Category Archives: Eco Friendly Parenting

Keeping Back to School Eco Friendly

July 28, 2010

It’s time to start thinking about the start of the school year. In my area it’s coming up fast, less than a month away.

Now is the time that stores start offering school supplies in earnest and parents respond. Much of it cannot be helped, as schools often provide lists of supplies your children will need for the classroom. Then there are clothes, backpacks and so forth that need to be ready for school.

It can be pretty bad from an environmental perspective. So many things to buy. So many choices that really aren’t doing the environment any favors.

Review What You Have

Take a good look at the start of each school year and see what you have that can be reused or continue to be used.

If you buy good quality, there’s a good chance that your kids’ backpacks will last more than one school year. Poorly made ones may struggle. Not to mention that some kids are just plain hard on their stuff. Just really think before buying a backpack if you already have one that will work.

I suggest avoiding backpacks with favorite characters if possible. These can be outgrown because your child doesn’t like a particular show anymore or becomes aware that the other kids don’t like that show. It can be embarrassing to own the wrong backpack at times like that.

If your child brings lunch to school, take a look at what you have. Make sure your bag is lead and BPA free and in good enough condition. Make sure you have good quality reusable containers. I love my daughter’s Klean Kanteen, and it will last for years.

Don’t forget their clothes. Many outfits will be outgrown over the summer, so see what you need to buy to start things off, but remember that the weather will be hot for a while yet in many areas. Take advantage of thrift store shopping and do consider the colder weather for your area if you see appropriate clothes available.

Find Out What You Will Need

You may not need to buy a lot of school supplies. Many schools provide lists of things they will need for the classrooms while others don’t expect you to provide anything. Buy environmentally friendly options when possible.

Amazon has a green office supplies section that may be an easy way to handle this shopping.

Plan on Walking, Biking or Busing to School

Depending on how far you live from your children’s school, plan on having them walk, bike or take the bus there. Don’t join the masses crowding in to drop the kids off by car if you can help it.

If you’re close enough, you can also encourage your fellow parents to have their kids walk to school. Some do a walking school bus where one parent leads a group of kids to pick up the various kids and walk them all to school together. It’s healthy for all concerned and takes care of a lot of the safety concerns many parents have.

Plan Healthy Lunches

The easiest way to provide your kids with a healthy lunch at school is to use leftovers from the previous night that don’t need to be reheated. This won’t work every day.

If you want to provide warm food, get a Thermos or other insulated food jar for your kids to use.

Don’t buy the prepackaged lunches or snack size bags of chips or crackers. You can put appropriate amounts into your reusable containers quite easily.

Have You Talked to Your Family About Being Green Lately?

July 21, 2010

If you’ve been working at being green for a while in your home, you probably figure your family is used to the idea. But have you talked about it? How does everyone feel about it? Are there more changes people would be willing to make?

It’s easy to slip into a comfort zone with any activity. We all do it. Having a family talk about how things are working out is good for making sure that resentments aren’t building and to come up with new ideas.

What Are the Problems?

Raising a green family isn’t easy and it’s not always fun for all participants. What is acceptable at one point may be turning into a burden as your kids get older, for example. Talking about how things are working gives everyone a chance to express their feelings, even if you don’t make changes.

What Are the Solutions?

Discuss what your family is willing to do to go green. Who is responsible for various activities? Why are you doing all of this anyhow?

Each family will have their own areas that are easier and harder to deal with. For some, growing an organic garden will be a pleasure, even when it comes to dealing with the compost pile. For others, it will be a chore, and possibly better replaced by joining a co-op or finding other organic or local food sources.

Go through the list of easy and hard eco friendly activities. When something is challenging, talk about how you can meet that challenge or simplify it.

Give everyone a chance to talk. If one of the kids is on the quiet side, encourage him or her to speak up. Not only is it good practice, it will help to ensure that they feel their concerns have been heard. I can tell you from experience that just because a quiet child doesn’t speak up readily doesn’t mean he or she lacks an opinion or isn’t resentful that things don’t go their way. It’s just incredibly hard for some people to speak up for themselves.

You can write down your solutions to help everyone remember what you’ve agreed to. Some things you will be able to schedule so that everyone will know when particular jobs need to be done. Other things will just be a part of the routine.

Talk Regularly

You don’t need to talk about these things daily, but do talk regularly. How often depends on what works for your family. Just remember to talk about it.

Encourage Your Kids to Be Active

July 9, 2010

From a young age, most kids are very active. They love to run around the house and play. It’s a lot for many of us to keep up with, especially if we haven’t been particularly active ourselves.

But as they get older, TV and video games slow many down. Sitting around takes the place of active play. As a parent you know you should encourage more activity, but it’s not always easy to decide what to have your kids do.

Have Them Take the Lead

Signing your child up for an activity is an easy way to encourage activity, but it can also be frustrating for kids. Many parents choose activities for their kids based on what they would want to do, not the child’s interests. This can lead to frustration.

Find out what your child would like to try. Don’t limit options to just team sports; there are a lot of alternatives out there. My own children love karate. It’s a good workout, and they progress at their own rates.Â There’s no guilt for not being the best player on the team.

