Happy Earth Day!

It’s Earth Day! It’s also my Bloggiversary! Yay!

Today is Wednesday. Wednesday means I’m home with my munchkin and we’re celebrating nature in a big way. Our agenda is simple, but he’s pretty excited.

We’re going on a nature hike! This is one of our favorite activities, but today we’re kicking it up with our special, handmade Earth Day Book. Using some recycled drawing paper and yarn, we made a bound book. The mission is to find some items to draw or paste in our book (if it’s safe to take from the forest!) Some of the things we’re going to talk about on our hike are smells, textures, and conservation.

Gardening! Today is the day to start our garden or at least start planning it. We wont plant for another week or two, depending on the weather. But we’re heading out to a local green house to find some seeds and decide what we want to grow this summer. So far, the munchkin wants peas, sprouts, watermelon, and cherry tomatoes. We’ll see what else they might have that catches his eye. Then, we’re going to prep the garden patch. We need to rake it, pick out any stones that turn up, draw a garden sign on a little wooden plaque we found at a second hand shop. Fun!

And we’re hoping you have some cool things planned. Since it’s my bloggiversary and Earth Day, I’m doing a give-away. Use the Comment section to tell me how you’re teaching your kids about making the Earth a better place or what you did to celebrate Earth Day. I’ll pick my favorite and send you a pair of books from http://www.pbskids.org/ World Tree Day and Mapping the World Tree, featuring characters from the show It’s a Big, Big World. Can’t wait to read your comments!

Have a fabulous Earth Day and thanks for reading!

Sara

Green Kids - Part 3

Reduce/Reuse/Recycle

It’s important to raise kind and caring children. To me, and probably you, it’s vital to teach that, plus some. I want my little boy to understand how his actions impact those around him. One of the lessons in that equation is conservation and recycling, which is best taught by example.

Recycle: I’ve seen arguments against recycling programs, pointing to the trucks used, the emissions, the overall efficiency of community based programs. So persuasive are these arguments that it prompted the Waste & Resource Action Programme to publish an international study last year. This study found that in 83% of programs surveyed, the efficiency and benefit far outweighed the drawbacks. Of course the study dealt with tangibles, like energy use vs. conservation, waste cost, environmental impact. But there are countless benefits that can’t be quantified. Teach your kids to sort the recycling and teach them responsibility, give them a feeling of community and a sense of pride in making a difference. Unquantifiable, yes, but real, nonetheless. If your community doesn’t offer curbside recycling, a real luxury, check here to find recycling programs with drop-off points in Pennsylvania and here for the rest of the US.

Reuse: I wont ask you to rinse out those cruddy baggies for reuse, but why not nix them? Maybe not all together, but how about some other options? There are some great long lasting food storage containers out there, for packing lunches, portable beverages. Give them a try. And if you can’t, just can’t let go of your disposable lifestyle, why not try a few green options? Here are a few to add to your list:

Ecoproducts: Compostable disposable cups, plates, and utensils.

The Water Geeks: BPA free reusable water bottles.

Zonbu: The Green Machine is a computer that is just beyond cool. Check it out.

Kids Konserve: Reusable school lunch products.

Reduce: Here's where it gets fun. No, seriously, it does! Depending on their age, kids can help to do all sorts of things to conserve energy, water, resources, reduce pollution.

Electricity

• Turn lights off when you leave the room.


• Open blinds for natural light.


• Switch to the more energy efficient compact florescent bulbs.


• Try Energy Star appliances.

Water

• Don't rinse dishes before loading the dishwasher and be sure to fill it up before running.


• Turn off the water while brushing your teeth or washing your face.


• Try low-flow shower heads and limit your time in the shower to under 10 minutes.


• Don't use pesticides or fertilizers on your lawn.

Gas

• Try carpooling or mass transit for school and work.


• Walk or bike for local errands.


• Check tire pressure on your car or truck


• Group your travels by location to avoid unnecessary trips.

And finally, here are some great resources to get you started:

Environmental Kids Club!

Do Something.org

iConservePA.gov

Thanks so much for reading!

Sara