Guest Hollow's Botany Curriculum
Guest Hollow's Botany Curriculum books

Guest Hollow’s Botany Curriculum

Learn about plants and nature!

Welcome to Guest Hollow’s Botany Curriculum!

We think botany is an overlooked topic that gets shoved into a chapter of biology and then forgotten. Plants affect and enrich so many parts of our lives! Our houses and clothes are made of plant materials. We eat plants. We enjoy their beauty. They provide us with medicines, fuel, perfume, dyes, paper and a variety of other products. They are tied to history and even our future. They are an integral part of our lives!

This course is for any student who has a love for nature and plants. It’s also perfect as a pre-biology course (or post-biology!). Students will learn the science behind plants and to appreciate the myriad contributions plants make to our lives!

Prerequisites: None
Approximate Daily Time Commitment:
45 min. – 1 hour depending on activities that are chosen and reading speed
$33.00

Guest Hollow materials are downloadable/online. There are no physical copies.


Already a customer? Go to “My Account” to log in and access your downloads and your online schedule membership. Need help logging in? Check out our help page!

Grade Level / Age

Guest Hollow’s Botany Curriculum is suggested for:
● Grades 6-12
● Approximate ages
12-18




What You Get

Botany comes with:
✔ A printable PDF schedule
✔ An editable schedule in Microsoft Word format
✔ Access to an online version of the schedule*


*Access to the online version of Guest Hollow’s Botany Curriculum schedule is provided as a courtesy and is not guaranteed due to various potential circumstances.

I’d like to see the book & resource list!

Click here to see the required books and resources for Guest Hollow’s Botany Curriculum.

Observe nature with Guest Hollow’s Botany!




The goals for this homeschool botany course are:

  • To understand scientific concepts concerning plants
  • To understand and appreciate many practical applications of plants
  • To learn how to identify many different plants, flowers and trees
  • To learn some history and geography as it pertains to specific plants or plant discoveries
  • To be involved in the natural world on a more frequent basis
  • To keep a nature journal and learn some artistic skills that will help students reproduce their observations via drawings
  • To learn how to grow, cook, and use plants in a variety of ways
  • To learn about bees and worms (creatures that are beneficial to plants)
  • To hone observation skills, nurture an interest in the natural world, and encourage reflection on beautiful and interesting things

Science students actually care about!

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“Guest Hollow’s Botany curriculum is fantastic! This program is easy to follow and full of various projects, activities, and resources to tackle all learning styles. I have been a homeschool parent for over 10 years now. I get frustrated with standard curriculum that often lacks fun supplementals or ideas to change up learning when things get overwhelming, so I was determined to seek out a new program last year and am so happy I ran across Guest Hollow! It helped to create the best subject in our school year yet!  Excellent customer service and thorough research obviously went into this program. I’ve been an avid gardener for numerous years and very much enjoyed this program with my son. We both learned a lot and enjoyed every moment. We wish we could do it again this year!”
Tosha B

Guest Hollow’s Botany Curriculum
brings science to life.

Students get to immerse themselves in terrific books and videos while also having access to a buffet of activities like making chocolate, extracting DNA from strawberries, making an edible plant cell, dissecting xylem tubes, exploring geotropism, growing a sweet potato, making kimchee or sauerkraut, and much more!

Engaging Books & Materials

We’ve hand-picked books your students will love.

Our homeschool botany curriculum schedules in both fiction and non-fiction books that will ignite your student’s love for science.

Free Botany Videos

Videos add a visual component.

We scour YouTube to find the best educational videos to make botany something to actually see & hear and not just read about.

Fun Botany Projects

We work hard to engage ALL types of learners.

You’ll find a buffet of videos, projects, activities, and assignments you can pick-and-choose from to help your students retain what they are learning, including recipes!

Love Learning

Students and parents love Guest Hollow!

Our customers have shared over and over how Guest Hollow curricula has changed their homeschool and sparked a love for learning!

