When the kids were young one of my jobs was reading to them at night. First I’d read to Richard, then I’d go upstairs and read to Sarah. It gave me a chance to spend one-on-one time with my kids.

I got to read a lot of good books I wouldn’t have ever read on my own.

It was one of my favorite times. I read to them long after they could read to themselves. It was just a nice time.

Richard was a Harry Potter fan. The Harry Potter series was on our reading list.

Unfortunately because of my work schedule, I was only able to read on the weekends when we were reading the Potter books. If you’ve ever read them, you know most of these novels are long. Reading them only a couple of nights a week, it took a long time to plow through them.

Richard couldn’t wait. On weeknights He’d sneak into our bedroom and get the book (I kept his current book on my bedside table), and read ahead. He then put the bookmark back where we had left off so I wouldn’t know.

So he’d get a double dose of Harry Potter.

If you’ve somehow managed to miss out on the Harry Potter story, Harry was a young wizard. Most of the action takes place at Hogwarts, a school for apprentice wizards and witches.

His studies at Hogwarts included classes on spells. There were many exciting moments as the young students tried their luck at spell making.

One spell was intended to call up their Patronus – a personal protector that guarded them from the dark forces.

The spell required the use of a magic wand, thinking of powerful good thoughts and shouting out, “Expecto Patronum!”

Here’s what Wikipedia says that phrase means:

Expecto Patronum is correct classical Latin for “I await a protector”.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could work the Expecto Patronum spell and protect our children?

You could just point your trusty magic wand at the bad guys and other dangers of life, think up lovely thoughts… I’d probably remember the fun I had reading to my kids… take a deep breath and scream out at the top of your lungs…

“EXPECTO PATRONUM!!!”

Out would pop the magic Patronus to protect your kids. They seemed to take the form of an animal in the Harry Potter books, so Richard’s would probably be a cat.

But that’s in Harry Potter. Fiction. This is real. There are no magic wands.

So we end up at a website like this.