Planning My first Unit Study- Harry Potter

Well, I have decided that our very first unit is going to be FUN!  My girls have absolutely made it clear that they would would like to homeschool indefinitely.  That being said, I am much more free to pick and choose what we learn...when! This also means I am not bound to the Georgia By Grade Outline...YAY! Now I can really take it an run!  I was feeling very limited in what I could do up until now and there are so many schools of thought to choose from!  I love many of the idea's presented to me! For example:
Charlotte Mason
Nature Studies
Unit Studies
Chronological History

I also love that I can see what "ideal" works best with my kids!  I plan to use some traditional textbooks for Math, Grammar, and Handwriting.  I do not feel as confident in teaching those classes..so I think following a Textbook is best.
Teaching Textbooks for math
Handwriting without Tears
Easy Grammar

Then the FUN Stuff!!!! We are doing a Harry Potter Unit Study!!!!!!  Our classes will be the following!

Muggle Studies such as Ancient History and Medieval History  (using a borrowed Sonlight core)

History of Magic for first years including Legends and Mythology (using a borrowed Sonlight)

Astronomy including our solar system, Stars, and Star patterns

Herbology where we will grow our own Herbs and learn their important uses

Potions  where we will learn how to create our own simple chemistry (for Muggles) experiments

Care of Magical Creatures will be a study of several animals both real and magic

Defense against the Dark Arts which will include our Armor of God Bible Study

Transfiguration will include turning many Muggle items into works of Art

I found some amazing ideas on the web!  I can NOT claim credit for a lot of what I am going to list here.  I am sure I will pull together my own ideas soon...but I borrowed liberally from the following blogs and websites.  I am going to tweak it to fit my own girls and my taste but the main ideas came from:

Sorcerer's Stone Comprehension questions  This is amazing!  Just what we needed to make sure my girls really are reading the story and not trying to answer from the movies!  This is chapter by chapter will links to online tests or print versions...plus activity links! 

A Term at Hogwarts  Theresa is a homeschooling mom with an Amazing blog and a lot of great ideas!  I am using here Herbology and Care and Feeding of Magical Creatures ideas for my girls!    I plan to add:  Catnip, Lavender, and Basil to her list of Herbs and the Cat, Centaur, Dragons, and Toads to her Magical creatures.  I'm not sure how but I will also tie in the Alchemy lessons as well...throughout our Astronomy and Potions classes

Scholastic Discussion Guide for the first 4 books  I plan to use this beauty of a freebie a lot.  It has some great discussion ideas for the girls.  I will play around with it for several language arts lessons, writing prompts, and other unknown plans as of yet. 

More Discussion questions

Several Good ideas here  This teacher has a lesson plan geared at older kids...but I am going to add this cool idea here of a personal dictionary.  I plan to have them do the Illustration, and choose a passage to recite from memory

Some more discussion questions and activities  This is another great list of discussion questions and has a Mind Pictures activity that I think is pretty cool

A good resource for research of those Magical and mythical creatures  Several of the animals we will study are listed here with a great link for "researching" them

A-maz-ing Lesson plan for older kids  This is an amazing free lesson plan for older kids...9th gradeish.  I plan to use a LOT of her ideas for our Transfiguration Class (Art) and tweak several of her daily writing prompts.  We will have a journal that the girls write in everyday.  I plan to use the discussion questions and writing prompts I have found throughout these links in that way. 

Online fun  Potions fun

Printable Decision making activity

Another free lesson plan I have not looked all the way through this lesson plan but I plan to use some of the ideas that I saw when I skimmed it. A great Literature Lesson plan for The Sorcerer's Stone

A Geography game here.  You need a Globe and will need to come up with your own questions

Owl studies information  This will come in useful when we study our Owl's.  There is a lesson plan and several links for Owl studies on this page

Another great page to look through  that has a lot of links for different Harry Potter themed activities!


 This is a great Art teacher's blog and I plan to use several of her projects for our Transfiguration class!

Our Armor of God Lesson's will come from www.daniellesplace.com, which is an amazing web site for crafts and Bible lesson's.  They have a free site and then there is a annual subscription site.  WORTH every penny!


Some fun Chemistry sites I plan to visit for our Potions class!
www.sciencebob.com
www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments.html
 A2Z Home's Schooling has a great chemistry page too!

I am really, really excited to put it all together!  I am sure I have completely overwhelmed myself with all of this info...but I hope should anyone actually stumble upon my little blog...they will be helped out! 

Blessings from our corner of the woods to yours!
Cheerful