Tag Archives: kids

Talking as a Family About Where Food Comes From

For the most part, kids don’t care where food comes from, so long as they can eat what they like. That’s natural. However, you can teach them from pretty young to appreciate where food comes from.

There’s not much you can do for babies, of course. You can appreciate things yourself, though, and make homemade baby food when possible. Teach your baby from a very young age how wonderful homemade food is.

Believe me, they do notice the difference. My nearly 1 year old isn’t nearly so enthusiastic about eating when it comes from a jar, as it does when we visit relatives. She can tell the difference.

Toddlers and Preschoolers

Toddlers and preschoolers can begin to appreciate where food comes from. One of the best ways to do this is to start a garden with them. Go select seeds together, and plant them together. Get your toddler or preschooler involved in caring for the garden – watering, learning what makes a weed, and of course harvesting.

Another way to teach appreciation for where food comes from is to visit a local farm. Try to find one that offers tours. This may be easiest to do as a part of a preschool group, so suggest it to the teacher if your local farm prefers group tours.

Kids this age love to be told that they are eating “grow foods” when they’re eating healthy foods. Little kids do love to grow!

Elementary School Age Kids

Keep working with kids as they get older in ways similar to how you started with your toddler or preschooler, but increase their participation. Teach your child how to cook age appropriate recipes. It’s really not that hard to teach a child to do something like make scrambled eggs safely. Talk about safety rules and only cooking with adult supervision, of course.

You can also get more into the difference between organic, local and conventionally produced foods. If you haven’t already, join a CSA or co-op and get some organic or local food at a pretty good price.

Middle School and Up

Time to get serious!

You might want to check out The Omnivore’s Dilemma for Kids as a great starting point for really getting into what goes into bringing food to the plate. It really gets into what goes into all kinds of food, and the environmental damage that occurs.

And of course keep up the healthy eating habits and keep the kids involved in food preparation at home. It’s not only a great way for them to really appreciate what they eat, it’s great family time.

4 Great Children’s Toys You Can Make Rather Than Buy

Children’s toys can get really expensive fast. That’s one thing parents learn pretty quickly. There are some great toys out there, but the expense can be hard to deal with.

Add in that many are plastic and really not so environmentally friendly, and it can be a bit of a problem.

But some toys you can make rather than buy, saving money and even reusing things that might otherwise have been recycled or even thrown out. Here are some ideas to get you started that don’t require a ton of sewing or construction skills.

Playhouse

What child doesn’t love a good playhouse? The popular ones are plastic and can be left outdoors in all weather or kept indoors. And they’re pricey, ranging from about $30 for a cardboard one they can color on, to a few hundred dollars for the fancier ones.

Even that $30 for a cardboard one is expensive when you realize you can get the cardboard pretty easily for free.

My children for a couple of years had a cardboard playhouse that was made from a double thickness box my husband got from the blinds department at Home Depot. He worked there at the time, and just had the night crew save him one. Not a hard thing to ask for, as they’re going to dispose of it anyhow.

That house was strong enough that the kids climbed on its roof regularly as they played. No problem. It tolerated pretty much everything they could throw at it, sometimes literally.

It took some time with a utility knife to cut the doors and windows, but it worked out really well. And being free was a great bonus.

When the box finally broke down enough it went into the recycle bin. We’ll be doing the same soon with a washer or dryer box we happen to have handy.

Play Kitchen

Play kitchens are also very popular with children, and once again can be rather pricey. You can make one on your own fairly easy, however.

My sister made one from a short dresser she bought at a garage sale or some such for her daughters. All she had to do was paint the burners on there and the kids were happy. That’s just enough for imagination.

You could also make one from a cardboard box, obviously a smaller one than you’d use for a playhouse. Draw on what they need, maybe cut in an oven door and there’s a play kitchen.

Bowling Set

You’ve probably seen the plastic bowling sets at the store. While they’re not all that pricey, relatively speaking, you can make your own.

All it takes is soda or water bottles (20 ounce or 2 liter size, your preference) and a ball. If you don’t drink much soda in your family and don’t buy bottled water (yay!), you can always talk to friends about giving some to you. You probably know someone who would have bottles available.

Stilts

Kids love to be just a little bit taller. You can buy plastic stilts for fairly inexpensive, but they’re really easy to make. My daughter’s preschool had these, and the kids loved it when the teachers pulled them out. There was usually a line for them.

