When I saw that The Good & the Beautiful had released a Botany science unit for Elementary Homeschool I knew that was what I would get for the coming year. I had just read Braiding Sweetgrass and was in love with all things plants. We have also gardened every year for that last three seasons with my daughter, so I knew it would be something she was interested in because she has had experience growing things. It seemed like the perfect fit for both of us.
We got the whole unit with the extra books and the flowers game. We have played the flower game a lot and I enjoy having two beautiful non fiction picture books in our library. We have taken our time to read through them since they are a little long for my Kindergartener (especially being non fiction) but it actually works that we can read just a few pages at a time.
As for the actual science curriculum, I have loved it so far. I think it is really well laid out. It is easy to spend a week covering one lesson before moving on to the next one. Each lesson has just one main idea so for one week we talk about flowers, another week it is seeds, on another week it will be trees or seeds or photosynthesis.
I didn't realize that you would need a microscope for this science unit, so I ended up spending more than I had originally planned. Still the microscope is awesome and I have loved looking at petals and leaves under it. And with all science units there is definitely more to prepare than with the other Good & Beautiful curriculum. Some lessons can be open and go, but others require random items that may need to be purchased, or just more time.
Still it is easy and even if you skipped some of the activities there would still be lots to learn. I think the preparation is a hurdle I have to learn to overcome. I love the good and the beautiful math curriculum because it comes with a full box of things you need all gathered in one place. Sometimes I wish the science units came with a small box too of the random items you need for any given science experiment.
One final suggestion is if you decide you want to do Botany for your Science unit, consider doing it in the summer or at the end of summer. There are so many activities where you need to go find flower petals or green leaves. We worked through in it July, August and September and it has been just right.
Have you done any of the science units from the Good & the Beautiful? We did the Space Science Unit our first year and that was great for younger kids as well.
Mallory
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