APRIL

Learn: About indoor pollution and how to keep your air fresh and healthy. Double points for researching the benefits of growing your own fresh air.

Plan a goal: On Earth Day, plan your green goals for the year. Make small green goals, make large green goals, but figure out how you’re going to avoid the Earth Day-one day trap and instead focus on how to celebrate green all year long.

Celebrate: A green Easter and a fab Arbor Day.

Just for kids:

• Green fun for kids during April showers
• Get your baby or toddler outside once spring arrives
• Start researching Green Summer Camps
• Interactive Green Kids Website – Clean Air Club for Kids

MAY

Learn: Everything you ever wanted to know about green weddings. Weddings can be a major strain on the environment, and I’m betting you know someone with a summer wedding coming up – maybe even you. Educate yourself and others about smart green wedding choices.

Plan a goal: Set up a household recycling center this May. With summer coming the kids will be home and this is a great time to get eco-organized. Recycling is vital for a green family.

Celebrate: Your community. Make a plan to green your neighborhood.

Just for kids:

• Got Paper?: The Best Folded Recycled Paper Crafts for Kids
• Green Game for Kids – Recycle City

JUNE

Learn: About summer energy (and money) conservation with ten easy ways to beat the heat.

Plan a goal: Make this summer a little more plastic-free. Ditch plastic in the kitchen, snag some reusable ice pop molds, and learn how to make 32 unique homemade Popsicle recipes.

Celebrate: Early summer flowers with a cool project - candied flowers.

Just for kids:

• Summer Bug Safety for Kids
• Father’s Day Crafts for Kids
• Great Summer Projects, Crafts, & Nature Activities for Kids…

JULY

Learn: About organic foods. From which organics are best, to the health benefits, to how to save money on organics, July is a great time to get educated about this topic because farmers markets and local farms are in full swing operation, plus, summer naturally feels like a good time to eat healthy.

Plan a goal: Start incorporating organics into your family’s diet. Don’t go nuts (you’ll drive yourself mad) but do choose some products in organic form each time your shop.

Celebrate: Mid summer with an awesome eco-barbecue or an easy green picnic or potluck – now that you’ve learned about organic foods it’ll be a snap.

Just for kids:

• Build A Solar Cooker – adult help needed but way fun.
• Solar Art Project

AUGUST

Learn: All about trees this August. You can learn how people affect trees, read a killer book about trees, travel to see some neat trees, or just get out there and hug your favorite tree. 

Plan a goal: Plant some trees that will thrive where you live.

Celebrate: Your kids before they head back to school. Involve them in green issues, take them on a hike, cook up some eco-food with them, and snag them some eco-friendly school and lunch gear for their return to school.

Just for kids:

• Five Fascinating Tree Facts
• Learn to green your school experience

SEPTEMBER

Learn: If Weatherization Assistance Programs are for you. If you need help keeping your home warm in the winter these programs can help plus they focus on energy efficiency tips and products.

Plan a goal: Green your beauty & bath routine.

Celebrate: World Ozone Day – learn about the issues surrounding global warming.

Just for kids:

• zeroOout: Green Fashion Revolution from Four Teens
• How Kids Can Help Prevent Acid Rain

OCTOBER

Learn: About the most common excuses why people don’t go green – note; avoid these. Ask a non-green friend about their reasoning and try to inform them of your side.

Plan a goal: Cut back on your paper towel use this month (maybe switch to cloth altogether).

Celebrate: A spooky green Halloween. Try an organic pumpkin, look for eco-friendly treats, and make homemade costumes.

Just for kids:

• Non-toxic face paints for Halloween
• Oodles of Free Recycled Halloween Craft Ideas
• Organic Halloween Smoothie

NOVEMBER

Learn: About why a less consumer based winter holiday season rocks. Now is the time to really focus on avoiding commercialism because it’s going to be knocking at your door big time.

Plan a goal: Plan to participate in Buy Nothing Day or at the very least start making some of your own  homemade holiday gifts.

Celebrate: Thanksgiving sans the meat this year. If that’s not quite for you, you can still green up your Thanksgiving day in other ways. Try some nature crafts for your table or 

Just for kids:

• Nature Themed Autumn Craft
• Green Up the Toy Issue
• Kids & Shopping – How Kids Can Be Smart Consumers

DECEMBER

Learn: Why vegetarian meals are good for your health and the planet. What we eat does affect the entire world. You can gather amazing tips and facts for going meatless (and organic) at the Sustainable Table website. 

Plan a goal: Incorporate two vegetarian meals weekly. Here are some easy veggie recipe ideas for meat-eating families.

Celebrate: A super green Christmas or Hanukkah.

