Play has a power that’s almost magical! As homeschoolers, we get to cash in on the power of play every day with engaging lessons and hands-on learning activities our kids will learn from and remember forever.
There are so many exciting ways to keep your homeschool lessons interesting. If you’re big Harry Potter fans like us, why not have a year of homeschooling with Harry Potter? Interest-led and play-based lessons and activities like these will spark creativity and curiosity while teaching important lessons too. Keep reading to learn more about how to have a play-based Harry Potter homeschool with your family this year.
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The Power Of Play In Your Homeschool
Children develop all kinds of important skills through creative and imaginative play. As homeschoolers, we get lots of awesome opportunities to incorporate additional play. This time spent playing together helps our children develop life skills, strengthen social skills, and learn important academic concepts too.
Making lessons fun keeps kids engaged in the lesson and helps ensure they’ll remember what they learn for a long time to come. If your goal is to ensure your homeschoolers become lifelong learners with a passion for knowledge, play-based lessons are the way to go.
Play-based learning is all about active engagement. The best way to encourage your kids to be actively engaged in what they’re learning is by following their passions, interests, and natural curiosity. Don’t be afraid to see where it leads you, even if that happens to be a journey to learning at Hogwarts with Ron, Hermoine, and Harry.
The Magical World Of Harry Potter
We are big Potter heads! We watch the movies often, so it wasn’t long before our daughter Emily decided she wanted to go to Hogwarts too. It’s easy to see why Harry Potter gets the attention it does from kids all over the world.
We love learning with the Harry Potter books because it’s such an immersive experience. The books are filled with mythology, adventure, and magic! Even the most reluctant readers can quickly get swept up in J.K. Rowling’s series.
Plus, with the new Wizarding World at Universal, it’s easy to add an exciting family field trip to your Harry Potter Homeschool that will be full of play-based learning and adventure! We especially love the interactive wands, Hagrid’s Magical Creature Motorbikes, and the food.
Homeschooling With Harry Potter
Each book in the Harry Potter series follows Harry through one year at Hogwarts school for wizards, so we do a different book each year in our homeschool. I’ve put together a magical Wizards & Wands curriculum filled with hands-on activities, family movie nights, lots of games, and play-based learning experiences for a wide variety of ages.
With the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal, you can even visit the magical land of Harry, Hermoine, and Ron for a play-based field trip your homeschoolers will remember forever. It’s an incredibly immersive experience filled with scenery and characters that bring the books to life before your eyes!
Our daughter Emily particularly loved the interactive wands. After being chosen by her own special wand, she was able to take it through the park testing out spells and bringing various interactive elements to life. With our homeschool lessons, we practiced charms (copywork), spells (dictations), enchantments (narration), and incantations (magical writing assignments).
Harry Potter Resources For Learning
If you’re looking to add more Harry Potter magic to your homeschool year, I definitely recommend Wizards & Wands. There are all kinds of fun games, resources, and Harry Potter swag you can add to your play-based homeschool experience too. Check out some of our favorites:
Wizards & Wands Curriculum
This Wizards & Wands curriculum has everything you need for a whole year of play-based lessons with all things Harry Potter and Hogwarts! With a cookbook, electives like “defense against the dark arts” and an owl study, and all the academics you’ll need, it’s the perfect way to experience the magical power of play.
Writing with Harry Potter
If you have a reluctant writer in your homeschool, try adding some fun Harry Potter inspired writing elements to your lessons this year. You can scoop up a Harry Potter journal, a Hogwarts wax seal for letters, and even a quill pen set for writing all your spells and incantations.
Harry Potter Chalk Pastel Lessons
These video art lessons from You Are An Artist are super fun for all ages. Your kids will learn how to create beautiful Harry Potter inspired art using chalk pastels with these online courses. Plus, you’ll get to print your very own sorting hat and sort your homeschoolers into their respective Hogwards houses too!
Gameschooling with Harry Potter
For us, gameschooling is all about using games to teach and practice important learning concepts. There are tons of opportunities to incorporate games for every subject so why shouldn’t Harry Potter be any different?
Harry Potter Lego Sets
Teach STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) principles with Lego brick sets inspired by Harry Potter. There are lots of Harry Potter sets to explore, but we particularly like the Astronomy Lego Harry Potter. The cute baby mandrakes included in this set might be why it’s one of our favorites too.
What fun ways can you think of to add more Harry Potter inspired play to your homeschool lessons this year? Share how you add a little magic to your homeschool in the comments.
A Note From Cait:
My family loves Harry Potter and also loves the unit studies and curriculum choices from The Waldock Way. Jessica is so creative in her approach to educating her daughter, and I am so grateful she was willing to share all of this with us! Plus, her family is fabulous. Take a look!
Jessica Waldock is a writer, photographer, and homeschool mom of one living in sunny Florida. She founded The Waldock Way as a way to give back to the homeschool community that she loves so much. At The Waldock Way Jessica shares tips, tricks, inspiration, and unique resources that help ignite a love of learning in children that will last a lifetime. She inspires families to engage in homeschooling as a lifestyle where relationships come first and interested led learning prevails. Jessica also has a fabulous collection of unit studies on her website and shares generously on her YouTube channel.
