Saddlemomma Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 DD has chosen to study medicinal herbs and plants next year. This is following her interest in virology/bacteriology during the first quarter this year. I told her she would have to have a more formal course in Botany first, to get her up to speed, in order to study the other. So, following is what I have come up with, and I would appreciate some feedback regarding whether I'm missing something or need to scale back. Thanks! During this summer, DD will plant an herb/medicinal plant garden based upon a list I found of the most common/most used plants in one of the books we'll be using. At maturity, DD will harvest the herbs/plants and dry/press them to display in a plant book and have inventory to make herbal teas, tinctures, poultices, creams, etc.1st Quarter: Botany in 8 Lessons by McHenry (since DD will be in 7th grade, we'll do the upper grade schedule) - this will be done during the first quarter. Plants, People, & Culture: The Science of Ethnobotany. Illustrates the importance of plants in every facet of our existence. The Quark Chronicles - A companion for Botany in 8 Lessons. A Druid's Herbal of Sacred Tree Medicine. We have a gap year in 8th grade. Therefore, we'll concentrate on geography, but I've also told DD she could pick and choose some history/social studies topics to study. She wants to learn about the Celts and Druids. I thought this book, as a read-alone, might be a fun way to whet her appetite for her upcoming Druid study while also being applicable to this study. Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs: A Beginners Guide. This is to be used as a reference guide in making our herbal/plant medicines. DD has eczema and we'll concentrate on that keeping reports on efficacy. DD will be required to keep a notebook. 2nd Quarter: Read Herbal Antibiotics and use as a reference guide (This is a heavy book which will generate A LOT of vocabulary. It will put our Latin knowledge to work! There may be a lot that is over our heads, but with perseverance, we'll glean what we can). Continue reading Plants, People, & Culture. Wicked Plants: The Plant That Killed Lincoln's Mother... Second read-alone for the second half of the study. It might be interesting to see the opposite side of things as well. The Pocket Herbal: Medicinal Plants That Changed the World. This is a quick handy-dandy guide I can incorporate into our studies when we come upon those specific plants in our study. It also contains some interesting bits of history for each plant. Healing Plants of the Bible. I also wanted to add something from a Christian perspective. Continue making our herbal/plant medicines and trying them when appropriate and keeping lab reports of results. Well, there it is. What says the Hive? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfamily Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 I think it looks great! And just to share: We read the beginning sections from Magic and Medicine of Plants (Reader's Digest)on the history of the use of plants, which is then followed with a gallery section of plants in alphabetical order. The back of the book contains information for creating an herbal garden and making soaps, etc. from herbs and more. Each page from the gallery is devoted to one plant at a time and, below the picture of it, lists the major points of it such as habitat, range, identification markers and its uses (medicinally and otherwise). There is also a paragraph on the same page which recounts any interesting historical points, etc. For the gallery section, both of my daughters read 5 pages and from these 5 chooses one (or more if they want to) plant to copy into a small sketchbook I gave them just for this purpose. They draw the plant at the top portion of the page and then fill in some (not all) of the pertinent information on an index card. They then tape/glue the card underneath the picture. Their sketchbooks are really coming along now, and I love how much they are taking care with their drawings. Here is the book: http://www.amazon.com/Medicine-Plants-Editors-Readers-Digest/dp/0895772213 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracyP Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 I think it looks great! My dd used McHenry's Botany and loved it. Herbal Antibiotics looks... dense, but it sounds like you are prepared for that. The other book choices look really interesting. Last summer we were able to go on an "herb walk" through (ETA: found it through a health food store, we didn't walk through the store..) a health food store. The guy takes people out to his property every year and identifies wild growing plants and their medicinal uses. It was so fun we plan to go again this year. If you can find something like that, it would be a great add-in. You also mentioned your dd's eczema. I have 2 kids who have been eczema free since giving up dairy a few weeks ago. You have probably tried a ton of things, but I'm so excited about finally finding a "cure" that I have to share with everybody. :D 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saddlemomma Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 I think it looks great! And just to share: We read the beginning sections from Magic and Medicine of Plants (Reader's Digest)on the history of the use of plants, which is then followed with a gallery section of plants in alphabetical order. The back of the book contains information for creating an herbal garden and making soaps, etc. from herbs and more. I've just added this book to my wishlist! Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saddlemomma Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 I think it looks great! My dd used McHenry's Botany and loved it. Herbal Antibiotics looks... dense, but it sounds like you are prepared for that. The other book choices look really interesting. Last summer we were able to go on an "herb walk" through (ETA: found it through a health food store, we didn't walk through the store..) a health food store. The guy takes people out to his property every year and identifies wild growing plants and their medicinal uses. It was so fun we plan to go again this year. If you can find something like that, it would be a great add-in. You also mentioned your dd's eczema. I have 2 kids who have been eczema free since giving up dairy a few weeks ago. You have probably tried a ton of things, but I'm so excited about finally finding a "cure" that I have to share with everybody. :D Yeah, Herbal Antibiotics is a monster, but I've been reading parts of it and it's really quite fantastic. I'm already highlighting like mad in it. We will probably read certain sections and leave out others. What I really like about it is that it provides copious recipes for herbal antibiotics with explicit directions and measurements. There are recipes for specific types of cancer, meningitis, MRSA, as well as various types of streptococcus and concoctions to boost your immune system; just about any type of drug-resistant bacteria you could dream up is in that book. He also goes into great detail about how and why synthetic antibiotics are so inferior to plants and how pharmaceutical companies are actually not exploring or manufacturing any new antibiotics due to the lack of sustainable income derived from them. Statins, blood pressure drugs and the like require more long-term use and are, therefore, more lucrative for the drug companies. BTW, thanks for the heads up about dairy. DD likes to eat a small dish of ice cream for dessert each night (and she is still all legs and no fat! I wish I had her metabolism!). I will have to approach her about the possibility that dairy could be causing her problems. I suspect she'd rather deal with the eczema than give up her ice cream though! Thanks for sharing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 I think your plans look fantastic! I was always fascinated with herbal medicines, Celts, etc., at that age (and beyond), and think it is great that you are giving her the opportunity to pursue those interests. Note on ice cream -- Coconut Bliss makes an amazing dairy free ice cream. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwickles Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 So I'm going to copy this exactly I think. I have kiddo who has been interested in this for years and years. How is it going? Any new thoughts? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Sounds like a fabulous year to me. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abrightmom Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Sounds like a fabulous year to me. :001_smile: Oh, I agree! This sounds wonderful. :coolgleamA: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saddlemomma Posted June 5, 2015 Author Share Posted June 5, 2015 So I'm going to copy this exactly I think. I have kiddo who has been interested in this for years and years. How is it going? Any new thoughts? Thanks! We won't be starting this until the Fall. However, we have planted our herbs and they are doing very well. All of them are planted in pots and sitting in our greenhouse. In fact, DD and I have to start harvesting and drying. We planted them in pots so we could bring them inside over the fall and winter. Hopefully we'll be able to use them fresh as well as dried. Unfortunately, I totally missed collecting early dandelion leaves. Oh well, I think we will just go out and see if we can find some newer plants to collect from. I did some research on Moringa and obtained some seeds. We planted about six of these, but only two germinated. I'm thrilled we got the two. Hopefully we will be able to keep them alive. I'm not sure we'll use them in any experiments or concoctions, because they are rather tricky and not enough is really known about their long-term effects, but it will be cool to see how far we get with them. Purely for fun, we also grew peanuts! That's right, we sowed some peanuts and... lo and behold....we have about eight plants growing quite well. I'll transplant them as soon as it gets warmer (in northern ME) and see what happens. We may be able to harvest and roast our own peanuts this fall! So, right now, we're pretty much on target with our plants, I have all the books we'll need, and I'm reviewing material and getting it put together. Still a lot of work to be done before we start...and that's just for this one class....Oh MY :svengo: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murrayshire Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 This sounds great! I might be interested in taking this science course!😀 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waa510 Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 That looks awesome!! I'll concur with the others that McHenry's Botany was a whole lot of fun and a great overview. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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