Category Archives: Eco Friendly Parenting

Are You Ready to Send Your Kids Back to School?

I can hardly believe it’s almost time for my kids to go back to school. This summer has been incredibly hectic with the move and all, and has flown by worse than usual.

And the school office should be open tomorrow so that I can finally register my daughter in our new school district. They wouldn’t let me do that at the office.

With a new school year often comes new school supplies. Backpacks, lunch boxes, binders and so forth go flying off stores shelves so that kids will be ready for school.

It’s nice when you can keep them green.

I got things started around here last year by buying my daughter a Klean Kanteen. She loves it and will continue to use it this year. I’m hoping for cooperation in reusing her lunch bag and backpack this year because really, they aren’t in that bad of shape.

Fortunately, younger kids aren’t always going to think of back to school as a time to go shopping for new supplies, so I think I can get away with it. I’m most tempted by a new reusable lunch bag, as there are some really nice ones out there but really her bag looks to be up for at least another year’s use, so why replace it?

If you have to buy school supplies for your kids, there’s a good article over on the Healthy Child, Healthy World site on avoiding PVC and such in school supplies. You may not always have a choice in all the materials your child uses, as sometimes teachers will provide folders, but when you have a choice, do try to keep it friendly not only to the environment but to your children.

What are your favorite green back to school tips?

Does Gardening Encourage Kids to Eat Their Vegetables?

I’ve always been one of the lucky parents. My two oldest love their vegetables for the most part. I assume the baby will once she’s big enough.

I can’t really say that there’s a secret, as I’m sure that what we’ve done won’t work for every family. But it sure works for us.

I’ve often wondered if a part of it is that we introduced vegetables so very early. There’s some debate as to whether or not introducing veggies before fruits to a baby has any impact, but that’s what we did. We started our two oldest on green beans.

And when they got older, they loved green beans so much that they literally ate them like candy when we grew them in the garden for the first time. “Please, Mommy, can we have more green beans? Pleeease?”

It was cute. And how could I possibly say no?

The garden I think of as the other part of our secret. My kids love it. They love snacking from it. They love finding fresh food in it. They even had fun helping us plan it.

This year’s garden, unfortunately, is going to be inherited by whoever rents this place after we move out. I hope it happens soon enough that the garden survives. We’ve gotten some produce from it, and the kids have certainly been enjoying it all.

I won’t say my kids eat all the vegetables we’ve grown. But they’ve enjoyed most of it.

Mere exposure to a garden certainly isn’t enough. It took me a couple of days to get across to the neighbor’s kids that the front yard cherry tomato plant was not to supply them with ammunition for tomato fights. Grrrr!

I wouldn’t care if the neighbor kids wanted to snack on them the way my kids do, but I’m not going to encourage food fights! Such a waste. But they don’t like tomatoes, so they just saw them as ammo.

A big thing to remember is that even if the garden doesn’t encourage your kids to eat their vegetables, it can’t hurt to try. You’re increasing their exposure to fresh food, probably eating a bit better yourself if you’re the only one eating the produce, and so demonstrating better eating habits. It may pay off over a longer term.

Keeping Kids Green and Busy While School’s Out

With the kids at home more, summer is a time that can be a little bit challenging for green parenting. Somehow you have to combat all the boredom that comes from having more free time, while facing the fact that the weather is warmer. Here are some of the things I do:

1. Try to get the kids outside early and late in the day.

I have a lot of sympathy for them wanting to be inside during the hottest parts of the hottest days. Who wouldn’t prefer that?

But even on the days that it breaks 100 degrees F around here there are times that they’ll willingly play outside. Rather than let them turn on the TV first thing in the morning, as they would love to do, I boot the kids outside to play. They can come inside when it really starts to warm up. Then I do it again when the day cools off sufficiently.

This also has the advantage of limiting the need for sunscreen. My kids generally aren’t out in the most powerful of the sun’s rays, so I don’t have to apply sunscreen to them so often.

2. Make homemade popsicles.

Sure the store has cheap ones, but they’re often little more than sugar water.

