Biology Study of Mushrooms that Captivates the Imagination

When teaching biology, don’t open that nifty science book until your kids gasp and whisper, “wow!”

My son rolled his eyes when I said, ” We’re gonna study Fungi.”

To tell you the truth, I wasn’t excited either.

So I hid the textbook and deployed plan B.

Mission: Turn eye rolling 14 year old into a mushroom enthusiast in just 4 days.

Day One: We went on a short mushroom walk to see how many mushrooms we could find in our backyard. The gentle rain made this a short adventure.

Day Two: We Stumbled upon exploding mushrooms! I can tell you this… The surest way to get a 14-year old boy to fall in love with fungus is to show him exploding mushrooms!

Riddle: what scene from a movie gives a perfect image of how connected all life is to the mushroom’s underground network?

Hmmm…

Day Three: Watch a fascinating documentary about the Magic of mushrooms and gathered ideas for activities.

By the end of day three I knew my plan was working. Eye rolling stopped and boy began talking about mushrooms to his dad and brothers while I sat silently smiling in the background. I was now ready to deploy my secret weapon: MORE time outside wandering, exploring, searching.

Yes. I had him watch the mushroom scene from Fantasia.

Day Four: Hold tightly to the specimen tray and hold out a camera as you ask, “Do you want to take pictures or collect the specimens of different kinds of mushroom?

That was the clincher.

After stumbling upon the 6th or 7th variety of mushrooms, he was saying, “I could do this all day!!” But I KNEW I we had left the eye rolling completely behind when he said, “Ya know… I thought I was gonna hate studying fungi… I thought it would be boring… This is great!”

They just want YOU.

One of the BEST things you can do is set aside 30 minutes a week to do something quiet and personal with your kids. For me and my youngest son it was watercolors.We’d gather our supplies, open our favorite “How to Watercolor Book” and just paint.

Bekki Sayler

As we worked quietly on water coloring mushrooms, I asked him the riddle again. “So, did you figure out which movie scene shows a symbolic view of how mushrooms connect the world together with their underground network (mycelium?)

I pressed play. “You’re right!”

Biology can be a chunky subject. So many terms and details can be overwhelming.

If the point of studying creation isn’t to join creation in delighting, beholding, and declaring the glory of God… what’s the point?

If the Bible is true, then teaching biology is a perfect vehicle to show our kids that “creation declares the glory of God.”

• Yes we’ll look at the roots of words and specific vocabulary,
• Sure we’ll discuss the lifecycle and benefits of this kingdom called Fungi…

… but it would have wasted our time and dulled his heart if we had not waited for him to become fascinated, mesmerized and excited about what he sees.

Oh, it’s slower. True.
Oh, he’ll do less paperwork. That’s a fact.

But he will remember more and be excited to dive deeper, deeper, and deeper…

Once you tap into the why and the “WOW”, you’ll be ready to dive deep with your kids into a subject and discover the how and the why .

And so will they.

Not so secret steps:

-Let them acclimate first.
-Get them excited before.
-Let them look, touch, feel, smell, and hear before they define, underline, and answer in neatly written complete senses that they will never remember.

Let them watch movies, do experiments of their own design, and paint or sculpt before they label and diagram.

Let them breathe in the air and discover that God Himself awaits for them outdoors…

BEHOLD, creation declares the glory of God!!

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This post comes with a free printable reminder list to help keep your heart focused on the heart of homeschooling. I always have the hardest staying focused. This printable simplifies it!

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