life science

Today I’m having a guest review a botany homeschool curriculum. I have more tips on my how to homeschool middle school page.

When looking for a science curriculum, particularly a botany homeschool curriculum for middle school I wanted something that would put most of the responsibility into the students hands.

But I didn’t it so challenging that it was frustrating.

Like you, I am always searching for a just right curriculum.

Although I favor the unschooling approach, I love unschooling or relaxed schooling with some structure to our schooling days.

We do a combo of fully child led learning and some structured that is still child interest led.

To do this I asked my son what science topic he wanted to learn about, and he chose botany.

Next, I went through and picked out 4 or 5 various curriculums that I thought would be a good fit.

And let him choose from reading the sample pages and directions on those and this was the botany homeschool curriculum that he chose Botany in 8 Lessons.

Botany Homeschool Curriculum

We had both the hard copy of the student text as well as the pdf for the teacher and student sections.

I highly recommend getting the pdf and downloading just the pages you need if you are opting to just do level 1.

I have to say we have both really enjoyed the curriculum. My son is 14 and would be considered a freshman in public school.

He struggles with dyspraxia/dysgraphia, ADHD, Aspergers, Tourette’s, OCD, and anxiety. That’s a lot for a kid to deal with.

I really liked that this was an open and go science curriculum which didn’t require a lot from me other than encouragement and some accountability.

The fact that he could do most of it independently really helped his confidence also.

I think this would still be a fun and still educational botany curriculum even for highschoolers.

In addition, there are a few ways your student can cover Botany in 8 Lessons.

If you assign lessons twice a week you finish in about 8 weeks,

Or you can stretch it out and do Lesson 1, level one on the first week, and level two the next week, and so on. If you include extra activities like videos, work in the garden and field trips, you can get 16 weeks out of it.

About Botany in 8 Lessons Grades 4-8

We chose to do science twice a week, making each lesson cover two weeks. 

So on week 1 he read a few pages from that lesson and chose 1-2 activities at the end of the level 1 to complete.

The next week he would read level 2 and complete 1-2 of the suggested activities. 

I loved that there were choices for the activities at the end of each lesson.

Instead of just assigning one activity and telling your child to do it, there is flexibility.

It made it less of a battle if I told him to pick an activity for one of the days he worked on science.

And I chose one for the other ( to make sure he wasn’t always opting for the easy way out) , or you could assign all of them over the course of the week.

You can see here in the first lesson there were 6 to choose from at the end of the lesson from completing a crossword  to computer research.

I did sit with him through most of the first couple lessons.

I could encourage him and make sure that he understood and was able to do the work independently.

Botany Topics

He chose to use his computer to look up Plant Cell Micrographs for the first activity.

You can see all the topics covered over the 8 lessons here in the table of contents:

And each lesson has 2 levels; the 8 topics covered are:

1. Plant Cells and Photosynthesis
2. Plant Classifications
3. Non-vascular Plants
4. The Vascular System
5. Leaves and Trees
6. Plant Reproduction
7. Plant Adaptation
8. Plant Diseases

There are consumable pages in the back that make up the additional activities like lapbook.

And a board game to put together and play.

The hard copy has simple and colorful illustrations for each topic and gorgeous vintage botanical prints to look at for reference.

Botany Course

Additionally, there are pictures of botanists like Carl Linnaeus.

He was the first define the system that created the basic biological taxonomy, identifying, classifying, and naming organisms which we still use today.

The variety of activities makes it a multisensory curriculum and I love that for pretty much any of the learning styles.

The author recommends that younger students or those with a limited interest in science just complete the level 1 activities.

Moreover, older children or those who wish to dive deeper into botany should complete both levels.

The activities in both sections are great additions to your learning time though.

Finally,  the bibliography gives you some books including the ISBN to check out from the library or add to your own shelves.

Here are two of my personal favorites that we used to add to the unit.

First, add Botanicum.

This is an oversized book with gorgeous vintage looking prints of everything from wildflowers, to mushrooms to trees and more.

The series is geared towards younger than middle school, but I think this series is a fantastic picture reference book for older kids as well.

Next, there is Nature Anatomy.

This is a favorite reference of ours that we use for any kind of nature science study.

There are a lot of illustrations and snippets of information on trees, leaves, flowers, mushrooms and ferns.

The only other thing I added to the study was a digital microscope to look at specimens we gather as well as some prepared plant slides.

We also used the app inaturalist which was fantastic for photographing and helping to identify plants in our yard via flowers, bark, and leaves.

More Botany Resources

Lewis and Clark Free Botany 1 and 2 Minibooks

How to Purchase Botany in 8 Lesson

►Product Name: Botany in 8 Lessons
► Two Ways to purchase 1) Amazon in paperback 2) in Digital Downlaod
►Website: Ellen Mchenry Basement Workshop
►Grade Level: 4 to 8
Note: This could be used for a high school if you add in more activities
►Type of product: These is a physical product or digital product.