Waldock’s Wizards and Wands

I’m a homeschooling mother of three children 10, 7 and 3 in the US and was previously a primary teacher in Scotland for 12 years. I believe passionately in child-led learning and so chose an unschooling approach for my own children. I don’t tend to buy complete curriculums because I know my children might not like it, change their minds or find it too easy or difficult. We read lots of books and our latest passion just so happened to be Harry Potter. As soon as I heard about Wizards and Wands, I had to find out more. I was worried I would kill their enthusiasm by linking it to ‘work’ so downloaded a sample and found out more about the curriculum first. I needn’t have worried. The curriculum is so well researched and cross referenced with possibilities and inspiration that I defy any child or parent not to find something they will love! There are links to books, games, youtube videos, Pinterest boards and other learning materials. You can dive in as deep as you like or just dip your toe in whenever your child shows an interest. So far we have fully embraced Hogwarts by changing our learning space and engaging in role play. My children particularly love potions and herbology so those are the areas we use most. We read the high quality books recommended and take our inspiration from there with the pupil’s notebook pages. We already use some other programmes for literacy but those were easy to slot in as ‘spells’ and ‘incantations’. You can use as much or as little of the suggestions as you or your child likes and still feel like you’re a genuine Hogwarts student. I always recommend this curriculum to fellow homeschoolers and teacher friends, it’s well worth the investment to see how much joy my children get out of learning real Hogwarts subjects ��