Squirrel asking a question

Does this curriculum come with ____________?

books?
No, you need to purchase the scheduled books separately. Learn more.

a printable book list?
Yes. We provide a book list with a handy checklist to help you plan what you want to buy or borrow and in what format. We also let you know when each book is scheduled in, so you can arrange to check out books from the library before you need them!

a schedule?
Yes. You get the same weekly schedule in 3 different formats: PDF, Microsoft Word, and online*. Just open it up and you are ready to learn!
*Access to the online version of the curriculum schedule is provided as a courtesy and is not guaranteed due to various potential circumstances on our end and yours including but not limited to various computer, device, and internet configurations.

a supply list?
Yes. Most recipe ingredients and supplies are listed at the beginning of your schedule week-by-week.

a teacher’s manual?
No. The botany curriculum schedule is all you need!

tests?
No. There are no tests with this curriculum.

a workbook?
No. We do link to plenty of free printables, though!

Guest Hollow homeschool curriculum sample

Click or tap to see a sample!

Take a look at a week of the online version of the schedule here

Take a look at a sample of the printable schedule here:

Want to know how to use the Guest Hollow PDF Schedule or the editable Microsoft version of our schedule? Go here! (This page gives lots of insight as to how our schedules work!)

Have a question about printing your Guest Hollow schedule and materials? We cover that, too!

F.A.Q. for our Botany Curriculum

You’ll have to check with your local educational authorities or in some other way determine if Guest Hollow meets requirements since states and colleges have different expectations.

When we were teaching our kids, we usually had what we thought of as a “core” curriculum (science, geography, or history). Because these programs were so literature-rich, we didn’t do a separate literature course. This enhanced our children’s retention and enjoyment of the material they were learning, since their reading assignments complimented their studies. Of course our kids also did plenty of reading in their free time as well!

Guest Hollow’s Botany Curriculum covers a lot of different types of information. We think the BEST curriculums are those that are multidisciplinary. We believe subjects don’t exist in a vacuum, so we like to tie different subjects together, when possible, to expand students’ understanding of specific topics or things they encounter in various scheduled books and/or videos.

Additional credits could possibly be earned for literature, history, and home economics (or some type of cooking course).

Don’t forget to research your local requirements and consult the local experts in your area! We are in NO way advising what credits you should assign. You are ultimately responsible for researching this topic and deciding what will work for you and your family based on your local requirements, future plans, college requirements, and other considerations.

This curriculum was designed for grades 6 through 12.

If you are using this curriculum with a middle school student, you may want to skip the Botany for Dummies book as it may be too difficult to understand. We’ve scheduled in DK Trees, Leaves, Flowers and Seeds for younger students.

If you are using the curriculum with a middle school student (especially a younger middle school student), we recommend you do not use the following books:

  • Botany for Dummies (Use DK Trees, Leaves, Flowers, and Seeds instead or use a combo of both, but be on hand to explain harder concepts in Botany for Dummies.)
  • The Botany Coloring Book (or only assign the easiest pages)
  • The Earth Moved (The other worm books will be plenty.)
  • The Bees novel (or preview it to possibly do it as a read-aloud with you editing out parts)
  • Botany in a Day (You may want to learn from this book yourself, and then you can teach the concepts directly to your student in a hands-on outdoor manner.)
  • What a Plant Knows (or do parts of this as a read-aloud)
  • How Plants Work (or do parts of this as a read-aloud)
  • Tulipomania
  • The Triumph of Seeds
  • Fifty Plants that Changed the Course of History (or do parts of this book as a read-aloud)
  • Use the Nature Anatomy Notebook for nature journaling instead of the other two options.
  • Possibly read the following books out loud:
    • Wicked Plants (Skip any sections that are not appropriate for your student)
    • 100 Flower and How They Got Their Names
    • Lives of the Trees

You will also need to assist with recipes and be more involved with the projects and activities.