Just for kids:

• Homemade Recycled Holiday Luminaries – adults need to help, but kids LOVE these.
• Last Minute Eco-Christmas Crafts!
• Meatless Meals: Veggie Books for Kids

JANUARY

Learn: Sustainable housing is a huge topic, but one worth learning about. You can minimize your impact on the planet, live cleaner, and even get cool tax breaks for greening your dwelling. For tips related to all of the above visit Best Green Home Tips.

Plan a goal: Stop buying dishwasher detergents with phosphates.

Celebrate: A peaceful Martin Luther King Day and a green New Year’s Eve.

Just for kids:

• DIY Cardboard Dollhouse – the kid version of sustainable housing!
• How Kids Can Save the Earth A to Z

FEBRUARY

Learn: Reusable bags are one major green topic everyone should learn more about. If you’re not taking this super easy green step (using reusable bags) what’s stopping you? This green lifestyle choice is so easy it’s a crime not to try.

Plan a goal: Yes its chilly, but there are still plenty of good reasons to get outside during winter. Make it a goal to stay healthy all year long by incorporating regular outdoor activity into your life.

Celebrate: Valentine’s day by avoiding paper greeting cards.

Just for kids:

• Eco-Valentine’s Day Ideas for Kids
• Green Kid Site Spotlight: Children of the Earth

MARCH

Learn: About why commercial, conventional cleaners are so bad for your health and the environment.

Plan a goal: Green audit all your green cleaners, safely toss the icky ones, and then make your own  natural, toxic-free homemade cleaners.

Celebrate: See 60 eco-friendly ways to celebrate spring and you also might want to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with some greener than usual brew. 

Just for kids:

• Creative Reuse Art Projects
• Green Game for Kids – Recycle City
• Mummy Style Trash

NOW: Share some of your green goals for the year in the comments…

[images via stock.xchng (altered by yours truly)]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Get outside in spite of the rain…

Nature Experiment – Make Your Own Rain Bowl

Be a killer storm tracker. Have your kids track April showers and storms with these resources; kids can look up forecasts at Accuweather, build their own rain gauge, learn how to make their own weather station, or learn all about lightning. Really you don’t need any extra tools to track storms though. Kids can use the counting method and track a storm’s distance easily.

Learn to make a rain barrel - not something to do in the rain exactly, but not a long project, and after it’s built, kids can watch to see how quickly they can collect water for use at home.

If it’s warm enough, go for a walk and see which animals like to be outside in the rain. Notice which plants handle rain well, and which get weighed down. Stomp in puddles and look for worms. Don’t forget to be on the lookout for rainbows.

Stay dry, stay inside…

Try a fun experiment – Just How Strong Are Plants?

Indoors Recycled Tumbling Fun

Use recycled scraps to build a rainy day rainbow.

Bake up some cloud cupcakes, rainbow cupcakes (super pretty!), or bird nest’s cupcakes. Don’t forget to use organic ingredients in place of conventional.

What do you and your littles like to do on rainy days?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Ping Pong Catapult – fun outside with some action! This toy is a cool idea for older kids (small parts make it bad for very young children). This natural, non-toxic wooden ping pong catapult is powered by a single rubber band and your kids. Kids lock the ball cup in place, load a ball, and push down on the lever to launch a ball across the yard. The launch is strong enough to toss balls, marshmallows, or acorns through the air but it won’t shoot hard enough to hurt a kid who gets in the way. Kids can even set up targets to aim for.

The Double Playstand Set is on the pricey side, but if you have more than one child or are ok with a summer splurge, it could be worth it due to the versatile fun factor. The set comes with two Playstands, four Play Clips and an Elemental Silk. This is a great outdoor or indoor play space for kids and allows their imagination to run the show. Kids could use this to put on plays, set up house, or just relax in the shade and read or draw.

The Nature Bag is such a great summer-time toy. Sustainable, educational, and way fun. Plus, I like that it’s a good choice for the whole family. The kit includes: a Fair Trade 100% certified organic cotton shoulder bag, an all season activity booklet, 2 leaf viewers, 8 color cards, recycled notepad, recycled pencil, soy based crayons, hemp twine, organic cotton blindfold, and a rubberwood magnifying glass. The kit also comes with various outdoor suggested activities like scavenger hunts, bug searches, and clay imprints.

SUMMER-MINDED TOYS WE’VE SEEN BEFORE:

Brand New Spring Line of Green Toys!

Perfect Summer Recycled Dollhouse Project – OK, NOT a bought toy, but so very cool.

Action Toys without Batteries

Solar Grasshopper Robot Kit

What kinds of toys do your kids like for summer fun?

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Being that it’s the first day of spring, I’ve gathered up some eco-friendly ideas and links for you to help you celebrate in style.

First a few Tree Hugging Family classics…

• Spring Nature Photos
• 60 Eco-Friendly Ways to Celebrate Spring
• Candied Flowers

And some news from other fine places…

• Green your spring cleaning from Co-op America.
• Pop-up flower card – use recycled materials.
• Eggshell plant pots.
• Organic spring gardening.

