Green Living Category
Is Your Crib Mattress Helping Your Baby Sleep While Being Earth Friendly?
Our children spend most of their time in their beds and rightly so! Sleep is one of the most important factors in healthy development and growth. Sometimes, however, our baby’s crib mattress is an afterthought.
Read More5 Easy Ways Parents Can Be More Eco – Friendly
It may seem that being Eco-friendly takes a lot of time and money, but it doesn’t have to! These 5 easy tips can help you and your little ones become more green and care for Mother Earth!
Read More5 Tips to Jump Start Your Spring Cleaning
Spring cleaning can be a daunting task, but in the next few weeks we will be featuring some tips to help kick off your Spring Cleaning with ease!
Read More5 Tips on Being A Green Eco – Friendly Family
Being an eco-friendly family may seem like a daunting task, but with these 5 simple tips your family can help take care of our earth and make it a better place!
- Grow your own garden – Growing your own vegetables is a healthy way to care for your family, the earth & your bank account! Tomatoes, summer squash and herbs are some of the easiest vegetables to grow. Your kids will love being able to watch their garden grow and eat their hard work! If you live in the city with no room for a garden, support your local community garden or community market!
- Clean up – Pick up litter. Get your kids in the habit of picking up cans, plastic bags, etc. that people throw on the ground. Put on disposable gloves & go on a garbage hunt in your neighborhood to pick up litter others have left behind.
- Say goodbye to chemicals – Cleaners are packed with chemicals that are harmful to your family and the environment. Trade in your chemical cleaners for eco-friendly versions (we love the products at Eco Store USA & found they clean better than chemical cleaners!) or use homemade cleaners like our grandparents did years ago – vinegar, oils, lemons, baking soda, etc.
- Go paperless – Pay bills online to cut back paper waste and ask companies not to send you catalogs via mail. You can keep up with savings from companies by signing up for emails, liking their Facebook page or following them on Twitter.
- Recycle, reduce and reuse – Take a look around your house & cut back on unnecessary things, see what you can recycle and start to reuse things. Start with one seemingly small thing & keep adding one more thing every week. You will be amazed how quickly your house and your family become green! We love the Freecycle site to help recycle, reduce and reuse.
Each of us can do something to make our lives and the world a better place. Anne Frank, a girl wise beyond her years said it well, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” We don’t have to wait. Let’s start today to make our world a better place!
What tips do you have for becoming a more green family?
Green Spring Cleaning Tips for You and Your Kids
There is nothing like opening the windows and letting in fresh air and having a top-to-bottom clean house especially after a long winter. Instead of Spring cleaning being a terrible chore, it can be fun for you and your kids with these easy tips.
- Music Motivator - put on your kids favorite music to get them moving. Time passes a bit more quickly when music is involved.
- Mayor for a Day – divide the rooms of the house among your kids and let them be “mayor” of that room. They are in charge of making sure that room is in top shape. You can even give them a top hat to wear as they play the role of mayor.
- Special Prize – whoever does the best job cleaning gets to pick out what is for dinner either that night or a night that week.
- Scavenger Hunt - go to the Dollar Store and pick out a few little gifts. Hide them in the rooms the children are cleaning so that they will find them as they clean.
- Chart It - have a chart with each child’s name. As they complete a chore, they get a sticker next to their name. Whoever has the most stickers by the end of spring cleaning gets to pick out a movie to watch that night or whatever night is convenient.
Spring cleaning can also be a chemical-free experience! We love these sites for easy-to-make green, homemade cleaning products!
What spring cleaning tips do you have?
Creating A Zero Waste Home
Kermit the Frog sang “It’s Not Easy Being Green”, but there are so many ways each of us can make our lives more green. This week, The Today Show featured a CA family who has created a zero waste home. We were so impressed by this family and how they were actually able to create a zero waste home quite seamlessly.
Some things we love about this family:
- Refuse, Reduce, Reuse is their mantra.
- They have reduced expenses up to 25%!
- They are leaving a legacy not only for their children, but for all future generations.
- They are very practical and have a tip section showing how all of us can work towards zero waste homes.
This family is far from deprived. They are living a very healthy, happy, fulfilling life. They have inspired us to take steps toward working to create our own zero waste homes.
What do you think? Could you live in a zero waste home?
Kids Saving Energy on Earth Day & Beyond
It’s never too early to teach your child how to take care of the earth’s resources and Earth Day is the perfect time to start! There are so many easy ways that kids can contribute to taking care of our earth.
Simple tips for kids saving energy:
- Turn off lights – Make sure they turn off lights when leaving a room. If they are too small to reach the switch, have them ask a taller sibling or you to help them.
- Close doors - Be sure they know to always close doors to your home when the AC or heat is on and make sure they close the refrigerator door.
- Water – Be sure they don’t keep water running unnecessarily especially if it’s hot water!
We love the Kids Saving Energy site. It has games, tips and facts for kids who want to save energy. (We love the TV features of Tinker Bell showing kids how to save energy.)
What ways do you teach your children to save energy?
Tips On Green Parenting
Yesterday we had the opportunity to interview the authors of The Eco-nomical Baby Guide. They are amazing moms who are passionate about green parenting and are determined to make green living accessible to all parents.
They have great hands-on tips in their book for green living without breaking the bank. As a matter of fact, they list ways to save money while caring for Mother Earth! We loved their tips on living cleaner and greener and wanted to highlight one of their tips on our Tip Tuesday.
- Make your own cleaning solutions. Common pantry items such as vinegar, baking soda, and borax are just a few of the inexpensive ingredients you can use to clean your house. Visit oeconline.org for a list of homemade cleaning recipes you can easily whip up yourself for pennies.
Don’t forget to enter the contest to win an autographed copy of The Eco-nomical Baby Guide: Down-to-earth Ways for Parents to Save Money and the Planet!
Teaching Your Child To Be Green
As we continue to celebrate earth week, this Tip Tuesday we are featuring easy tips to teach your child how to be green and care for the earth. Being green is something that everyone – no matter how young or old – can do. Your child learns so much from you from values to lifestyle, so why not incorporate these few easy tips to teaching your child how to care for the earth from a young age?
Water – Teach you child that a little water goes a long way. When brushing his teeth or washing hands, a pencil-thin line of water will do.
Light – When leaving the room, have your child turn off the lights. If your child is too small to reach the switch, pick her up so she can flip the switch off. It can become her special job when you leave the room.
Walk – Instead of running errands in your car, walk to the store. This will give you time to bond with your child and get exercise. Be sure to bring your stroller in case your little gets tired!
Recycle - Make recycling fun by putting your child in charge of recycling certain items like paper towel or toilet paper rolls, paper or cardboard. If you don’t have a special recycling container for these items, let your child decorate a container. This will give your child ownership over their part in recycling.
How do you teach your child to recycle and be green? Please share your comments with us!
