Category Archives: Eco Friendly Home

Should the Schools Get Involved?

I read over on Tree Hugger that The Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation is helping to bring environmental curricula to K-12 schools. Right now they’re pretty much in New York State, but it would certainly be nice to see it expand.

Of course, not everyone will be happy about this. There will be people such as my father-in-law who will go on about “eco-nazis” taking over the schools. You probably know the rant.

It’s important to have children learn early to think about the environment. I don’t mean teach them to go nuts on the subject, but topics such as recycling, cleaning up after ourselves and not using more than necessary are certainly quite relevant. Over time these can be developed further.

Reading through their site, I learned something I hadn’t known. Vermont has written sustainability into their educational standards already. Pretty wonderful to see states working on that already. Be nice to see other states follow suit.

One of the wonderful things about teaching children at a young age to respect our environment is how well they tend to take to it. The things they learn young can stick with them for life. I especially like this quote:

This new way of thinking challenges educators, administrators and the entire community to enrich education from an early age with sustainability knowledge, beliefs and “habits of the heart”.

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Green Homes in Germany

Seems like Germany is making some pretty good efforts to go green. There’s an article in Business Week right now on the building of energy efficient homes in Germany. There are apartment complexes being built that use far more insulation and much less heating oil than is required there. And of course they’re more efficient than historical buildings, but that’s obvious.

Other builders are including solar panels so that on balance the homes can produce more energy than they use.

This kind of news just delights me. The need to get off oil and use more environmentally friendly means to produce electricity doesn’t have to be solely the domain of environmental activists. It can become something for everyone. As oil prices keep rising, more people will realize that alternative energy has tremendous advantages.

Of course, I don’t live in Germany. I live in Southern California, and I don’t have the budget yet to buy a home, much less add the solar paneling that will be a major goal when I do own. But seeing these things become more practical is a true delight.

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Help Your Children to be Kind to the Environment

Many children today don’t learn to think at all about the environment. Others do, of course, but if there’s no example set, what else can be expected?

This is something important for all parents to consider, although it can be easier for stay at home parents such as myself to set the example.

I consider keeping to the facts to be one of the most important things you can do. You want your children to trust you, and if they find out you exaggerated, there goes some of that trust

This can be challenging. Trying to explain the issues at age appropriate levels is not easy. You can start off at a fairly young age, however. Preschoolers can be great about turning off lights and asking before throwing items in the trash or recycling bins. They love helping in the garden. All very simple, very preschooler friendly.

As they get older you can discuss some of the more serious issues. Why we don’t want to produce more garbage than we have to, for example. You can also get into why you have to be more careful about disposing of things such as electronics and batteries. Continue reading →

Encouraging Kids to Garden

One of the reasons I love renting a house instead of a garden is that we have a back yard. We don’t have a place that we can dig up for a garden, but since much of the yard is wood chips rather than lawn or other plants, we built some garden boxes from scrap lumbar and grow plants there.

My children love this. They get to see the plants grow and see where their food comes from. That makes them luckier than a lot of children, who often have a disconnect about where food comes from.

The nice thing about using containers is that you can garden even in a small space. For those raising children in apartments or condos, you can do something as simple as grow herbs in the kitchen window.

Encouraging your children to garden has many benefits. They’re often interested in eating foods that they helped to grow. The flavor is better and the produce is fresh as can be. Continue reading →

One Car Not So Hard as You May Think

We’ve been living as a one car family essentially since Christmastime, that being when my car first died and was never successfully repaired. And you know what? It really isn’t that bad.

Of course, it helps that I’m a stay at home mom. That really does make it easier. I don’t need a car to get to work, just for errands. My daughter’s preschool is easy walking distance. As you can see, my need for a car of my own is quite minimal.

Today I learned about a service called Flexcar, which is really neat for those of you who need a car somewhat more than I do. It’s available in certain areas, including near enough to me to be a consideration, but I quite simply do not need it. But for those of you who do need a little more help, it could be an option.

There will be times that I will need a car, and fortunately I have one I can borrow from my mother. She has a company car, and so barely needs her personal car during the week. That will become important when summer rolls around and I enroll my daughter in swimming lessons. As my inlaws have a pool in their backyard, I consider this a must, not a luxury. Continue reading →