yes I'm homeschooling a 1st grade DD and preschool DS. We are going to have our 1st real garden this year as we just purchased our 1st home.

colleen in Northern California...

Congratulations on your new home! I homeschool my two sons, ages 5 and 9. We are currently living in a townhome, but have been using our patio garden and pots quite effectively to grow a wide variety of flowers, plants and vegetables. We're most proud of a giant banana palm which should bear fruit this summer (we're crossing our fingers).

I'm always looking for new projects to do outside; please share if you have any!

Pam

Hi Pam,
I just recently moved to northern CA I sure do miss sunny Costa Mesa. We moved to better afford housing on 1 income so I could homeschool the kids. Outside projects in a town house....My kids love making bird houses and feeders. We had one made from a coconut shell I had to do the cutting of course as they are way to young in my house for that. In Costa Mesa we lived in a townhouse near Bristol. If I think of any projects I'll post them back here. I don't get much computer time right now due to the new baby. Soon I'll be able go through my idea books a bit more.
colleen

Hi Colleen -- shoot, we would have been almost neighbors! We're in Fountain Valley. We homeschool through CHEP in Costa Mesa.

I loved when my boys were tiny infants as I'd set them up outside with their bouncy seats or (later) in the baby swing on the swing set, and just garden away! We lived in Long Beach then in a house with a huge yard. Too bad the house was so small.

My boys are currently growing corn, tomatoes, runner beans, carrots and a funky type of watermelon in our garden here. We have had huge success with pumpkins, and I still have some frozen in the freezer for the next round of bread. We've also had good luck with carrots in pots; it's easier to keep the soil loose so that the carrots will grow longer.

We are just now getting into vermicomposting and have been prepping our bin. Worms and boys are a good fit! And this way we can recycle our organic kitchen scraps instead of using the garbage disposal or trash can.

I don't know about you, but the amount of trash we output is unbelievable. We are always looking for ways to cut down. So far we've eliminated paper plates, but there's not much we can do about junk mail. If it's color-ink free I let the kids have a bonfire in the grill every so often and toast marshmallows! We can go through a kitchen bag of mail at a time.

I've been reading about your backyard plans in another post. Sounds great! Good luck with all you're doing.

Pam

Instead of burning junk mail, grind it up with water and make "homemade paper" with it. I think there is a site on About.com just for that purpose. I homeschool, as well, but my daughter is into her "surly seventeens" as she herself describes it! She really has a way with words.

Hello I am from Georgia and I been home schooling for 7 years. Perhaps another homeschool mom and her family would like to exchange bulbs or seeds with us. I realize there is another forum for this, but since we homeschool we could use it as an exercise in language arts, science, or geography (as in "Mom where in the heck is Georgia?" Just kidding )Let me know if anyone is interested.

I'd like to do that, however I don't have anything worth trading this year, except maybe postcards.

colleen

I'm homeschooling a teen. I'm hoping to use the gardens as for a large part of our biology lessons this year. Between the plants and amphibians and deer... not to mention the insects and birds... I think there are a lot of things there to tie in nicely. In particular, we have been trying to isolate and make seed from a red hollyhock. It will be interesting next year to use those seeds in a study on genetics.

Beachcitycom - Thanks for starting this thread - it's nice to meet these folks. I can see some great stuff going on with all of you.
My homeschooled sons are now 18 & 20 - the oldest has fledged & the youngest will take flight any time now. All three of us (and lots of neighbor kids who occasionally ditched school to hang out with us) have had a wonderful self-education experience which - of course - never really ends.
I look forward to hearing about the adventures of everyone who has posted so far and more who will join us. Meanwhile - a couple of little neighbor kids just found the armadillo in my back yard, so ... catch you later.
(PS - where in the heck IS Georgia? Nah - we've got a US map plastered across the "formal living room" wall).

hi, we're homeschoolers (4 kids ages 13, 8, 5 and 2) in northeast pa!

nature study was my major weakness until we started gardening again, in our 8th home! (our last home was a townhouse, no yard to speak of).

right now we only have a bunch of flowers (i've been swapping irises on the iris exchange forum) -- and in the backyard i've got peppers and chinese vegetables.

hope to see more of you gals!

Chiming in as another homeschooling family. We're unschoolers on a rural acreage with a short-ish growing season, but we have a fairly successful medium-sized veggie garden that the kids are helping with this year. The kids are 10, 7, 5 and 18 months. The toddler has recently learned to "help" by not picking green tomatoes (yay!).

We've also made some friends who are big-time gardeners with their homeschooled kids and are planning a homeschoolers' harvest festival for the fall. We'll probably do it as a semi-potluck affair where everyone brings food for themselves but also something at least partly homegrown to share with the group. For those who don't have a garden there's the option to forage for something to share.

Miranda

Hi
this is my second year homeschooling my 9 year old son, and this year we will probably be doing some "unofficial" homeschooling of preschool aged foster children. We live in extreme rural Iowa and have a big vegetable garden and an average sized flower garden. I am hoping to save seeds from most of my plants this year. If you would like some please check my trade list--I would love to send you some for a sase--and check back with me later this fall as I will likely have lots more to share.
God's blessings to you, your family and your garden,
Marie

Here is a link that might be useful: my trade list

homelearning here! 4 and 6 yo boys! Both are in the gardens daily and help and learn greatly. Today we walked 3 baby geese and watched them play in the gardens. We saw insects pollinating and jumping onto flowers for different reasons. We saw how seeds come from flowers and pick seeds for growing this winter for next year.

Our family business is with landscaping and gardening, so the intensity is very great to be exposed and learn about plants inour household.

Other interests are foraging and preparing what we find to eat, blueberry jam, dandelion tea, cherry jam and tarts, breads with poppy seeds, etc...the 6 yo is learning fractions from cooking with a measuring cup, its so easy to learn when applications apply!:) We are having fun!

My 6yo last year dumped radish seeds in a gravel driveway, my challenge was to make sure the seeds developed and fruited...It worked, we just kept adding compost and watered the plants as needed. Once I drove very close to this garden and got heck from my son, but was forgiven when he saw there was no damage to HIS garden. lol
I am trying to use latin names and the proper terms in labeling plant parts instead of cute baby language, although I do refrence to terms laymen use for refrence and for smiles as common names are rather warm and silly at times. And latin names can be horrific to pronounce, but the greatest thrill is to hear a young child use a botanical name properly AND UNDERSTAND IT, as my 3 year old is already doing as well.

Another homeschooling family here! I'm learning to garden right along side my 3 small girls. Right now we're learning to plan things out for next year, and they each will have their own bed.

I've vowed not to micromanage their choices. I know how I can be about following the directions on the back of the seed pack, lol. I figure that there is no better teacher than experience!

another Latin learner here. since we're learning Latin, thought the gardening would dovetail nicely with it! so far they're not THAT excited about it but we'll keep trying. so good to see everyone here!

Hello everyone. Homeschooling 12 and 7 yr old girls. Always have homeschooled my kids, even during their PS yrs....youngest has never been. Oldest is now in the Marines. We use gardening for science, biology and math. (If you plant 10 seeds and only 3 germinate what is the ration/fraction....etc.) We love homeschooling and gardening and wouldn't have it any other way.