I prefer to make my popsicles from smoothies, but you could use regular juice or pudding if you prefer.

3. Hit the library.

Hot days are great for spending at the library. Get some new books for your kids to read while not having to run the air conditioning in your own home. The library’s there, after all!

4. Combine lawn watering with running through the sprinklers.

We have water restrictions starting up in our area, which means watering only on certain days and only after 6 p.m. and before 10 a.m. and only for 10 minutes per section on timed sprinklers.

On hot enough days, 6 p.m. is still plenty hot enough for running through sprinklers!

And of course there are always local swimming pools, beaches and so forth if you want to cool off during other parts of the day.

5. Crafts!

Within certain age ranges, it’s easy to come up with kids’ craft ideas. My kids love saving magazines and other things that might otherwise go into the recycle bin for a path through their crafting table first. Saves me a lot not having to buy everything they craft with, and the reuse is a great habit.

As kid get older, they may have particular ideas about what they will be willing to do, but if you find something they really enjoy making, try to encourage it.

6. Have friends over.

It won’t necessarily help to keep the kids cool, but having friends over certainly helps with the boredom factor. I always tell mine no TV or computer time with friends over.

7. Know when to give in on TV and computer time.

Really, it’s not the end of the world if kids watch a bit more TV or spend more time playing on the computer during the summer. What matters is that they get enough activity overall.

Encourage Your Kids to Watch Green TV Shows

TV watching isn’t the best of habits, but most of us do it, and most of us let our kids do it. One of the troubles is that the commercials encourage kids (and adults) to want so much stuff, it’s just insane.

Of course, you can use commercials as teaching moments, and help your kids to learn how to cope with advertising. They’re going to be dealing with it their entire lives, after all. They should know how to be skeptical and how to recognize needs versus wants.

Not an easy lesson for any of us. But very, very important.

On the other hand, you can help your kids pick more than the usual fare. You can avoid the over marketed popular kids shows that sell tons of plastic junk toys of the starring characters.

My kids enjoy  a lot of the usual shows, but channels such as The Discovery Channel and Planet Green really get their attention well too.

Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego Go have their good points, as they encourage kids to think about the environment. However, they also sell an awful lot of plastic junk, so it’s a bit of a toss up with shows like that. I’m much more fond of PBS shows for my kids, such as Curious George, Arthur and It’s a Big, Big World for them. Fewer commercials, even between shows, and it always seems like far fewer toys available for them.

It really is amazing just how much kids pick up from television. Some of it’s good, but other parts not so much. Help them pick  great shows when they do watch TV.

Planning for a Green Summer Break

This is it. The last Monday of the school year in my area. Oh my.

We have most a of week left of school, as this Thursday is the last day of school. But it’s definitely time to be sure that I’m ready to have the kids home all day, every day.

An important step is to be sure that we always have a good supply of safe sunscreen on hand. They tan about as easily as I burn, but I want to have their skin protected. It’s a good habit for life, although I do let them play outside without sunscreen on. There’s that little matter of vitamin D production to be considered, although that doesn’t take long on really sunny days.

I try to avoid a lot of the running around to various activities that a lot of people find to be so necessary. There’s swimming lessons, but that’s a safety issue.

Most of what we do is right in our area. Playing with the kids next door or other friends within walking distance. Taking family walks in the nearby fields or to the playground in the evenings when it has cooled off enough for everyone to really enjoy it.

We have hopes of managing at least a short, local camping trip. My husband dreams of going to Yosemite again one of these days, but the time for it just isn’t there right now, not to mention it’s extra hard to do with a baby.

And of course there’s gardening. My kids are already picking cherry tomatoes for quick snacks.

We have a serious water shortage, which means running through the sprinklers is limited to late evenings on the days we are to be allowed to water. But then it’s dual purpose, letting the kids have fun and keeping our lawn from dying all the way off.

Really, there’s not much to planning a green summer break. It can be almost completely unplanned. Just figure out what you can do in your area without driving, without buying more junk, without electricity, etc. and you have a great start.

What are you planning for your summer break?