finally get our garden sorted, I will get a fairy house, as well as some insect houses etc.

@Alpacanorange that is exactly what I meant so I'd love to hear what you do...

The magical fairy and elves stuff is also wonderful!

So many great ideas (and I'm totally going to borrow some of them)

@turncloak moving the teddies around is brilliant!!

Thanks everyone!!

All my kids and nephews know that I am magic. I feel their tummy and I can tell what they have eaten for dinner, just by touch. Its nothing at all to do with the sauce smears on their faces or garlic smell in their hair

Our house elf leaves poo (hersheys kisses) for my kids to eat when they have tidied their bedrooms. The kids occasionally get postal awards/letters from the magical council for excellent behaviour/achievements.

Life is too short not to inspire magic. We used to have fairy tea parties in the spring and summer in the woodland. It was so fun and lovely for the children to run around hunting for fairies and playing games.

We also make homes for ants, wood lice and other some insects out of wood, and make them a garden. Sprinkle breadcrumbs and then go and find the insects for the house. It would take hours of elaborate effort as the children have grown up so the houses have become even better.

Fairy perfume - collect rose petals and lavender and then sprinkle the smallest amount of glitter and shake. Decant into a small bottle (you can even buy the ones with corks which look very sweet)

Make wind chimes for good positive vibes, similarly feather dream catchers for those that have unsettled nights.

You can have a lot of fun, for me this makes motherhood worthwhile, a break from the mundane and ordinary.

Books!

We had Father Christmas and the tooth fairy (of course).

We had "mummy magic" - she always knows when youve not brushed your teeth or washed your hands.

We had drop bears (courtesy of Mr Pratchett) and Scandinavian trolls and exploding daisies to make walks more exciting.

The dragons were probably a mistake. The bear hunt was a total disaster.

We have silly names for things eg sprouts are fairy cabbages!

Watts Gallery in Surrey have a Fairy Fair every July.

Their first was inspired by a collection by Richard Dadd a few years ago and it was so popular that they've made the festival an annual weekend event.

Not much tbh apart from the usual Santa/Tooth Fairy/Easter egg hunt thing. They don't seem to have suffered too much.
We occasionally visit EH/NT places and do their fairy hunts and enchanted Christmas trails.
We go out to the summerhouse on dark (but warm!) evenings, turn the twinkly lights on, close the door and listen for the owls.
Other than that I think we tend to take a more scientific route (which in a way is magical in itself) and do cool experiments like washing up liquid rockets, making rainbows, dissolving skittles in lemonade, investigating how sounds travel and things like that.

I make our pets talk in silly voices and have mundane conversations with them. They find it hilarious.

Google Dinovember...we love it here! And they have got up to all sorts. Am due a baby in November this year so didn’t think I’d manage it, so instead we’re havjng ‘ducktober’...every night little rubber ducks are appearing in different places, more ducks each night (we’re up to around 45 ducks now). My little one loves hunting and counting them!

We used to hide wrapped sweets - usually gold coins - in hollowed out trees in the woods. Mainly it was so our kids would join us on country walks.But they became obsessed with it. They used to sing thank you songs to the fairies and make them boats out of sticks and leaves in return. It was unbearably cute.

The tooth fairy and Santa both used to exchange letters with DC.

I never got round to doing the Easter Bunny though. And though we sometimes tracked Santa, and put out food for the reindeer, and left snowy bootprints with fake snow in the hearth, we never did Christmas eve hampers from elf on the shelf.

So a bit but not loads. The fairy walks were my favourite. They just loved them. And so did we.

I've just remembered another ruse to get them walking. On holiday there was a hill behind our cottage. On top of the hill was a huge rock with a big rusty iron rod poking out of it.I told them it was Excalibur the magic sword. They used to walk up there every day to try and pull the sword out of the rock. They were asking about it just the other day. Late teens now but they've remembered it as a real sword not a bit of rusty farm machinery.

I remember taking them on a miniature steam train ride to visit Santa. DS1 was about 6 and beginning - from school friends- to get a bit more cynical about how Santa could really be in so many places. Then suddenly Santa appeared and said DS's name and handed him a present. DS was goggle eyed. They'd cleverly worked out the names of each child according to which carriage they sat in. He believed then!

I point out beauty in nature - partly because I always see it but also because the world is an amazing place.

Things like, plants growing where you wouldn't expect to find them, the intricacy of a spider's web, hoar frost, the sky when it looks particularly painted rather than real, the blue of a sky when the blossom is out in spring, the spotted eggs of a sparrow.

I don't think you need pretend magic when there's so much real magic going on around us all the time.

agree, green for dinosaur milk.

Enb76 I agree with you. Seasonal walks are great fun, especially with younger primary aged children, because they love to spot and collect, draw and photograph natural objects, signs and patterns that represent that time of year. If we encourage this love of nature then in theory they should grow up to appreciate it, respect it and want to look after it. 🕸🦋🌿🍁🍂

The kids occasionally get postal awards/letters from the magical council for excellent behaviour/achievements.
I love this idea!

I tell ridiculous lies. Some they believe, some they don't.

They once got Christmas presents from the dinosaur who lived in our local park. Which was fine until DS1 decided to send him a present in return....

Ds has a night light which does lots of colours. It’s got one on/ off switch on it and the colours are all done via remote. He doesn’t know there’s a remote, dh has told him every day has its own colour and every night dh does the magic and makes it tomorrow ready for when he wakes up, secretly clicking the remote to tomorrow’s colour. Ds does confuse days and colours a bit sometimes now (he’s 3)

As someone who doesn’t have kids I just want to say how much I love this thread. Magic like this, coupled with The Magic Faraway Tree has given m a life-long love of magic and folklore. What brilliant memories. Thank you.

Like PP if I want my kids to walk, we stop off at various points on the route and look for chocolate coins. Well they look, whilst I pretend to be looking and actually hide them. Works a treat. Best if there is a map so they can navigate.