High Schoolers have optional unscheduled books to choose from to add more of a challenge to the program. See the book list for more information.

We strongly suggest that you view every item linked or used in this curriculum to make sure it meets with your approval.

Some of the topics covered in Guest Hollow’s Botany Curriculum are:

  • Chocolate and Milton Hershey
  • Cooking with plants
  • Binomial nomenclature and classification of plants
  • Carl Linnaeus
  • Plant cells
  • Xylem & phloem
  • Stems
  • Roots and potatoes
  • Soil
  • Worms and bees
  • Peanuts and George Washington Carver
  • Leaves
  • Plant reproduction
  • Seeds
  • Cones and flowers
  • Bees and pollen
  • Fruits
  • Photosynthesis
  • Moving materials through plants
  • Regulating plant development and growth
  • Plant genetics
  • Characteristics of plants in different environments
  • Mosses and Ferns
  • Fungi
  • Gymnosperms
  • Angiosperms
  • Plant ecology and biomes
  • Symbiosis
  • Trees
  • Biotechnology
  • Plant uses and products
  • Plant diseases
  • Facts, geography, and history about many different plants, trees, and flowers
  • Understanding the Latin names of plants
  • Propagating plants
  • Food choices and how they impact health
  • John Muir

Some additional resources cover:

  • Drawing and/or coloring plants and flowers
  • Nature journaling
  • Learning how to identify plants

Students will also create and label a plant collection.

There are 35 weeks in this curriculum.

Not all topics are listed.

