Halloween

House Gryffindor

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L
Photo Credit: Pinterest

People love personality quizzes because they make identity feel simpler and more understandable. Like all true Millennials, Patti and I have mapped out our Enneagrams, Myers-Briggs, astrological sign, the list goes on and on. So to keep it fun this Halloween, we picked a truly controversial topic: What Hogwarts House is my kid in?

Most of us fans were placed in our houses years ago thanks to the official Pottermore quiz, but our kids are just getting into the Wizarding World and just beginning to explore who they are.

…There’s nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can’t see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be. – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

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Child(ish) Reads for Kids: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

| Patti Webb

Happy Halloween!

For this edition of Child(ish) Reads, we’re going into the ghost stories from our past. From my last trip to the used book store, I grabbed Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, In a Dark, Dark Room, and a handful of Goosebumps. Both of my girls like Halloween and spooky characters in picture books, but they have been particularly reluctant when it comes to scary reading and movies. So I wanted to try these on for size and see if they could turn the corner.

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Fear For All: Age-Appropriate Fear

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Growing up in Florida, Patti and I have ridden Disney’s Haunted Mansion too many times to count. The dark attraction is a fan favorite, resulting in multiple movies and specials highlighting the grim stories of its ghostly residents. Aside from the 2003 and 2023 films of the same name, other versions include the family-friendly Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021) and yes, Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak (2015) is rumored to be the R-rated version that never came to be. 

This got us thinking how cool it is that all these different variations of the same IP cater to full spectrum of age and maturity levels. Are these stories playing toward our fear, our entertainment, or both? What exactly is age-appropriate when it comes to fear?

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Freaky Funday: Why We Enjoy a Good Scare

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

October is the season for all things scary. It’s the one time of year where skeletons, ghosts, and ghouls are commonplace, scary stories and movies are celebrated, and jump scares are permitted. Although Halloween can be a terrifying experience for some, others embrace the satisfying horror of it all. Why would your child would want to go the most decked-out, creepy house or want to hear a torturous tale before bed? It’s fun.

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The Pumpkin Slayer: Pumpkin OT

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Every October, people flock to the pumpkin patch to find the perfect gourd to slice into to become a Halloween jack-o’-lantern. What kind of sick tradition is this? I mean, what did a pumpkin ever do to deserve this? Turns out this Halloween tradition was brought to us by European immigrants, dating back to a centuries-old Irish tale of a man named Stingy Jack.

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