Do your children love Harry Potter? Or maybe they love all things magical and mythical! If yes, then this Harry Potter homeschool is for you!
*Disclosure: I was asked for an honest review of Waldock’s Wizards and Wands. I was compensated for my time. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. I only choose to share resources that I would use with my own family and those that I believe other families will enjoy and benefit from.
Last year was a challenging year for us, folks. Of course, with a worldwide pandemic, I believe it was a challenging year for everyone. I know we found ourselves in a rut as far as homeschool was concerned. Instead of our usual hands-on learning fun, we increasingly turned to screens. We were all more short-tempered from our time indoors, and our homeschool magic fizzled.
This year, my goal is different. Instead of trying to make sure I get the bare minimum of reading, writing, and math done, I’m looking for a surplus of magic.
So, what does this mama do when she feels things are out of sink in her homeschool or with her kids? She sits down and talks with them.
I set aside some one-on-one time with my daughter to figure where our homeschool needed to go and what goals we could create for the year. She told me she wanted to learn about all things magical and mythical. Trolls, unicorns, witches, and wizards were on the top of her list. Could there be lots of girl power too?
When I discovered Waldock’s Wizards and Wands curriculum, I knew this could be the answer I was looking for!
Harry Potter Homeschool Perfect for Young Wizards
Waldock’s Wizards and Wands is a year-long curriculum created by Jessica of The Waldock Way that helps you use the Harry Potter books to facilitate a magical learning experience in your homeschool. We are all about the magic this year! Plus, Hermione Granger definitely offers that girl power we are looking for. She’s brilliant, strong, and courageous!
This is a digital product that is emailed to you after purchase. There are lots of easy-to-click links within the teacher’s manual. The only thing I felt like I needed to print off was the student workbook.
Language Arts cover your charms, spells, incantations, and enchantments. In other words, copy work, dictation, narration, and writing projects. Besides Language Arts, there are six core classes that DO NOT have to be done simultaneously. They include:
- Alchemy (Geology)
- Astronomy
- Magical Creatures
- Herbology
- Muggle Studies (Ancient, Medieval History, Viking, Roman, and Egyptian History)
- Potions (Chemistry and Experiments)
Each of these lists the course description, the required textbooks, other helpful textbooks, hands-on activities, linked YouTube playlist, linked Pinterest board, fun games to go with that course, and additional resources.
There are four elective courses:
- Defense Against the Dark Arts is done with GAMES!
- Muggle arts and music
- Owl Study
- Author Study
My daughter chose the Owl Study because this girl is an animal lover!
*The only thing not covered is Arithmancy or math. So, my daughter will continue to use Beast Academy as her primary math curriculum supplementing with Life of Fred and math games.*
Waldock’s Wizards and Wands is Perfect for a Harry Potter Homeschool
Waldock’s Wizards and Wands can be used for all ages, although I would recommend 8-12ish. But, you know your child best. *I’ve heard some moms use it for younger kids and leave some things out. While others use it for older kids and add extra work in.*
The Waldock Way has even an “Added Extra Magic” section to help you start your school year by having a sorting ceremony and a Hogwart’s feast! We used my printable sorting hat fortune teller to sort my daughter into her Hogwart’s House. It declared, “Gryffindor!”
There are “Movie Night Tickets” for when you finish a book and are ready to watch the movie. A Hogwart’s Welcome letter is provided for you to print out along with Hogwart’s House flags, quote posters for decorating, and four printable games!
Wizards and Wands Language Arts
The goal is to read 1-2 chapters of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone each day. Waldock’s Teacher’s Manual gives you a list of “Extra Magic Reading” from easiest to read to most challenging to read. Waldock’s Wizards and Wands provides a great list of magical books for both read-aloud and silent reading. So, we’ve also added in The Worst Witch, The Power of Poppy Pendle, and The Kingdom of Wrenly.
For copy work, you can choose between print or cursive. There are 36 inspirational pieces of copy work to choose from. I also found a fabulous Unicorns, Mermaids, and MadLibs game!
Your incantations are your writing prompts. So one of your first projects is setting up an owlery and writing a letter. Other projects include:
- a Daily Prophet article
- creating your own wand
- making candy for Honey Dukes
- develop a new wizard sport, etc.
There are 36 writing projects in all!
Wizards and Wands Alchemy
We haven’t dived into our “Alchemy” subject yet, but we’re ready for when my daughter’s interest hits. I’ve already got My Book of Rocks and Minerals, several encyclopedias, and the Rock-On game! The worksheets in the Wizards and Wands Student Workbook ask kids to write about what they know as they learn it. For example: what is a rock, name the three types of rocks, how are rocks made, etc. I foresee us making our own volcano when we get to this unit too.
