This past Spring, I witnessed my first quidditch match at my local university. I am now hooked! My two-year-old son "scored" a goal in-between matches, and I immediately told my friend, "I have to create a toddler quidditch team."
Where can you go wrong with Quidditch and Toddlers? You can't. It's hilarious, and most importantly, fun!
First things first: my wizards needed brooms. Since I usually deal with 18-month to 3-year-olds in my mom's group, I needed to find props that wouldn't cause injuries (when they eventually would get used to bat friends over the heads). What better than pool noodles! I cut about 8 inches off the pool noodles to get them the height that worked well for 2-3 footers. I then cut the noodles into bristles on one end in ten slices.
In my broom prototype, I used thick twine at the top of the bristles, but opted for simple duct tape to emulate the bristle ties; less rope burns.
The second thing we needed was a pitch. Again, I opted for the pool noodle approach, and luckily, my local dollar store not only had the noodles I needed, but sold these fabulous three-way connectors so I could make the perfectly shaped hoops. I then cut metal garden stakes to size to hold the hoops vertically on the ground. We used a soft, blue ball as the quaffle, and two smaller soft/squishy balls (the basketballs shown in the cover photo) as the bludgers.
[You can find the official rules of quidditch at the International Quidditch Association's website.]
Thirdly: A Snitch. Since I am dealing with younger tots, the only "rules" of quidditch I used was to catch the snitch and score goals with the hoops. Since I'm the only 
I punched holes and tied them together with t-shirt material.
I used the same t-shirt material and made arm holes as a harness.
The yellow t-shirt I picked up at my local thrift store got cut up into strips. These strips were used as flags to "catch" the snitch.
Here I am sporting my cool getup. I made a ton of flags so that all my little wizards had a chance to catch the snitch. (And yes, I did put the scar on my hat, but the moms didn't catch it. Only the truest of geeks would have caught that, I guess.)
All in all, it was a fabulous afternoon. I will definitely be having more of these Toddler Quidditch Playgroups. It's a fantastic way to get the kids to move and run, work on playing together, listening to a coach (or just an adult other than mom and dad), gross motor, you name it!
Until the next!
Yankee Doodle Dandy,
–TYG