Week 1Topics: Botany introduction, chocolate, aconite, arrow poisons, African violet, anemone, aster, acacia, cacao, alder, onion, Milton Hershey
Week 2Topics: Binomial nomenclature, classification, taxonomy, Ayahuasca vine, Betel nut, abelia, astilbe, azalea, almond, apricot, bamboo, pineapple, Milton Hershey, Linnaeus
Week 3Topics: Plant cells, chloroplasts and mitochondria, plant tissues, meristems, Castor bean, Baby Blue Eyes, balloon flower, ash tree, wheat, Linnaeus, plant DNA, how plants tell time
Week 4Topics: Plant vascular tissue, xylem, phloem, hemp, Latin prefixes and suffixes, plant nutrition and transport
Week 5Topics: stems, annual and perennial plants, rhizomes, stolons, tubers, corms, tendrils, nightshade, begonia, beauty bush, bald cypress, banana, baobab, sugarcane, ginger, monocot and dicot seedlings, geotropism, phototropism
Week 6Topics: Roots, bulbs, corms, rhizomes, tubers, potatoes, potato famine, bleeding heart, bluebell, bougainvillea, food storage structures in plants, dividing and forcing bulbs, beech, birch, coconut
Week 7Topics: Tulips, ergot, breadfruit, butterfly bush, California poppy, cilantro, box tree, catalpa, halophytic plants, hydroponics, worms
Week 8Topics: Habanero, camelia, candytuft, Christmas rose, cedar, cherry, chestnut, saffron, papyrus, worm composting, peanuts, George Washington Carver, vermicomposting
Week 9Topics: Leaf structure, leaf types, henbane, chrysanthemum, violet, pansies, clematis, tea, yam, worms, George Washington Carver, leaf identification, why leaves change colors
Week 10Topics: Plant reproduction, spores, seeds, gymnosperms, angiosperms, Jimson weed, columbine, crape Myrtle, crocus, clove, cork, cottonwood, cardamom, coca, worms, kimchi
Week 11Topics: Seeds, germination, seed structure (dicots and monocots), cyclamen, daffodil, coffee, daisy, vanilla, cypress, dates
Week 12Topics: Flowers, flower anatomy, ragweed, datura, daylily, water lily, ebony, elder, elm, foxglove, sunflower, worms, seeds, Fibonacci numbers in nature, killer algae, cones
Week 13Topics: Pollen, deutzia, dogwood, kudzu, evening primrose, fig, fir, frankincense, barley, hops, worms, bees, seeds, fir tree identification, invasive plant species
Week 14Topics: Fruits, fruit and seed dispersal, fruit types, everlasting flower, forget-me-not, forsythia, Franklin tree, gingko, indigo, golden rain tree, sweet pea, worms, bananas, fruits around the world, mujer
Week 15Topics: Photosynthesis, Manchineel, handkerchief tree, hawthorn, foxglove, weigela, fuchsia, apples and crabapples, lavender, worms, plant vs. animal cells and plant cell review
Week 16Topics: Osmosis in plants, water transport and transpiration, plant vascular system, roots, sugar transport, mandrake, gardenia, lavender, hazel, hemlock, mulberry, rice, worms, geraniums and how to propagate them with cuttings
Week 17Topics: Types of plant growth (division, elongation, hormone signals), plant hormones, tropisms, turgor pressure, circadian rhythm, gladiolus, gloxinia, hollyhock, hornbeam, horse chestnut, olive tree and olive harvest, worms, meristems, ethanol, corn
Week 18Topics: Asexual and sexual reproduction in plants, oleander, honeysuckle, hosta, wisteria, Japanese cedar, nutmeg, Joshua tree, opium poppies, worms
Week 19Topics: Plant genetics, Punnett squares, dihybrid crosses, meiosis, incomplete dominance, hyacinth, hydrangea, impatiens, black pepper, oak, worms, Gregor Mendel
Week 20Topics: Plant adaptations, desert plants, tropical rainforest plants, carnivorous plants, aquatic plants, making an indoor water garden, peacock flower, cacti, yarrow, iris, japonica, lemon and lime trees, linden, locust, dog rose, worms
Week 21Topics: Bryophytes, seedless vascular plants, ferns, liverworts, hornworts, mosses, peat, poison hemlock, psychedelic plants, jasmine, kerria, lady’s mantle, mahogany, willow, mango, aspirin, worms, moss life cycle
Week 22Topics: Fungi, loosestrife, larkspur and delphinium, yucca, lilac, mangrove, orange tree, maple, worms, yeast, slime molds
Week 23Topics: Gymnosperms, conifers, pines, ratbane, lily, zinnia, lobelia, monkey puzzle tree, myrrh, neem and using neem oil in the garden, tobacco, worms, pine cones, conifer identification
Week 24Topics: Angiosperms, loosestrife, rosary pea, love-in-a-mist, lupine, Osage orange, pawpaw, paulownia, spices, the global health implications of food choices and options we have, chili peppers, annuals/biennials/perennials
Week 25Topics: Ecology, producers, consumers, decomposers, energy pyramid, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, sago palm, magnolia, marigold, montbretia, peach tree, pear tree, eucalyptus, the global health implications of food choices and options we have
Week 26Topics: Symbiosis in plants, biomes, changes in ecosystems, some plants benefit from fire, nettles, morning glory, mountain Laurel, myrtle, persimmon, pine, pomegranate, the global health implications of food choices and options we have, John Muir
Week 27Topics: Trees, tree “communication”, nasturtium, orchid, Oregon grape holly, poplar, quince, rubber, amber, gum/chicle, plant genetics long-term project
Week 28Topics: Biotechnology, genetically modified plants, engineering plants, golden rice, more about carnivorous plants, snakeroot, bee balm, peony, petunia, redbud, redwood, rowan, soybean, more about bees, plant genetics long-term project
Week 29Topics: Plant uses, making paper, cotton, biofuels, poisonous plants, blue-green algae, phlox, plume poppy, poinsettia, saguaro, sandalwood, sassafras, plant genetics long-term project
Week 30Topics: Weird plants, hemlock, poppy, primrose, torch lily, spruce, stewartia, strawberry tree, record-holding plants, plant genetics long-term project
Week 31Topics: Plant diseases, hyacinth, rhododendron, rose, rudbeckia, sumac, sweetgum, cinchona, grapes, plant defenses, plant genetics long-term project
Week 32Topics: Scarlett sage, stock, sycamore, tamarisk, tree of heaven, plant genetics long-term project, wetlands, aphids
Week 33Topics: Thorn acacia, sunflower, sweet pea, tulip tree, tupelo, walnut tree, plant genetics long-term project, mistletoe, poison ivy
Week 34Topics: Yew, welwitschia, Wollemi pine, review, finishing up the last books and the plant genetics project
Week 35Main topics: Final review

