Think I am living vicariously through Maggie's detailed garden work. :~)

Yes save the wooden spools to make french knitters (girl scouts will know how to make them) and the cotton thread could be broken up into small bits and intermingled with wool for felting. Adds interest to the finished product.

If snails are a big problem, could you put in a small pond and collect some frog spawn from nearby? I understand that frogs will take care of a snail problem. Though you may have a job getting Poppy and Cinnamon to leave the frogs alone.

Michelle - Time to put big letters (at least 4 inches tall) of alphabet (upper and lower case) around walls of Jeremiah's room. Before and after every nap, walk around room and point to and call out a few letters. Big B, little b, what does b sound like? buh. buh. buh. b is for ball, buh buh .buh. b is for baby. Helps to have items or pictures you can use with the game.

I did this with mine and they knew every letter by sight by age 3 and were sounding out words even reading by age 4.

If you get hard cardboard stencils you can paint the letters and hang on walls with bluetac and use the negative of stencils to make colouring sheets for Jeremiah. That stencil set will be used as he goes through school.