It’s been a while since I took you for a walk in our garden! For Things I Love Thursday, I thought I’d show you a few of this year’s favorite plants.
This is the first year that we have planted caladium, although we have often admired them in the past. We planted the bulbs in May and by mid-to-late June had concluded that none of them made it… and then they started popping up their lovely heads! Since our yard is almost all shade, it’s hard to find many plants that provide much color, but these caladium work wonderfully!
My love for them my wane when we have to dig them up this fall, but perhaps pictures of them will motivate me to keep them alive for next year. We bought a little pot of these and replanted them – I was afraid they wouldn’t make it, but they have filled in beautifully!
Another flowering option for our shade that has worked quite well are begonias.
We received a couple of begonia plants in flower baskets after my mother-in-law passed away – my husband really loves begonias already, so he is especially attached to these.
By the way… anyone know if we can somehow keep these guys alive over winter? We tried with a different begonia last year but it didn’t make it. I know NP would love to keep these going.
Do you have any favorite shade plants you recommend we try out next year?
For more “Things I Love Thursday” fun, head over to thediaperdiaries!
As of this morning, our homeschool “room” (actually a corner of the dining room) is finished! I’m always amazed by how much an educational poster or something like that can cost, but have been thankful to find or make everything super cheaply!
Here’s the rundown:
Top left: Super cute “yesterday was _”, “today is _”, “tomorrow will be _” signs and the days of the week came in a set at Dollar Tree (for $1.00, obviously!) I laminated them for a buck or two at the educational resource center, and used the art waxer to make it stick on the wall. [Those art waxers are great! It puts a thin layer of wax on the back, and it sticks to the wall without damaging and can be moved around endlessly! Love it!]
Left middle: A poster we picked up in Williamsburg when we were first married. :)
Lower left: See our felt board sticking out there?? Top right: Calendar set, also from Dollar Tree! The calendar itself, day numbers, and month headers were separate, so it came to a budget busting $3.00. Not too bad, considering I saw an ad last night for a teacher calendar set for $23.00! I art waxed the back of the numbers and month headers, and used some Command poster hangers to hang the calendar up. This is double coupon week at KMart, so with the $1.00 command coupon from last Sunday’s paper, those poster hangers were less than $.50!
Middle right: Nice, glossy, heavyweight US map also from… Dollar Tree!
Lower right: Remember the learning clock? Cheap to make and it has been marvelous for teaching AG to tell time!
That bin and cups on the table were my solution a while back to where to keep all of our crayons and markers and coloring books –
Nate cut a heavyweight box on an angle for me and I covered it with contact paper. The cups are just tin cans that Nate spray painted white! (we covered the rough top edges with duct tape first.)
Our dining room has a swinging door into the kitchen which we don’t use [we keep it open with these stellar door stops we found at Ikea! The only way we can keep LB from trying to break his hand in the door!] With it open it provides a bit of a divider between the “school corner” and the rest of the dining room, and it also gives me more space to hang stuff! :)
I found the pocket chart in the dollar bins at Target last year, and a few weeks ago I found another one there! I keep our daily schedule in the pocket chart on word strips, along with little clock cut-outs with the time. This is an outdated schedule… another item on the “to do before we start ‘school’ list.” ;)
The handwriting poster is also from Dollar Tree, laminated at the educational resource center, hung up with command poster hangers. It’s nice that it’s at eye-level for AG when she’s sitting at the table.
I am so thankful for the many ways God provides for us – coupons, dollar stores, dollar bins, free services… He is good!
For more “works for me” tips, head over to We are THAT Family!
Today’s post isn’t so much why we’re homeschooling as much as a basic look at the philosophy undergirding our general thinking about how we want to go about educating our children.
Among other things, I believe strongly that the education we provide for our children must not settle for being “adequate” or “comparable” – it must be excellent. My kids’ “pretend grandma” (who is an old family friend of my in-laws) was an administrator in a very well respected district in our area for many years – it breaks my heart when we talk about homeschooling and she has so many stories to share of families in the area who claimed to be “homeschooling” and were providing a very poor, substandard education for their kids. I think most of these homeschooling families are probably well intentioned, but I think that neglecting to provide excellent education is often a reflection of the “keep the kids out of public schools” mentality rather than a mentality of discipling our children and preparing them for the Ephesus of our day.