Wizards and Wands Astronomy
My daughter is slowly showing interest in the night sky. I can thank Pegasus for that. She didn’t realize so many of the mythical creatures were among the stars. That got her excited. The worksheets in the Wizards and Wands Student Workbook ask kids to pick a favorite constellation, draw it, and then write out all the facts they know about it. There are also worksheets on the moon phases and the names of the full moons.
From there, we’ve slowly been introducing nebulas, galaxies, supernovas, and the solar system with some of our gorgeous DK visual encyclopedias! I also added a few other books on space and the solar system, a planetarium kit, and a galaxy slime-making kit!
Wizards and Wands Potions
The recommended potions book is fabulous for science experiments! She’ll be learning about observations, and hypotheses, and procedures when it comes to potion-making. I also grabbed a beginner’s chemistry set.
My daughter has already tried her first Harry Potter recipe, hot rolls! She did a phenomenal job, and the whole family loved them! I think cooking also counts as potions class. I also picked up a couple of fun potion-themed games that we have yet to play, but I’m super excited about them.
Wizards and Wands Herbology
We have learned so much about herbs from A Kid’s Herb Book and the Wizards and Wands Student Worksheets. They focus on the taxonomy of herbs, weeds, and spices. My daughter made her own Echinacea tea the day her herbology book came in. We’ve explored the herbs we already have on hand, such as mint, yarrow, rosemary, catmint, and dandelions. Now my daughter wants to add Soaproot to our herb garden to use it to wash her hands!
Wizards and Wands Magical Creatures
Magical creatures are where my daughter’s most significant interest lies. She is obsessed with the mystical and mythical beasts. By exploring their origins, we’re also learning more about other cultures and civilizations from the past. Her favorite creature so far is the Hippocampus. This water benevolent sea creature was able to live in both fresh and saltwater. It was also the beast that pulled Poseidon’s chariot.
Of course, the Hippocampus is followed closely by dragons, unicorns, Pegasus, and Phoenix!
Wizards and Wands Muggle Studies
We’ll be using our DK History Year by Year and the DK Timeline of Everything to help us as we travel back in time to study history. My daughter isn’t a huge history fan, so I’m glad to see that the mythical creatures are aiding in her appreciation of some of the different time periods. But I won’t push it. This year is going to be all about joy and magic!
What I Love about Waldock’s Wizards and Wands for Our Harry Potter Homeschool
My daughter and I are loving Waldock Way’s Harry Potter homeschool curriculum.
- It’s not scripted. You are given a suggested schedule of activities to do each day. However, you can modify the schedule to fit your child and your homeschool better! If they want to spend a whole day cooking out of the Harry Potter Cookbook, then do that. This is perfect for our delight-directed/interest-led homeschool.
- The number of resources listed made my heart skip a beat! There are so many tidbits you can add but aren’t required. We chose to go heavy on the Magical Creature extras because my daughter was super interested, and it was magic.
- This curriculum is very Language Arts heavy with loads of extra reading of magical themed books, copy-work, dictation, writing projects, etc. But, if that’s not your thing, then just omit some of that extra reading. Our family thrives on Language Arts, so it was perfect for us.
- Wizards and Wands is adaptable and customizable. This means it could be used as a light unit study or a full curriculum if you add extra resources plus your own math. It’s a good base if you want to add more of something like geology or chemistry. We’re going all in and following my daughter’s interests!
- Many of the books can be found at your local library if you are budget conscious.
- This curriculum is digital, so I didn’t need to print anything off except the student notebook! Although, there are House Banners and extra games you can print off.
- You don’t need to worry about trying to read through the whole series to use this curriculum. Read one of the books and then watch the movie before moving onto the next book. Start wherever your children are and go from there.
Harry Potter Homeschool Perfect for Young Wizards
Folks, my daughter loves Waldock’s Wizards and Wands. I love the adaptability and oodles of resources that I would never have found on my own. If your child dreams of being a wizard or loves all things magical, then this curriculum is for them! I am seriously impressed with all of the magical goodness.
Mischief Managed… sort of.
You may also enjoy these other Harry Potter inspired posts:
- Harry Potter Origami Sorting Hat Fortune Teller
- Fun Harry Potter Chalk Pastel Teatime
- 20 Awesome Harry Potter Gift Ideas
- 25 Books Your Child Should Read After Harry Potter
- 20 Magical Books For Your Child To Read: After Harry Potter
- 5 Days of Harry Potter Inspired Fun
- 20 Books for Kids Not Ready for Harry Potter
- Harry Potter Christmas Tree
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