Beans don't transplant very well. Perhaps you could try to explain to her that beans liked to be planted directly in the garden? I have a feeling that 3 year olds are not very patient, but if she plants some outside after the weather warms up she will be eating beans soon enough. In the interim why not start some tomato seedlings inside. Jon

You've been busy! Thanks for the great post. I love hearing about who is doing what, and when. This past weekend I changed out three of my four huge window boxes to winter interest plants (the boxes are large and came (neglected) with the house so I've nailed them along the top of the boring wooden fence surrounded the front yard so neighbors and passersby can see/enjoy them (I painted them to match the house)). The new plants look great and should provide some nice spots of color through the upcoming months. I've also been doing some pruning and a lot of grubbing out of poorly placed plants that I inherited with this house. The yard is tiny and I don't appreciate a huge overgrown red-twig dogwood, mock oragne, and purple smokebush right in the center, heh heh, so they're all being moved more towards the garden edges. Like you, I've been taking cuttings of favorite tender perennnials like coleus and fancy-leaf zonal geraniums (I've got an 'Alabama Sunset' coleus (my very favorite) that I've been carrying along cutting to cutting for many years now; same for some of the fancy-leaf zonal geraniums). Other than that, the rest has been basic garden maintenance and moving things like potted agaves under the eaves for winter. This weekend I'll spend time cleaning up frost-damaged (okay, dead, heh heh) plants, and starting a new compost pile. Keep the plant activity updates coming. Happy gardening, Grant Here is a link that might be useful:

We grow seeds with our four and five year olds with Bounty paper towels folded into quarters, wet and placed in a zip lock bag with a bean seed inside where you can observe the roots when they start to grow. We tape them to the panes of the window. Remember to always plant a couple of extras with no name, then when a child's seed fails to germinate, you can replace it with a good one. In our outdoor garden we plant lemon balm, rosemary and various mints for fragrance. Bev Bos (noted preschool educator) says children live in odor-sterile environments, because of all the germicides, etc. we use to clean our homes and schools, and they need good smells. We plant lots of fennel, dill and parsley so the caterpillars will be welcome. We often take a caterpillar inside to hatch and then enjoy letting the butterly go. It makes the children much more protective of insects. BTW, when you have children make decorative objects, you are not encouraging art, but craft. While craft has its place, children should also understand that they do not have to make practical things for their art to have value. Why not have them take their art supplies outside and make pictures of their garden, or bring in some flowers for them to draw? This is one of the teachings of Reggio Emilia, an excellent preschool philosophy.

Has anyone used Continental Academy for home schooling? I need to figure something out for my girl; have to get her back in school. The year we moved she was in vo-tech; they taught 3 subjects in the 1st 1/2 of the year, then the others at the 2nd 1/2 of the year. I ended up pulling her out & putting her in high school; she then had mono, right before exams (sold house). The new school would not register her because they did not have her complete records so she missed finals. She repeated 9th grade; then had a bad year medically (fell down steps, had no air way due to tonsils which were taken out during winter break; then had medical issues due to the mono; lost about 80 pounds. School wanted "chronic illness notes" which I got, but it did not cover a few days because of wording & there was no time to fix due to school ending. They kept her back again. She refused to go in September. I didn't have time to fight them because of hubby's cancer. My plan is to have her get the credit she needs to get put back into school so she can graduate. Continental academy was suggested to me.