Many people overlook plants and their importance despite seeing them every day and even eating them every day. A good science teacher, whether a parent or a teacher in a traditional classroom, can get kids excited about studying plants as part of their science program. The new biology text by Pricilla Spears, Kingdoms of Life Connected, makes the job easy and fun, and is an excellent addition to any secular homeschool curriculum.

The book details many projects that help children explore and understand plants, such as labeling nearby plants and keeping a file of plant images. Many students will enjoy the history of plant discovery and may be surprised at some of the ways plants are used in everyday life. Edible plant families are likely to be a subject of interest that many teachers can use for topics beyond basic biology encompassing important issues in health and medicine. Of course, the practical experience of growing plants in gardens or inside the classroom is a great way to stimulate hands-on interest.

One of the strong features of Kingdoms of Life Connected is that it guides both students and teachers through the less commonly known types of plants and places them in the context of broader networks of life. The book will stimulate interest in many plant varieties that most students don't even know exist, such as liverworts, hornworts and mosses. Illustrations in the book will show your children how the large, scaly barked tree "Lepidodendron" from the Paleozoic is related to quillwort or club moss in the modern world. And, suggest to your students that they refer to Kingdoms of Life Connected to discover what else was alive in paleozoic times.

This book's high quality illustrations are an excellent complement to the text. The diagrams of relationships among the plants makes it easy for students to remember important elements of order in the diversity. There are many interesting tales to tell from the kingdom of plants. You will find the new text to be an excellent resource to make your lessons both accurate and interesting, whether you want to discuss the ginkgo tree as the last survivor of its lineage, or talk about monilophytes and pteridophytes.

Kingdoms of Life Connected is just one item in a growing catalog of science education products produced by Big Picture Science that are tailored specifically for teaching kids science, whether in a homeschool setting, a Montessori or charter school classroom, or a traditional public school.