We are starting our new school year with a Harry Potter topic, using a ready made curriculum called 'Waldock's Wizards and Wands', written by Jessica from The Waldock Way. Bean has already received her acceptance letter in the post, and term will be starting on Monday 2nd September with a welcome feast. You can join us on our adventure by following our stories on Instagram here.
This is not a curriculum that I have tried before. It wasn't gifted, and I haven't been paid to talk to you about it. It's just something that I have discovered on social media, and wanted to share with you, as I'm sure there are other Harry Potter enthusiasts out there. I bought the curriculum with a 15% discount code, which you will be sent if you subscribe to Jessica's mailing list.
What is Included?
The curriculum is a digital download, and includes a teachers manual, student notebook (in print and cursive), plus a folder of extras such as printable games.
Student courses include Alchemy, Astronomy, Charms, Enchantments, Herbology, Incantations, Magical Creatures, Muggle Studies, Potions and Spells, with optional extras in Defence Against the Dark Arts, an owl unit and an author unit.
What is NOT Included?
The curriculum doesn't include provision for math/numeracy, so I aim to stick with my original plans for math (which you can read about here). I think I'm going to take the time to cover Bean's math practice book in brown paper, with an 'Arithmancy' label, so that it feels like it's part of the same Hogwarts curriculum.
There isn't any Geography provision either (as far as I can tell) and the History provision doesn't cover the topics that I had planned for this year, so my aim is to stick with our original plans for History and Geography (which you can read about here) and file it all under the 'Muggle Studies' title.
What's the Plan?
We're planning to start our new topic next Monday afternoon, with a sorting hat ceremony and feast. Then our focus for the first week at least will be to complete the owl unit, which will involve making our very own owlery, learning about owls and potentially visiting some real owls at our local animal park.
In terms of all the other subjects, my plan is to give each lesson a go, and see which of the lessons Bean enjoys. It may be that we drop some elements, if they're not capturing Bean's interest, but the curriculum is packed to bursting with ideas for bringing each of the subjects alive, with lots of games, hands on activities, art and crafts etc.
Resources
Bean is a BIG Harry Potter fan, so we already have a fair amount of Harry Potter paraphernalia, including the first book, soft toys, a puzzle and a game.
In addition to the curriculum itself, there are just five or six books that are required to complete the course. So far I've purchased just three of them (second hand, and using the money made from my recent book sale on Insta!) and have a couple of extras on order from the library. One of the books required is out of my budget right now, so has been added to our wish list for a later date.
Extras
Before I finish, I wanted to quickly mention a couple of extra bits I've found on my internet wanderings...
I'm a MASSIVE fan of Julie Bogart, author of The Brave Learner and founder of Brave Writer. Having binge listened to her podcast, read her book, and worked our way through some of the projects in her Jot It Down program last year, I impulsively bought the Harry Potter Arrow program during a sale earlier in the year. I'm not sure if Bean is ready for it, but we're going to give it a go.
I also found this rather fabulous and very reasonably priced Herbology unit online. We'll definitely be working our way through the projects included.
So, I'll wrap up there. I'm anticipating that this Harry Potter project will take us up to Christmas, but it will really depend on Bean. If she enjoys it, then we'll carry on for longer. If not, we'll stop. Such is the joy of home education.
I hope that you have found this post interesting and useful. Next week I'll be attempting to publish my article on meaningful household work for children (fingers crossed)
With love, Rowan x
This blog post contains affiliate links. If you do click through, Bean and I will receive a small amount of commission which will contribute to new books and resources for her home education. You can, however, find all of these resources elsewhere, including other online retailers, second hand selling pages and your local library.