You can keep your files forever, if you save your initial download!

Once you’ve downloaded the schedule and workbook to your computer or device, you are licensed to use the downloaded copy forever. Make sure you download, save, and back up your items immediately after your purchase! You can click directly on the links in the schedule from a computer or other device and can use your materials with younger students years later.

2 Years to Access Additional Downloads & the Online Schedule*

Additional downloads (after your initial purchase) and access to the online version of the schedule are provided as a courtesy and are not guaranteed due to various potential technical and business (and life!) circumstances. It is our intention to continue to provide access for a period of 2 years from the date of purchase. After the 2-year period, you will have the opportunity to repurchase your access at a substantial discount.

Please note, if you have problems, we have a liberal policy of providing extra, free access for unusual circumstances (at our discretion). Just contact us: guesthollow@memorableplaces.com.

*Access to the online version of the curriculum schedules and additional downloads is provided as a courtesy and is not guaranteed due to potential various circumstances on our end and yours including but not limited to various computer, device, and internet configurations.

Yes, on a case-by-case basis depending on the amount of paperwork they require and the bureaucracy that needs to be navigated. 😉

No, you may NOT resell, share, or distribute any of Guest Hollow’s digital products (or printed out copies of our digital products) which includes but is not limited to schedules, workbooks, printables, and other materials.

Our materials are licensed for a single family’s use only. You may print out as many copies as you need for siblings or others living in your home.

Please contact us if you wish to use our materials in a co-op or school: guesthollow@memorableplaces.com.

Yes, but every family in a co-op needs to purchase a copy of our materials (one item per family). We offer a co-op discount. Contact us for information about the discount.

Schools need to contact us for school pricing and payment options.

Contact us at: guesthollow@memorableplaces.com.

No. We only offer a digital version at this time. You can print out your materials at home or have them printed via a printing service.

Some of our customers use The Homeschool Printing Company or Family Nest Printing. We don’t endorse any specific printing company. They are shared for informational purposes only.

Please see the F.A.Q. on the Botany Curriculum Books and Resources page.

We are Christians, but Guest Hollow’s Botany Curriculum is not intended to be a “Christian resource”. However, there may be infrequent (or what we consider to be) minor references or links to resources that mention Christian ideas, values, or sectarian topics even in our secular/non-religious/neutral curriculums.

If we schedule in a Christian book, we try to give you notice of such in the books and resources page.

Christians and non-Christians should preview the scheduled books and all other resources such as videos, etc. to make sure they are compatible with your beliefs, philosophies, and values.

After purchasing a curriculum, you’ll see that the item you just bought shows that it is discounted 50% in our store. The reason you are seeing this is because we give you the opportunity to repurchase the schedule and your downloads at a substantial discount before they expire (2 years from date of purchase).

Please note: You do NOT need to repurchase your schedule in order to use the files you originally purchased and downloaded. You can use your downloaded schedule forever and can click on the links just as you can the online version of the schedule. You just won’t have access to any updates after your online access expires.

Why does access expire? Every year we go through all our curriculum schedules and update broken links and/or replace books that have gone out of print. This is a very time-intensive process that keeps our curricula up-to-date. Your repurchase helps fund this process and provides you with a schedule that has all the new additions or changes.

