Magical Lesson Plans!

My little witch is 15!!! It is hard to believe we started doing Magic School back when she was so little and have been off and on with it all these years! This is most likely our last year though focusing on it so much because she is getting older and it is getting harder to magic-fy things with her! It has taken a big chunk of my summer deciding things and researching and putting it all together, sadly my magic wand was out of order for all that.....

        So this will be the start of our year, as she finishes certain things others will be added. As things are found or thought up we add little things here and there all year. She will be reading many many books of course! I also wanted it to be more hands on and less writing because she seems to learn better that way. Don't get me wrong writing is important of course I just didn't want to concentrate on her writing down every little thing like we have in the past. These are a few of the books we will start off with this year. Calling All Witches is about all of the wonderful ladies in the Hogwarts world. Now the reason I chose this was because I really want Skyler to learn about amazing things women have done in our world. I want her to grow up with the healthy thought that girls can do anything! I think it is important to know that witches are just as important as wizards! The Bake Like  pro graphic novel is for Cauldron Cooking. It is a wizard who teaches the kids how to bake, but also the science behind it. Why certain things react they way they do in the kitchen. We will also of course do other things for Cauldron Cooking but this looked fun so I added it in. Wild Things is for Magical Nature. This is packed with tons of little nature projects with a magical theme and I love getting Skyler outside in the fresh air doing things. 

       

Waldock's Wizards and Wands is a new thing this year! While I changed some stuff up from the written idea of this curriculum it is still amazing! Her resource list is so out of this world it may as well be magic! You can just tell the work that went into this.  It has just about everything you can think of included in it. The wonderful witch who wrote this put hours into it and you can see that! Many of the things she has planned we have already done but it was still an amazing resource to have and use. It is a year long study on just about every subject Hogwarts offers their students as well as reading the Harry Potter series. 

          I am loving the fact it includes a planner. Skyler loves having a planner written out for her to see exactly what is going on that day! She is also m child who wants to work ahead so this is a must and it is way better than the note booking page I was using for her last year. Like I said this study has just about everything! 

       I also adore the title pages! Each subject has title pages. I just put all of Skyler's in a binder instead of having it spiral bound, that way she can add to it all year. First up is Charms. This will be part of her language arts for Magic School. We are using Charms as cursive copy work. The copy work is included in the study and it is all quotes from the Harry Potter world. You can choose to have them in cursive or print. We chose cursive of course.  

       

       Next up is Enchantments. I am using this section as kind of a creative writing thing. Skyler does great with writing as long as she is given something to write about so I am using the included prompts for this. 

       Now onto the favorite of my child, Magical Creatures. I decided for this she was going to do a research project type thing. I am a huge fan of the "ology" books and so are my kids so she is going to make one so to speak, based on one animal of her choosing. The guide I am using for this I got years ago on currclick and it is no longer around so sadly I can't find this online anymore to link. I was truly hoping she would pick unicorns or something well known with lots of myths and stories but sadly no she picked the dire wolf.  I have included some pictures to give you an idea of what will be researched for her project. The guide is really neat explaining art techniques and possible things she could include for her book. 

        For Alchemy Skyler will study metals. The Waldock study is based around geology but she has done that so many times there was just no point in doing it again. For our metals study we are using Hands of a Child note booking set, MEL Chemistry kits and reading The Sorcerer's Stone: A Beginners Guide To Alchemy. 

       As of right now we are starting with The Alchemy Kit from MEL Chemistry but I will be adding other metal themed kits as we go. 

        For Astronomy Skyler is going to use the Unit Study by Amanda Bennet along with the books Astronomy For All Ages which is full of projects and Galaxy Girls because again witches can do evereything wizards can do! We will alternate Astronomy one week with Alchemy the next. 

      Arithmancy which is math of course and one of my little witches most hated things to do was kind of hard to put together. Now there is a ton of cool stuff for younger kids out there based on Harry Potter and magic itself but not so much for older kids. Besides the math she will be doing in Cauldron Cooking I still wanted her to have something mathy for Magic School day. I found some different stuff for her to use. Some of it comes from the Hogwarts Yahoo group and some from Teachers Pay Teachers. Most of it being skills she needs a little extra help with having the magical theme. Not everything is Harry Potter specific in our Magic School. She loves all things magical so I just work with that. 

       For Spells we are using My Little Book of Formula's for Creating Spells and Charms. It is poetry and how to write certain types of poems using spells and such. This book is from the Yahoo group and I have had it for years and never done anything with it. Skyler has never really studied much poetry so I felt this was the perfect time to do it!

        
        Onto Magical Places with Charm Post! This is also new this year. She will get a letter every few weeks with the most amazing art you could imagine along with learning about a real place in the world with a magical twist! So she will read her letter from a nice little wizard named Louise! Louise travels all over the world and loves writing fellow little witches and wizards letters about her travels! They also have beautiful art work. Letters come by Owl Post once a month! 

        
        To broaden the study Skyler will make a note booking page about each country, read any fables or cute stories I can find as well as make a recipe. These books are just great! They are packed with a lot of little fables and stories from all over the world so they are just a perfect fit! Around the World in 80 Tales was very hard to find and we have had it forever. Magical tales From Many Lands and Stories From Around the World are books we have also had forever. 

        Witch Study is going to be of course WITCHES!!! We will also be including the Salem Witch Trials and magical women in history. 

        Like I said things will be added throughout the year but this is the starting point for her year. Happy Spell Casting!!!!