Gardening and homesteading are an interest in our family, but it can be difficult to find good resources that are age-appropriate for children.  Enter the Discovering Nature Series from Queen Homeschool.  Mary’s Meadow, one of the books in that series, is appropriate for upper elementary and junior high aged students. You can purchase the book on the website for $34.95. That price is very reasonable, when you think that it is an entire year’s worth of science.

As with all Queen Homeschool materials, the course is a faith-based, Charlotte Mason style book.  There are thirty-six lessons, one for each week of the school year.  Each one contains a story and four activities.  They are meant to be completed at one lesson per week.

In this volume of the series, a group of siblings finds a book which details how Her Majesty’s gardener created and maintained the royal garden.  The siblings decide to create their own garden in their grandfather’s meadow.  Using the gardener’s notes, they learn all about botany.  Each week focuses on a different topic, such as types of soil, garden pests, grafting trees, roots and tubers, plant classification, birds and insects, and so much more!

We used this with our ten and thirteen-year-old boys, and they enjoyed the hands-on aspects of learning.  As part of the purpose of this style of homeschooling is to train the child to think, the curriculum is slow-paced, requiring independent research to get the most from it.  This is a real-world approach to learning, since you won’t always find the answer you need in a book (or even on Google).  In real life, you have to research different topics to find the answers to your questions, and this book utilizes that format.  It is not a textbook, but rather a series of prompted explorations, and we liked it.

Each of the lessons is short and contains some sort of labeling / sketching / classifying activity in addition to the research.  There are often hands-on activities, too.  We preferred to do the week’s lessons in two days, rather than spreading it out to five, and keep up the enthusiasm for the topic at hand.  Then, we would do further research or activity, from our own interests, related to the topic of the week.

I appreciated the format of this curriculum. It was not overwhelming and flowed very well.  It took a real-life subject and brought it down to a child’s level, making it easier to comprehend. The stories are wholesome and contain, not only botanical wisdom, but good moral and character lessons, too.  The lessons allow for the student to do research as far in-depth into each topic as desired, and prompt further exploration in a real-world style.  We will continue to use these interest-led, Charlotte Mason style science books in our schooling.

-Product review by Holly Johnson, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, October, 2017