Scooter is studying Exploring Creation with Botany from the Apologia Elementary Science series. I mentioned that my baby girl started kindergarten this year, and she is doing the Astronomy book from the same series. I rather love the Astronomy book, but unfortunately, I found the Botany book a bit difficult to slog through when I did it with my oldest two several years ago. But we are giving it a try again this year, and hoping for a change of perspective. Scooter is older than my oldest was when we attempted it before, so maybe that will help. The first few experiments have definitely been enjoyable. Here are a couple of fun experiments that we have done so far. The first two pictures are of a light hut that we built, as per the instructions in the textbook and the put in “pots” of newly planted basil, chamomile, and lemon balm. It was a lot of work, so we hope it works!
The next three pictures were from our seed anatomy examinations. We soaked beans and sunflower seeds in hot water for half an hour so that we could carefully peel off the testa and see the inside of the seeds. We also identified the hylum (the seed belly button) of our seeds. The most interesting part of the seed anatomy examination was looking at our seeds through the microscope. You can easily identify the plumule and radicle in the picture that we took through the eyepiece of the microscope.
Well, I have to admit, so far so good on this Botany book. Maybe we’ll really enjoy it this time.