Don’t stress if they find they don’t like a particular sport or activity. Just agree to try something different next time. Swimming, karate and dancing are all good activities, and don’t have to be done on a competitive level.

Remember That They’re Children

A big mistake many parents make in signing their kids up for activities is forgetting that they’re children. Parents can expect their child to put in unreal amounts of practice in the hopes that they will excel. Some parents have dreams of their kids going into a professional career in whatever sport they’re playing as an activity.

It doesn’t matter what your dreams are for your child, or even if he or she agrees that they want to do their sport professionally. As a parent, it is your job to make sure that they don’t do more than is good for their bodies. That means no over training. That means leaving time for other things in their lives such as playing with friends and relaxing.

Overdoing is a huge mistake. Children can permanently injure their bodies trying too hard in their sports. Their bodies are still growing and really are not ready for intense training.

Don’t be the screaming parent watching your kids either. You’ve probably heard the reports of parents getting into fights at their children’s games. Your job is to encourage your child. You don’t need to do that by yelling at them, their teammates or their competition. You’ll do better to teach good sportsmanship.

Get Involved

There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be getting active yourself. It’s better for your health to be active, and you’ll probably have fun.

This is a wonderful, non-materiel gift you can give your children. Participating in an activity creates great memories, which will be remembered for many years. It also helps to create healthy habits.

How involved you get depends on the time you have available. You don’t want to overdo it – kids need to learn how to do things on their own too – but you should be there to help them practice sometimes and as needed to get them to their activity. It also might help you to remember how much fun being physically active can be.

20 Things Your Kids Can Do for the Environment

June 28, 2010

It’s not just adults who should be doing the best they can for the environment. Kids can help too. Take some time and teach them to do their part.

1. Reduce

The 3 Rs apply to your kids, and reduce is the first one to teach them. Help them to learn the difference between need and want. When you go shopping with them, and they start begging for whatever it is they see on the shelves, discuss why they want it. If it’s needed, talk about what makes it needed. If it’s just something they want, talk about when you buy things you just want and when you should skip them.

2. Reuse

Kids who enjoy crafts are great at reusing things. They can make wonderful projects from things you might have otherwise thrown into the recycle bin or thrown away.

3. Recycle

Teach them from a young age to sort items into the recycle bin. Once they’re old enough to recognize the types of paper, plastic and metals that can be recycled in your area they can help put recyclables in the right place rather than in the trash.

4. Walk or Bike to School

If your child’s school is at all within a reasonable distance, why not have them walk or ride a bike there. Odds are good that you did the same growing up if your school was near enough. It never ceases to amaze me how many people I see driving less than a block to bring their child to school. With the crowd of cars around the school, walking would be faster for many of them, including the time to return themselves home if the parents went with the kids.

5. Pick Up Trash

We love to go hiking as a family. One thing we include in our hikes is picking up trash if we pass some. It’s easy to carry a bag for trash as you go walking. This can be done at neighborhood playgrounds as well.

6. Turn Off Extra Lights

There are some ages where kids will be really good at this one. They’ll give you a hard time anytime you forget to turn off a light as you leave a room. Other times, they won’t be so good at it.

7. Turn Off Electronics When Not in Use

Kids these days spend a lot of time with electronics these days. Television, computers, video games, kids love them.

Some of these you only need to teach the kids to turn off when they’re done with them. For others, you may want to consider adding in a power strip so that the electronics can be turned completely off, and not use any extra power at all, even for displaying a clock. You can also buy a smart strip so that when certain electronics are shut down, associated items are turned off as well.

8. Plant a Garden

Whether you plant a serious vegetable garden, a few herbs, some flowers or a tree, it’s all good for the environment if you keep it organic. Kids usually love gardening, and any produce grown is good for them too. Remember the bees when you choose your flowers!

9. Help Compost

While dealing with much of the compost pile may be an adult or teen job, kids of any age can throw fresh vegetable scraps into the compost pile.

10. Volunteer

It can be hard to find age appropriate volunteer opportunities when the kids are young sometimes, but it gets easier as they get older. Volunteering helps your children to see how fortunate they are in what they have and that others make do with far less.

11. Use Reusable Containers to Bring Lunch to School

Many school lunches aren’t so healthy, so having your kids bring their lunch to school is a great idea. Don’t use paper bags or plastic bags for their lunches. Buy reusable lunch containers for them. I particularly like my daughter’s Klean Kanteen water bottle.

12. Donate Old Clothes and Toys

Have your kids help you to go through their old clothes and toys and find the ones in good enough condition to donate to a worthwhile charity.

13. Shop Resale and Thrift Shops

If you don’t teach your kids this one while they’re young, you can get a lot of resistance at first. Keep it up and they will realize how many great outfits are available for a lot less money. This teaches them to be thrifty and to look for used items before buying new.

14. Use Homemade Cleansers

Kids should start doing chores around the house as soon as they’re old enough. But why expose them to the harsh chemicals of store bought cleansers when you can teach them how to clean with healthier products such as baking soda and vinegar? Better for them and for the environment.

