Lynn writes: "Please may I ask how you integrated Apologia with Shanleya's Quest? Would you mind (if you have the time available) talking me through your average botany lesson?"
We have used Apologia as a reference more than a first hand method of learning. Apologia Botany is written in a very Charlotte Mason-esque tone which is enjoyable to read. That being said, it is still a textbook which does not inspire them the way a living book does. That is why I have opted to use it more as a reference.
I have not required the kids to do all of the notebook activities or projects in Apologia Botany. Prior to starting Shanleya's Quest, we read and discussed the first chapter in Apologia. We also learned to identify the parts of seeds, trees, flowers, fruits, etc using the downloads from Montessori for Everyone. The downloads were a great way to jumpstart our botany lessons by learning some of the vocabulary. They were also a fun way to include the littles in our botany studies.
After that initial reading, we have delved into Apologia as topics came up in Shanleya's Quest. For example, during Mint Week, we read about Stems from Lesson 8 in Apologia. Because the mint plants have a characteristically square stem, it seemed a good time to read this chapter. We discussed Lesson 2 (Seeds, Monocots and Dicots) when we reached the portion in Shanleya's Quest that discussed the differences between the monocots and dicots. We sprouted beans, dissected and identified their parts for Pea Week, reading from Apologia Chapter 2 (Seeds). We discussed the different types of leaves (Lesson 6) when we learned about pinnate leaves during Mint Week.
So, you can see we are not reading the chapters of Apologia in order.
Now, on to the second part of your question. The average botany lesson in our home lasts most of an hour. We normally do botany twice a week, though we have taken off a number of weeks this school year due to illness and to the Christmas season.
During the first lesson of the week, the children and I sit on the sofa and we read a chapter of Shanleya's Quest. We discuss the characteristics of that week's plant family. We read a bit from Apologia if it pertains to what we are learning. Often times the boys will opt to draw the Island Guardian that lesson as well. During the second lesson of the week, Benjamin draws the family characteristics for his notebook and we review the characteristics aloud. We print out the corresponding pages of information regarding the family characteristics from Thomas Elpel's website (found at the bottom of this page). They go in the botany notebook as well.
I mentioned that Ben is also doing the Plant Science merit badge for Boy Scouts. He worked on requirement five for a half an hour or so today, researching native and invasive plants on the internet. We also often use the second lesson to do any hands on learning or experiments that might be pertinent.
I expect, as the weather warms, we will spend a lot of time out doors studying specimens, collecting plants, identifying plant families and the like. We will probably go back through Shanleya's Quest and refamiliarize ourselves with the identifying characteristics so we can put our learning to practical use outdoors.
Tara writes: "I purchased Shanleya's Quest and assigned a chapter a week for my son. He just does not seem to enjoy it. He draws his obligatory page and that is all. What am I doing wrong?"
I do not know if you are doing anything wrong. I am not sure how old your son is but my older son is the only one doing the detailed botany work. My second grade son merely listens to the chapter, illustrates the guardian and does any other fun, hands on learning. My eleven year old son is doing much more.
Botany is something that we do together as a family. The children would probably not enjoy it as much if we did not read the chapters together, do the activities together and have a lot of fun to boot. I doubt that most kids would get excited about plants if left to their own devices. The children will pick up on your interest, or disinterest, and react accordingly. If you think Botany is fun and worth learning, more than likely they will too.
If you live in a warm area of the country, perhaps you can sit outside and read the chapter together. Then spend a bit of time trying to find plants in your yard that fit the description of the plant family you are studying that week. If you live in a cold area, as we do, a trip to the grocery store to pick up flowers would be fun. During the second lesson, discuss and illustrate the identifying characteristics. Put them in a botany notebook. As my children begin to see their notebooks grow, they are motivated to continue to learn more and more. We have downloaded much of our work into the left hand sidebar photo album for you to see.
This is a lot of information and I hope I haven't bored those of you who are not doing botany this year. Thanks for reading this far. :) Have a wonderful day!