You need to repurchase your access BEFORE it expires in order to get the 50% discount due to the way our “membership” software works. If for some reason you miss the deadline, let us know why. We may give you a coupon code for the 50% off at our discretion. ????

*It is our intention to provide access for a period of 2 years, however, access to the online version of the curriculum schedules and additional downloads is provided as a courtesy and is not guaranteed due to potential various circumstances on our end and yours including but not limited to various computer, device, and internet configurations.

This question is impossible for us to answer.

We do NOT in any way make any representations that any of our material will or will not work for establishing credit, being enough to conform to any educational requirements, or pass muster with any federal, state, local, or college requirements.  

We require instructors and parents to determine for themselves, from federal, state, and local authorities – as well as from any colleges that may be considered in the future what is specifically required in their family’s / student’s circumstances in order to meet requirements for credit, graduation, admission, and all other potential requirements and needs.

The morass of individual requirements in between states, municipalities, and colleges is such a tangled mess that we simply cannot help to determine the suitability of any materials or curricula in any meaningful way.    We strongly recommend that instructors determine the requirements and then compare those requirements to what is offered in our materials to see if the materials will pass muster with whatever requirements are extant in any given situation.  We also strongly recommend that when there are potential learning disabilities or challenges of ANY kind that instructors/parents seek professional guidance and qualified assistance with selecting materials to use and in their presentation.

In other words, the determination on whether a student has “accomplished enough for a credit” will NEVER be ours, it must be that of the authorities that you must answer to as well as the requirements of any continuing or higher-level education and institutions / tests that you will need to accomplish – and there is no way for us to either know or determine that. We suggest that you seek the assistance of qualified individuals that can determine whether or not our materials will meet all standards you need to meet prior to using our materials.

We are happy to answer your questions!!! Just email us at: guesthollow@memorableplaces.com

You’re invited!

Click or tap the button to join our Facebook groups! You can get additional questions answered, see pictures of students’ projects, get help and encouragement from other homeschoolers, or browse through the multitude of posts to get a feel for our products and see what real people think of Guest Hollow!

Like what you see? Join the Guest Hollow family, and add Guest Hollow’s Botany Curriculum to your cart!

Reviews: See what our customers have to say!

If you’ve used Guest Hollow’s Botany Curriculum, we invite you to write a review and leave your thoughts about our curriculum. Scroll down to the review box below the following customer reviews. We look forward to seeing your feedback!

2 reviews for Guest Hollow’s Botany Curriculum

  1. Brandie (verified owner)

    My daughters used this curriculum this year and really enjoyed it. They love the books that they read, and the video links. They had already spent a semester at our co-op doing work with fast plants, so we did not use that part. It has been a wonderful year thanks to Guesthollow.

  2. Melody (verified owner)

    We used this curriculum three years ago, so this review is long overdue! But our girls STILL refer to some of the books that they read for this botany course in everyday conversation, and that only happens with Guest Hollow books in this house, which is why we keep coming back for more! As many homeschooling families will relate to, we were pretty lame about science up until high school (when Mom – that’s me – decided to get her act together!), so we did this as a pre-biology course, which we immediately followed by Guest Hollow biology the next year. It worked really well that way, and got all the topics to sink in much more thoroughly than they might have otherwise. It also very accidentally coincided with our household moving from the big city out into the sticks (job change) and I give this course a lot of credit for making the girls much more enthused than they would have been about putting in our own garden and raising and butchering our own chickens and rabbits. (Specifically, reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma. What a perfect book for us to encounter that year!!) The only minor point of concern that I would give to other moms planning to use this (which you definitely should!) is that this is a older Guest Hollow course, so it does not have a single easy-to-assemble workbook for homework assignments. There are of course lots of activities to do, but all the sheets are from various websites, so it takes more planning and prepping to use this than some of the other science courses offered here.

    • Jennifer Guest

      What an awesome review! Thank you so much for posting it! <3

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