I am really enjoying doing biology with my son. It’s one of those feel-good homeschool moments when it feels so incredibly enjoyable and relaxing. I guess I feel that way, because I also like biology. I bought “Real Science 4 Kids Biology Level I” for him, because I know that he is passionate about science. He had recent interest in cells, in addition to all of his human anatomy stuff that he’s into. I made a guess that the RS4K stuff would go over really well with him, as long as we treated it like a read-aloud and as long as we did it completely on his terms. I figured we would skip around however he wanted to and we would only do it when he genuinely felt like it.

I started off reading about taxonomy. We had already spoken about the 5 kingdoms prior to getting the curriculum. I think he easily knows plants, animals and bacteria. Fungi is a hard one for him to wrap his head around. We’ve been talking about protists a lot just now so I’m thinking he might be able to keep them straight from bacteria. The kids watched a Zula Patrol episode about paramecium and amoebas so there was a general familiarity with protists and there was a keen interest in them.

He wasn’t too interested in taxonomy, rather he wanted to jump straight into cells. This is where I have to fight the urge to strictly stick to the chapter sequence; some weird schoolish part of me tries to overcome the unschooling part of me and then it’s just not fun for anyone; it just becomes tedious and stressful. So, I let it go, of course.

He was done with the reading about classification, but immediately asked me to write “This is a cell.” so he could copy it. He then sat down and drew an animal cell based on the picture in the book. I was impressed with his level of detail. All he really wants to do are cells and he’s so interested in it, which is fantastic. This is what it should be about: love of learning. If he wants me to, I’ll read whatever he wants me to read about cells. And he really wants to make one. He had borrowed a “make it” anatomy book from our chiropractor and he had his heart set on making the cell in the book. They used a lot of hard foam. I believe we can make the same 3D cell from cardboard and we have a lot of cardboard left from the move.

This morning, he asked where the new microscope slides were. I had purchased some for him, based on what he wanted. Most of them were splices of human organs. I did buy one of paramecium splitting; he really wanted that one. I sat down with the kids and showed them which setting was best to view the slides on. Most worked well at 600x but a few really needed 900x. Unfortunately, since this is a toy microscope, 900x doesn’t work so well because the magnification gets shaky; you have to sort of hold the platform in place.

I showed him that the bolded word on top of the slide’s label would indicate what he was looking at. I was given a rare glimpse into his reading ability. He was able to read “kidney, stomach, frog blood” and others. He spends a lot of time poring over his kids’ anatomy encyclopedia; now, we’re starting to think he’s actually reading some of it. I had to read “cerebellum” for him, but then he excitedly gushed that it was the part of the brain that connects to the brain stem. This is where I think he must be reading some part of the anatomy book, because I didn’t know that bit of info.

I think he would like me to buy more slides for him. They’re a bit expensive, but it’s one of those things that are worth it. We really need a real microscope at some point rather than this little toy. I didn’t want to make the expenditure without seeing how much long-term interest was there and assessing how careful they would be. I think we’re ready for a real microscope, to be honest. The kid in me would really like a real microscope for my own pleasure; I spent hours with my toy microscope when I was a kid.

I think he was the most excited at the paramecium slide, especially as they were splitting. I had been a bit disappointed with it, because I couldn’t see all the inner parts or the cilia. He was still happy. We pulled out the RS4K text and flipped to the chapter on protists. I read about how paramecium catch food and digest it. He just soaked it up like a sponge. He also thought that paramecium were funny. I still wish we could see more; I’ll have to see if I can find a magnified picture on the Internet. We can only see a dark circle, which I guess is the nucleus. According to the RS4K book, all cells have a nucleus except for bacteria (prokaryotic cells).

Anyway, it was just one of those feel-good homeschooling moments when the parent and child are really sharing something that they both enjoy. I feel this way when the three of us go to art museum too. I think dh feels this way whenever they talk about machines or one of the other sciences. I can’t believe dh hates biology. He is really enthusiastic about physics, chemistry and things like that, but he finds biology to be incredibly tedious. I’m the opposite; biology is the only kind of science that I’ve ever really loved. I could learn about this stuff with B all day.

I know there have been posts on the boards about people feeling like their interactions with their child are incredibly monotonous. I wonder if they’ll change their mind as their child grows older or when they find a shared interest. I could never sit in the floor and play cars or something; that is tedious to me and I do not consider myself to be a child playmate. But I absolutely love talking to my kids…I love these conversations we have when they teach me things and I teach them things and we learn stuff together. I really enjoy their companionship. I love the visits to the coffee shop, especially if I can have 1:1 time with either child. I love the simple conversations, the intellectual conversations, the moments of mutual silence when we’re just being. I love traveling with them. I love when we teach each other. I think I just love the companionship and getting to know them as people. I hope they get to know me as a person too. I feel like I’m just now getting to know my own mother as a person outside of the mother role; I wish I had made this discovery sooner.