green kids

With the way things are going, children who are born today will probably grow up associating “green” with the environmental movement more so than with the Crayola colour required for frogs and trees. Gone are the days when ‘The environment’ was a single chapter covered in a science textbook. In classrooms around the world, millions of teachers are doing their part to educate young people on the importance of caring for the earth.

Running out of ideas for activities this summer? Why not try some that the kids will love and teach them to love the environment at the same time?

If there’s one thing new mom Paola Pena and I agree on it’s this: “It’s never too early to practise socially aware and environmentally conscious habits.” The owner of LITTLE BODHI makes the above statement on her new e-boutique website, which features an assortment of eco-friendly basics for babies including toys, clothing, and music. At LITTLE BODHI, online shoppers can choose between shopping green, organic, or non-toxic.

If you’re a parent like me, you’ve likely ended up with more stuffed animals than your children need. There will always be those few favourites that collect at the head or foot of your child’s bed and end up in keepsake boxes in basements to be found as treasures by subsequent generations. But due to birthdays, holidays, and not-so-special occasions, there are also dozens that your children likely pay little or no attention to and never will.

Though we normally drag our air conditioner out at this point in July, this year it is still packed in the storage room below our shelf of ice skates. Neither my husband, nor I have made a move to roll it out, despite the temperatures hitting the usual Okanagan highs of 35+. Maybe I’m putting it off because our children are no longer babies and I know they can tell us when they feel too hot to get to sleep (which they haven’t yet).

Sleep easy knowing your kids are sleeping on 100% organic cotton crib sheets.  Green Mom Finds is giving away a set of organic sheets produced by NewBornMom. 

We just returned from a trip to Ontario, where I’m proud to report that recycling is in much fuller swing than it is here in the Okanagan. With a house full of B.C. guests, my father was constantly pointing to various containers for this and that type of garbage. One for paper products, one for food waste, one for plastics and one for regular garbage. I was impressed how little “garbage” there actually was (and also that it only gets picked up every other week).

There are currently about 170 bonobos in zoos across the world. And, while zoos are usually great, sometimes bad things can happen at zoos. On Christmas Day, 2007, a Siberian Tiger escaped from its zoo home and attacked three people in the zoo. Which makes us wonder for the bazillionth time:

Are zoos good or are zoos bad? What do you think?

At 8pm on March 29th 2008, people around the world showed the earth a little love. Initiated by Sydney’s effort in 2007, Earth Hour became a global movement this year, with millions turning off their electricity and appliances to take a stand against human-induced climate change.

Colleen is a professional beach volleyball player who puts a mark on her thigh at 1 meter to start a conversation with kids about global warming. She tells them about very fun and positive things they can do - bike and walk, plant a garden and help their parents save energy.  She listens to them and gives them temporary tattoos at the one meter mark so they can remember.

The folks at Lilipad Studios design and manufacture imaginative, hand-made children’s furniture of heirloom quality, created with the highest regard for eco-friendly materials and processes...

What does being a green mum really mean? What can we do to ensure a better environment for our children?

Not to be confused with fish ‘n chips, Fish and Kids provides free resources for parents, teachers, chefs, and children about sustainable fishing. With just a click you can download visually-appealing information packets, lesson plans, graphs, and worksheets that teach children how over-fishing works...