Take two coffee cans and two pieces of rope. The rope should be long enough that, doubled up, it can reach from your child’s hands to the floor with just a little to spare for knots and of course growing room.

Punch two holes in each coffee can, on opposite sides, a short distance from the bottom. Thread the rope through each hole and tie a knot on the inside end. This will form a loop for your child to hold while walking on top of the cans.

Any of these toy ideas can be painted or decorated as you like, but I think it’s best to let the kids decide how to decorate them. It’s just one more part of the play for them.

If you’re really into making homemade toys, consider buying Learn and Play the Green Way: Fun Activities with Reusable Materials or getting it from the library.

It’s Amazing How Few Toys Kids Really Need

We’ve been in this house several months now. It’s nice having all the space but what has been most interesting is how few toys my kids really need in order to have fun.

You see, we’ve hardly unpacked any of them. They’re still in boxes in the garage.

I’ve known for a long time that most toys pretty much don’t get played with. That’s just how kids are. They have the favorites and then the toys that come out once in a long while.

Yes, they have asked for their toys sometimes. Not often at all though.

And there are a few that I really do want to get out for them, especially the wooden train set and more of their crafting supplies.

With the holidays fast approaching, it’s a good reminder that they really don’t need a ton of new toys to have fun.

They will be getting some, but so far we have a bit of a fun science focus. My kids love to do “science projects” and I would like to encourage that. We’ve gotten some good deals for them.

Probably after Christmas we’ll get around to going through those boxes and really push the kids on getting rid of the stuff they just don’t need. There are other children more in need and who would really appreciate the things mine aren’t paying attention to.

Kids Can Help Fight Climate Change – Blog Action Day 2009

As a parent, being aware of what’s going on with climate change is important to me. It’s the world my kids are living in, after all. The wildfires we’ve had here in California have been one of the areas that let us talk to the kids about climate change. The water shortage is another, and my daughter is very good at expressing sheer disgust any time she thinks people are wasting water.

A part of being aware is being aware of what can be done by individuals. Teaching kids from early on to do their part at home and elsewhere is a good place to focus.

There are some great resources out there for kids. The EPA Climate Change Kids Site is a good place to start. Lots of information and some games to test their knowledge.

The National Wildlife Federation’s Climate Classroom Kids is another good resource for children. There are games, a family action plan checklist, and parent & teacher resources so you can help your children learn more. My son gets the Animal Baby magazine and my daughter gets Your Big Backyard, which are both put out by the NWF and really fun for them.

If you want to get more serious, there’s the Kids vs. Global Warming website. It has plenty of resources for kids who want to take more of an activist approach to climate change.

It’s wonderful being able to teach your kids from an early age that individuals do matter. It’s not just in fighting climate change, but in everything they truly believe in and want to make a difference in.

Keeping the Kids Entertained During Wildfires

I can’t believe I’m dealing with wildfires again. Only two years since the last time, although that was in a different location.

Yucaipa fire

The schools here in Yucaipa closed due to the poor air quality our two local wildfires have caused. That means I’m not going to send the kids outside to play as I normally would. The air outside is just awful.

We have considered just leaving, of course. That’s one of the easiest ways to get fresher air for everyone involved. Even in the house the air isn’t that great after all, despite keeping all the windows shut.

This is a time that I give them a lot more leeway with regards to watching television – quantity, not the kinds of show, of course.

And in a little while my daughter’s going to have to do her homework for school.

I’m making sure that they do more than that, though. Take some time for reading. Time for creative play.

We’re really hoping the apple orchards survive, as it’s almost the start of their season over in Oak Glen. Last I heard they were mostly doing all right. We’re planning to go apple picking soon, so having the fire ruin those plans would be kind of hard.

We talk some about fires, of course. It’s a chance to talk about the directions the wind blows and how fire does some good things, even when it’s scary to have it so close to home.

We watch the fires a lot through our upstairs windows. We had an amazing view of the early hours of the Pendleton fire and a slightly less spectacular one of the Oak Glen fire. They’re both far enough away now that we mostly see smoke with just the occasional flareup visible on one hill or another.

And of course we talk about how these are impacting other people in Yucaipa.

Our thoughts are much with those harder hit by these and the other wildfires.