Here is a list of 10 things to do to help the earth. I think it would be cool if everyone tried to do at least 3 of these things this week. Looking at the list there is only one that is completely unrealistic, however interesting to ponder is #9. Share what you do on our blog.
Thanks,
Pam
TEN THINGS YOU CAN DO INDIVIDUALLY TO HELP SAVE THE EARTH
1. Walk or ride a bike to your destinations.
2. Use appliances only as you need them. Turn off lights when you leave a room, for instance.
3. Buy things that can be entirely reused or recycled.
4. Start and maintain a garden.
5. Purchase products that are locally or regionally grown, mined, manufactured.
6. Adopt or mentor rather than have your own children (or more children).
7. Try to live within the average world income (about $2500 a year per person).
8. Fix something rather than throw it away.
9. Learn what politicians do for (or against) the environment, and vote accordingly.
http://richa.dod.net/surprise/helpsavetheearth.htm- Found list on this site.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Take a few minutes for the magical moments
I peeled back the bark on the dead, fallen tree as 8 pairs of toddler eyes watched. I explained how we never hurt a tree by pulling its bark when it is alive, but this tree had been struck by lightning and was across our path. Everyone lit up when we found 5 rolly polly's or pill bugs or whatever people call them under the bark. I gently held them in my hands as they immediately rolled into little balls that looked like small berries. We found a dry spot on our path and made a circle around the small, hard balls. We waited and watched and waited and watched. Each toddler and preschooler patiently waiting. Seemingly understanding something magical was occurring. After several minutes, we saw lots of little legs wiggling out of one rolly polly. We screeched in excitement as the 5 millimeter bug showed us all his wiggly legs and flipped over to walk away. A little hand reached out to touch the bug, and kazam the bug was a little berry again. We left them alone on the trail to open up when we were no longer there. Remember, the little things are the most magical. Take time to just sit and watch it is worth it.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Almost perfect unplugged trip to Atlanta
Over spring break this year we planned a road trip to Atlanta with another family. This family is very close friends of ours and we always have a great time together. We are very respectful of the no TV at our house and the much more accessible TV at their house. When I turned to Jenny, the other mom, a week before the trip and said, I would love to write about our road trip from Chicago to Atlanta, do you think we can try to have it be an unplugged trip. She laughed and said, "No ****ing way!" Now the circumstances of this trip were to see her husband and the father of her three children ranging in age from 3-10 years old. He was working for 10 weeks in Atlanta and this was the first time they were seeing him in six weeks, so she was at her breaking point.
We all piled in the car with back packs filled with fun things to do. I was still going to do my best to see if we could entertain with old fashioned methods of play. Jenny and my husband Ron were also very into playing the ABC game, the license plate game and the medley of stuff we brought. My goal was to later write about all the wonderful things we did to keep the kids unplugged. Here is the interesting part; after 24 hours total in a car and 6 hours of breaks on our trip to and from Atlanta. We never even opened up my travel Yatzee, travel Scrabble, travel Rumique, charcoal drawing set, map games and oh so much more. Jenny did use for her three year old several great art activities she had in her arsenal.
Basically our three girls sat in the back and we are still unclear what they did, but they were close to perfect and never asked for anything. We believe now they made an entire new coded language for every potty word. A Martha is not pooping - that is what we were able to decode. They listened to a lot of music and seemingly figured out how to create dances in their seats for literally hours. They talked and talked and talked. Occasionally they would pipe in to find the next letter of the alphabet in the game Ron and Jenny were taking quite seriously in the front row.
Overall it was crazy. At the end of it all on the ride there, the three year old watched about 30 minutes of a video and at the end of the night the girls watched about an hour of a movie. On the 15 hour day back, which we did in one day, the girls seemed to create more secret codes that had them laughing the entire ride. They did not watch a minute of anything and the ride ended as we pulled up to our driveway at 11:30 PM with all our little angels asleep in the back.
What an amazing road trip!
We all piled in the car with back packs filled with fun things to do. I was still going to do my best to see if we could entertain with old fashioned methods of play. Jenny and my husband Ron were also very into playing the ABC game, the license plate game and the medley of stuff we brought. My goal was to later write about all the wonderful things we did to keep the kids unplugged. Here is the interesting part; after 24 hours total in a car and 6 hours of breaks on our trip to and from Atlanta. We never even opened up my travel Yatzee, travel Scrabble, travel Rumique, charcoal drawing set, map games and oh so much more. Jenny did use for her three year old several great art activities she had in her arsenal.
Basically our three girls sat in the back and we are still unclear what they did, but they were close to perfect and never asked for anything. We believe now they made an entire new coded language for every potty word. A Martha is not pooping - that is what we were able to decode. They listened to a lot of music and seemingly figured out how to create dances in their seats for literally hours. They talked and talked and talked. Occasionally they would pipe in to find the next letter of the alphabet in the game Ron and Jenny were taking quite seriously in the front row.
Overall it was crazy. At the end of it all on the ride there, the three year old watched about 30 minutes of a video and at the end of the night the girls watched about an hour of a movie. On the 15 hour day back, which we did in one day, the girls seemed to create more secret codes that had them laughing the entire ride. They did not watch a minute of anything and the ride ended as we pulled up to our driveway at 11:30 PM with all our little angels asleep in the back.
What an amazing road trip!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Easy Packing Tips for Kids
I struggle to get my kids to do chores and other household tasks; HOWEVER I have truly conquered how to get my kids to pack for trips. Here is how it works:
1. Type in large letters a packing list. With small children I use pictures.
2. I print out a copy for each child and hand them a suitcase.
3. They collect all their belongings and put them in the suitcase.
4. They get me for a last check before we zip up.
I began this with as young as two year olds and at that age I walked through it with them. By three, they felt so empowered to do their own packing. It fostered independence and a great sense of accomplishment.
