Magical Creatures

Yesterday Jelly pulled out a little comb-bound, 8.5" x 5.5" volume, about .75" thick titled Magizoology: Our Study of Magical & Muggle Creatures, Volume 1. It is a textbook that I put together in the fall of 2004 for a special class the girls "took" during the month of October - a Hogwarts Special Correspondence Course. It contains mini units on dragons, cats, fairies, phoenixes, owls, werewolves, and unicorns. As I am inclined to do, I OVER planned, and we didn't get through the whole thing that month, and the books got tucked safely away.

Fast forward to March 2008. We're planning on participating in two online co-ops with Hands of a Child in April. (You can sign up by joining this Yahoo group.) I've been talking them up to the girls, because we think that anticipation is part of the fun! I think looking forward to doing lapbooks on Mythological Creatures Around the World and Cinderella Stories Around the World is what prompted some long-remembered memory in Jelly.

Wanna know just ONE of the things that is really cool about all this?

We picked up right where we left off and I didn't need to do a thing extra!! We had stopped right in the middle of a study on owls, so that's where we started yesterday. It rekindled so much enthusiasm - in me, as I think about the work to be done for the co-ops, AND in both Jelly and Doodle! I believe our (stuffed) snowy owl, Hedwig, enjoyed the afternoon as well. We may end up slipping in an entire lapbook on owls. HOAC has recently updated their "Owls"research pack to a project pack - what could be easier!

Yes, indeed, we do love unit studies and rabbit trails. Studying Mythological Creatures and Cinderella Stories is going to be such a fun transition from Greece and Rome to our next unit on the Middle Ages.

We will finish Year 1 of Learning Adventures eventually. ;o)