15. Eat Less Fast Food

Kids love fast food, but most of it is bad for them and the environment. Talk to them about why eating out too much is a bad habit.

16. Close Blinds and Curtains

This is most important during the summer, when the heat comes in through windows. Closing the blinds or curtains helps to block much of that heat. It’s also a help in winter, to keep heat from escaping the house, however there are times where having even the winter sun come into the house is a benefit, so help your kids know when to let the sunlight into your home.

17. Open a Window

As the day cools, teach your kids to open windows rather than run the air conditioner during the summer. It works really well, keeps the power bill down and doesn’t create any carbon to open a window.

18. Set Up a Bird Feeder

Feeding the birds in your area not only can help them, it lets the kids see the range of birds that live in your area. You may have to explain about predators, however. My sister has a bird feeder, and sometimes sees hawks chasing the smaller birds.

19. Use Fewer Toys that Require Batteries

Many children’s toys require batteries. The problem isn’t just the batteries, it’s that many of these don’t encourage creative or active play. Do get rechargeable batteries for those toys that do need them, but have your kids think about playing more with toys that don’t need batteries at all.

20. Eat Less Meat

This comes easier to some kids than others. Some may be ready to go for complete vegetarianism or veganism. Others will struggle to cut back, just as many adults do.

Have regular meatless meals. Explore new recipes as a family. Be amazed at how wonderful some meatless meals can taste.

5 Habits of Eco Friendly Families

June 17, 2010

Raising an eco friendly family takes a lot of work, but much of it becomes habit in fairly short order. It even becomes fun.

1. Be more environmentally aware as a family.

Talk as a family about what’s going on in the world and how it effects the environment. Talk about how your individual habits and habits as a family effect the environment.

Talk about how your individual habits and habits as a family effect the environment.

Keep this simple when the kids are young.Â You can explain to young children why they should do things like recycle paper, not litter, and pick up litter that others leave behind. You want to keep it a little on the fun side, and not bring up a lot of worries about what’s happening to the world when the kids are too young for such worries. There’s a balance there.

As everyone gets older, get into more details and encourage everyone to work harder on doing their part for the environment. Try volunteering as the kids get old enough.

Make sure you always pick reliable sources. The usual news media is great for presenting the worst of the big stuff while ignoring the overall impact of other things. They over simplify things like climate change so much that people don’t think it’s likely.

You can find great, age appropriate books by searching online, and don’t forget to check your local libraries. Many websites work hard at providing good information too; just be sure that they’re using good sources, as others are little more than online tabloids or are actively against the environmental movement. Nothing wrong with reading both sides, but make sure you get into how these differences come about.

Suggested Websites

TreeHugger
Environmental News Network
World Resources Institute
The Earth Charter Initiative

2. Reduce, reuse, recycle

Practice these as a family, and remember that they’re in order.

Reduce is the most important. The less you use, the less of an environmental impact you have on the world.

The less you use, the less of an environmental impact you have on the world.

Next comes reuse. This can include buying from thrift shops, resale shops, garage sales, consignment stores and more. Don’t forget Freecycle and handmedowns from family and friends.

It also includes thinking of ways to reuse things that you’re otherwise done with. Think of ways you can reuse paper for crafts for the kids. Think about how to reuse glass jars when you get them.

Recycling comes last. It’s a big help, but only recycle when you know you’re done with something. Find out what is collected for recycling in your community and make sure you recycle it. This won’t be easy in all areas, but do your best.

If you don’t have curbside recycling, find out if there is any place you can drop off recycling and figure out if you can store items until you have enough to make a trip worthwhile. It won’t always happen that way, so just try.

Suggested Websites

Earth 911
EPA Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

3. Have a sustainable, organic garden

How much you can garden depends on where you live. It’s harder to garden in an apartment than in a house with a big backyard… but not quite impossible.

Gardening combines well with having a compost pile. You get organic fertilizer for your garden while disposing of kitchen waste and yard waste in the best way possible.

Gardening combines well with having a compost pile.

The best part about gardening for families is getting the kids used to fresh fruits and vegetables. It often encourages picky eaters to try new foods. Garden fresh produce tastes much superior to what you can buy at the grocery store.

There are many ways to make the most of the garden space you have.Â You can garden in containers if all you have is a patio, balcony or even just a window shelf. You can do square foot gardening and make the most of the yard space you commit to your garden.

4. Help your local environment.

Pay attention to what your local environment needs. Some of your living habits should be determined by the particular needs of your area.

Water use, for example. Many areas are either facing water shortages or are likely to do so within the next few years. If your state allows, look into installing water barrels on your property to catch rainfall. Look into alternatives to growing a lawn.

Many areas are facing water shortages

Many communities have groups that help care for the local environment. You may be able to help clean local parks, trails and/or beaches. You may be able to get involved in wildlife rescue – after the proper training, of course. You may be able to help campaign for stricter environmental regulations in your area. You may be able to talk to local businesses about how they can be more eco friendly.

5. Tell Others

Don’t limit your activities to your family. Tell friends about what they can do. Don’t be judgmental; do your best to be helpful. Many people will be surprised that being more eco friendly can be cheap, not expensive.