Grateful For Our Gifts

This blog is designed to celebrate the childhoods, accomplishments, and joys of our two greatest gifts: Brendan and Ryan. It is also a diary, of sorts, to record our educational journey as we explore homeschooling with profoundly gifted children. We invite your positive support and love as we share our personal family stories here.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Harry Potter Unit Study


Harry Potter Unit Study
March 22nd:
After more than a year living in Star Wars-mania, Brendan has a new obsession! We've joined the Harry Potter following!

Bren caught a Harry Potter marathon on the Family Channel, so Greg bought him the first book. He quickly became so hooked on it that he went to bed at 7:00 so he could read it in peace (giving up American Idol, no less), and had it finished by 10 o'clock the next morning. He's been driving us crazy asking for the next one.

This, of course, has turned Mommy into a frenzy as I mass cram everything I can find to determine how appropriate HP is for a 5 year old who still sleeps with his lights on. I put Greg on "single dad" duty last weekend so I could read the 1st book too, and I'm trying to get the second one down before he gets it as an Easter gift. After talking with many people, I think we've decided he can go to 3 for now, and then we'll reassess.

Meanwhile, I've decided to lob off some of our other homeschool curriculum next week when we "return" from spring break and make it a fun HP unit study! I found a Harry Potter portal in the 6-8 grade section at our charter, and it has a lot of fun projects. WARNING: MOMMY BRAG: Brendan already took the reading comprehension quiz and practically salivated at how "easy" it was. In grading it, I showed him how he got every single question right except for two sequential events that he numbered backwards. He grabbed the paper, ran for his book and quickly opened to the pages he was looking for, and made a compelling argument for why my answer key was wrong on a minor point. As I read the book myself, I nearly toppled over because he was exactly right! I hope this doesn't mean he's a lawyer in the making.... :(

THE UNIT BEGINS....

April 5th:
In the past week, Brendan's read the first 4 books in the series. (I think we're going to hold off after this until I can read ahead of him and determine just how scary they get.) We've found lots of great activities in the Harry Potter portal by Teacher Created Materials. While the materials are designed for middle school students, there are plenty of ways to modify them for younger children. Brendan is having a lot of fun, even writing essays, because we're going to put them together in a collage and present them to his certified teacher for the charter classroom when we're done.

Bren first wrote the letter that Dumbledore would have left with the Dursleys when baby Harry was left at their doorstop. The ditto is on "Hogwarts stationary," which will work great for the collage. MOMMY BRAG: I thought his letter turned out cute:

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Dursley,
James and Lily Potter were killed by Voldemort but he really wwanted to kill Harry. You re the only people that can protect him because Voldemort is still looking for him. Take care of him like your own son Dudley. Give him a good education so when he is eleven he is ready for Hogwarts. Sincerely, Albus Dumbledore


April 6th:
2. Brendan drew a picture of what he would see if he looked into the Mirror of Erised. If you've read the story, you know this is supposedly "the deepest, most desperate desire of their hearts." I thought this was hilarious, and SO Brendan:

I would see myself with a dual action lightsaber. They are really cool. If you are scared of the dark you can light it up. You can duel with it and it has real sounds.

Needless to say, he drew a self-portrait as a jedi.

April 7th:
Today, Brendan went back to the books to "research" the characteristics of each of the four Hogswart houses. He then drew the four quadrants of a seal to represent each house.

April 9th:
Back to the Sourcerer's Stone to research what each of the rooms in the Dursley home looked like.

Brendan also did a lot of art work today, researching what a castle looks like and cutting one out for his collage. He also made another seal representing the four books he read for this project.

And....our final product! He's very excited to present this to his charter teacher this week! He's hoping it'll earn a spot on the classroom wall! Great job, Bren!!

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