This wonderful book uses the classical and Charlotte Mason methodology to give elementary school students an introduction to God’s incredible world of plants. Narration and notebooking are used to encourage critical thinking, logical ordering, retention, and record keeping. Each lesson in the book is organized with a narrative, some notebook work, an activity, and a project. Although designed to be read by the parent to elementary students of various grade levels, it is possible for students with a 4th-grade reading level to read this book on their own.

The book begins with a lesson on the nature of botany and the process of classifying plants. It then discusses the development of plants from seeds, the reproduction processes in plants which make seeds, the way plants make their food, and how plants get their water and nutrients and distribute them throughout the body of the plant. As students study these topics, they also learn about many different kinds of plants in Creation and where these plants belong in the plant classification system.

As you might expect from a book that uses the Charlotte Mason approach, the student notebook is emphasized in every lesson. Students are told to make illustrations for each lesson and are given notebook assignments to reinforce what they have learned. Notebook assignments include collections of plants from the categories that are being studied, labeling the parts of a flower, making a comic book story of a bee pollinating a flower, making bark rubbings, and identifying leaves.

The activities and projects use easy-to-find household items and truly make the lessons come alive! They include making a light hut in which to grow plants, dissection of a bean seed, growing seeds in plastic bags to watch the germination process, making a leaf skeleton, observing how plants grow towards light, measuring transpiration, forcing bulbs to grow out of season, and forcing pine cones to open and close.

Most importantly, of course, a creationist world view is stressed throughout. Time and time again, God is glorified as the Master Creator of all that the students are studying. In addition, sections entitled Creation Confirmation provide evidence for young-earth creationism in the context of the topic that the students are studying.

Apologia recommends that you spend the entire year covering this book, devoting approximately two sessions per week to the course. The sessions will be something like 30 minutes to an hour, depending on exactly what you are doing on that day. Of course, if you want to cover the book in less than a year, you will simply have to devote more time to it. Please note that many of the activities and projects in this book are long-term projects whose results can take several days to observe. Thus, you will have to be flexible in how you schedule your time.

Prerequisites: None

SAMPLE CHAPTERS and "HOW TO" FILES:

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Table of Contents pop up window
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