Sometimes it may seem easier to just do things ourselves, but this is an easy and helpful way to create a wonderful learning experience for our kids. Try it and let us know how it works.
1. Type in large letters a packing list. With small children I use pictures.
2. I print out a copy for each child and hand them a suitcase.
3. They collect all their belongings and put them in the suitcase.
4. They get me for a last check before we zip up.
I began this with as young as two year olds and at that age I walked through it with them. By three, they felt so empowered to do their own packing. It fostered independence and a great sense of accomplishment.
Sometimes it may seem easier to just do things ourselves, but this is an easy and helpful way to create a wonderful learning experience for our kids. Try it and let us know how it works.
Staying near to your kids while they work and its benefits!
My daughter has had a tough task of sending out thank you cards after her bat mitzvah. How many cards you might ask? Probably 50 or more! We began the task with the idea that she would do 10 a day. She started by writing one sentence only ( she is 14 years old) and then didn't bother to address them and get them in the mail. I ended up having to sit next to her, encourage her to write more with suggestions of what she might write, find the addresses and have her finish each thank you card as she did them. Now, some could say that I was doing too much hand holding. But I consider it modeling. When has she ever sent out 50 cards? So, I modeled for her how to finish her task in an efficient way.
Through the years I have noticed that kids work so much more efficiently if you are in the room or nearby. As they get older the amount of homework mounts and your child can end up spending a lot of time alone with the computer and their books. This can lead to a lack of closeness with your child and a lot of time for your child to explore the web without any parental guidance. I recommend staying close. If my kids are doing homework that doesn't require the computer-I have them do it in the kitchen while I am making dinner or cleaning up. I even find stuff to do-clearing out a cupboard if I have the time. All to keep me near while they are getting their homework done. This way-when they have questions I am nearby and often they will end up telling me about their day or their school work just because I am there. Right now I am working on my taxes while my daughter writes a paper. It is a win, win situation!
Through the years I have noticed that kids work so much more efficiently if you are in the room or nearby. As they get older the amount of homework mounts and your child can end up spending a lot of time alone with the computer and their books. This can lead to a lack of closeness with your child and a lot of time for your child to explore the web without any parental guidance. I recommend staying close. If my kids are doing homework that doesn't require the computer-I have them do it in the kitchen while I am making dinner or cleaning up. I even find stuff to do-clearing out a cupboard if I have the time. All to keep me near while they are getting their homework done. This way-when they have questions I am nearby and often they will end up telling me about their day or their school work just because I am there. Right now I am working on my taxes while my daughter writes a paper. It is a win, win situation!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Family Fun (sort of)-Spring Clean Up
Trying to make spring clean up fun for the WHOLE family.
Spring is in the air all over the country. In the suburbs of Chicago the piles of snow finally melted and I asked my four kids to give me one hour of their time. O.K. I begged my kids for the hour, with the usual mom lecture that if we all work together it will be so much easier. I handed out tasks. (Please feel free to use my short list) I have learned that shorter offers more hope for success.
1. Clean up all dog poop that has been hidden UNDER all that snow.
2. Clean up all garbage in the yard.
3. Clean up all the sticks.
4. Sweep the decks.
Well, I of course got job number one. My son, home from spring break, took this opportunity to play Frisbee with his friends. He felt he was above any family obligations because he works "so hard" in college. My three girls did stick with me for about an hour and the yard looked much better. Mother Nature clearly did not appreciate our leap into spring, when she dumped another 5 inches of snow on us the next day. We went from 60 degrees and sunshine to a snow storm. Only in Chicago!
(By the way, my son did not get off the hook, he had to make up the hour later with much complaining.)
Spring is in the air all over the country. In the suburbs of Chicago the piles of snow finally melted and I asked my four kids to give me one hour of their time. O.K. I begged my kids for the hour, with the usual mom lecture that if we all work together it will be so much easier. I handed out tasks. (Please feel free to use my short list) I have learned that shorter offers more hope for success.
1. Clean up all dog poop that has been hidden UNDER all that snow.
2. Clean up all garbage in the yard.
3. Clean up all the sticks.
4. Sweep the decks.
Well, I of course got job number one. My son, home from spring break, took this opportunity to play Frisbee with his friends. He felt he was above any family obligations because he works "so hard" in college. My three girls did stick with me for about an hour and the yard looked much better. Mother Nature clearly did not appreciate our leap into spring, when she dumped another 5 inches of snow on us the next day. We went from 60 degrees and sunshine to a snow storm. Only in Chicago!
(By the way, my son did not get off the hook, he had to make up the hour later with much complaining.)
Friday, March 19, 2010
Trying to implement "Screen Free Sundays"
I am trying desperately to come up with some creative new ways to get my teens to unplug. Last week I tried to implement "Screen Free Sundays". The problem is they have to do homework on Sundays. Typically, hours and hours of homework, and the homework depends on a computer which is a screen. How does one deal with the reality and the mom fantasy? I decided instead to compromise and tweak my idea. How about Screen Free Sunday Dinner and quick family game before everyone has to get back to homework Sunday. It is certainly better than not trying. We had a nice long Sunday dinner with all cell phone put away. (I do demand that on a daily basis anyway), played a nice game of cards and at least I knew I tried. As my 16 year old laughingly said to me when I mentioned my "screen free Sunday" idea was "I do give you credit mom, you do keep trying." Those words are enough to keep me fueled to know she actually sort of likes my constant attempts to keep our family together.
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