Now, when I say that I want my children to have an excellent, even superior, education, I have to be careful. Homeschooling, like anything else, can quickly turn into something motivated by pride and self-righteousness. Am I seeking to educate my kids in order to be little living trophies to my excellent parenting and homeschooling skills? [Ack - that sounds terrible even typing it as a question!] Or, am I seeking to disciple to follow humbly after Christ and equip them to engage their world with the good news He offers?
I want my children to know math and science well- in our day and age, they must be well equipped to engage and answer the faith-challenging questions that come out of scientific fields. Sometimes Christians undervalue scientific study – but, this is our Father’s world! Proverbs 25:2 tells us, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.” God’s glory is embedded in all of creation; as we study the intricacies of the human body, of the marvels of a butterfly’s metamorphosis, of the mathematical nature of music, it is an honor to us to learn it and it brings great glory to Him as the creator of it all! Truly, the “heavens declare the glory of God,” and home education gives fantastic opportunities to teach our children to see the Creator behind the creation!
I want my children to communicate well- from creative writing, to good grammar and spelling, to communicating through the fine arts or building a webpage, communication skills are not an end to themselves. Ultimately, homeschooling is not about preparing the next batch of crazy homeschoolers to win the national spelling bees! In the end, what it boils down to is that God has given us a message that needs to be communicated. The Scriptures echo with the message that God has communicated to us – through the written word and the Living Word – and He tells us to go and tell, to be a city on a hill rather than a light under a bushel. That message can be given through the internet, through the written word, through skillful conversation, through public speaking, through drama, through story, through art, through song!
I could go on, but I’m sure you get the jist. Education is not an end to itself. I pray that my children will master their areas of study, but not so that they can look down upon their peers with an air that says, “I’m smarter and better educated than you. I can spell better than you, I’ve memorized Oedipus Rex, I built a computer out of spare parts I found at a flea market, and I can speak four languages!” :) Once again it boils down to discipling them, training them, preparing them to engage their world with God’s Truth.
And to end with a laugh, I love this spoof video! :)
I don’t know about you, but somehow we seem to get into a routine of putting certain things in certain places, even when it doesn’t make sense anymore. When we lived in a smaller apartment, for instance, the storage box for my exercise ball was logically kept behind the couch. ;) When we moved, I felt compelled to put it back there, even though there were better places for it! It takes some intentional thought to make a more logical choice!!
My husband brought to my attention this week how not LB-proof our bathroom was. AG never opened cabinets or tried to get into stuff, so we don’t have child locks on our bathroom cabinets. I still had nail polish remover and all kinds of other stuff within easy reach – things that adventurous little guys like LB would love to find and add a call to poison control into the day’s excitement.
[We have already had to call poison control once for him - I found him drinking hand sanitizer. Lovely.]
On the other hand, we have nice high built-in storage in the bathroom that was full of things that it didn’t matter if he found – cleaning rags, bath toys, toilet paper, etc. Wise husband suggested these be changed around. Hmm – I believe he had a point! [even though that's where we always kept it...] ;)
Oooh… much neater (and safer!) Now the cleaning supplies on the top shelf along medicines and first aid supplies. [I found those clear storage bins at Home Depot this weekend for $.99 each! I feel compelled to go get more... they're so orderly!] Since I have to stand on a stool to reach those, I’m confident they are now LB-proof! I tried something crazy and put the toilet paper and bath toys below the sink instead of possibly toxic bath and beauty products. :)
As I typed this, I noticed that LB was awfully quiet… and then saw him peeking out from behind our ottoman with a guilty look on his face. Yep, there he was, eating a tube of chapstick.
It’s been a while since I took you for a walk in our garden! For Things I Love Thursday, I thought I’d show you a few of this year’s favorite plants.