Other ideas…

• Get outside with a camera – have the kiddos explore and take spring pictures.
• Plan a camping trip – it’s still a little chilly, but if you go in the spring you’ll see different things then when you head out in the summer.
• Head out at night, have a green barbecue, and watch the stars.
• Start planning your eco-friendly Easter early this year.
• Of course anytime of year is a good time to plant a tree.

What green activities do you have planned for the spring?

Don’t forget to enter to win FREE tickets to the Seattle Green Festival!

[image via free pixels]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Getting your baby or young child out into the spring weather is a smart plan; start early with nature adventures to instill a love of the planet in your tot.

Spring is still chilly so plan for double layers that are easy to take off if it gets too warm. Sometimes even a hat is in order. You want your little on to have fun and enjoy being outside. If she’s chilly, she may associate being outside with uncomfortable.

Try feeling the wind. Hold your tot up in the breeze and allow her to feel the wind on her cheeks. Point out how the trees sway and the clouds float. Hold scarves or a small kite up in the wind so your toddler can watch them blow.  Another windy perk that babies adore – wind chimes!

See this piece; Activities to get you and your children outside for more ideas such as, Rainy Days and Shapes and Colors and Textures, Oh My!. OR take a peek at the whole Take A Child Outside website. Another good site for learning about nature fun is No Child Left Inside.

Bird and bug watch – point out tiny animals that may interest your little one. Caterpillars, butterflies, and worms are especially fun.

Try feeling tree bark, smooth rocks, cool water, and new silky flower popping up. For very little ones just make sure your babe doesn’t pop anything into her mouth.

Try out the super keen, really fun, eco-friendly, Nature Bag: Environmental Activity Kit for Kids.

See some more spring activity ideas…

• Introduce your baby to nature
• 60 Eco-Friendly Ways to Celebrate Spring
• Brand New Spring Line of Green Toys!
• Spring Nature Photos
• Spring Ducklings Hatched

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Of course we’ll have some new fall green feature posts coming up, but first let’s take a look back at some past Tree Hugging Family (but still worthy of a read) green-minded autumn posts.

• Weatherization Assistance Programs
• Nature Themed Autumn Craft
• Fall Craft with Pumpkins & Flowers
• Homemade Spicy Apple Air Freshener
• Send Organic Flowers This Autumn
• Easy Ways to Save Energy During the Chilly Autumn
• Hug This Tree: Autumn Trees
• Autumn Chocolate Goodness

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in September 2008

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Post from: Tree Hugging Family

1. Turn on the bathroom vent fan. This allows that warm shower air to escape. If all you’ve got is a bathroom window, take an early morning shower, or late evening shower, and open the window.  You could also take cooler showers.
2. Eat hot peppers – or some other spicy hot seasoning. Research shows that eating hot stuff can cool you internally. Odd but true.
3. Drink all day long. As you lose liquid through perspiration, your body heats up. Drink all day to stay cooler. That’s water folks, not something kooky like beer or coffee all day (just checking).
4. Turn off the lights. No brainer.
5. Shut the shades. Another no brainer. Actually, you should open your windows and blinds during the cool parts of the day (early morn and evening) to let cool air in. Once the sun pops up, shut the house down.
6. Live on in a single level. If you can, living in a single level is a better choice than say, living in a third, or even second floor apartment.
7. Quit with the oven already. Don’t turn it on. Live on cold sandwiches, grill outside, or microwave your food. Your oven heats up your kitchen considerably.
8. Hang up your clothes to dry. If you must dry use cool settings. This conserves energy and you won’t be releasing heat into your home.
9. In New Mexico, and actually other desert areas, people hang damp sheets on their open windows. This is not the best trick for high humidity areas, but if it’s dryer and deadly hot outside, this trick can cool down the hot air that pushes through the window.
10. Get naked. Ok, don’t get all naked; especially if you’ve got friends coming over (unless they like naked you). Still, hats on your head, and shoes on your feet conserve warmth, so… take some stuff off.

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

The following are written for kids and gives them the information they need if and when they get bit by a creepy crawling critter.

Bug Bites

Hey! A Brown Recluse Spider Bit Me! (egad)

Hey! A Scorpion Stung Me!

What to Do if You’re Bugged by Bugs

How do I Avoid Ticks?

Also some more fun based buggy sites:

• World’s Most Notorious Bugs – an awesome site, with “most wanted” bug posters. Really cool.
• Bug Bios
• Yucky Roach World
• Cool Bug Stuff

For Parents:

If you’re parents of the much younger, can’t read themselves set, you might be interested in my Pregnancy & Baby bug series, which includes info about DEET dangers…

• Stop baby itching this summer with bug bite prevention
• Treating bug bites on babies
• Safer natural bug sprays for babies
• Bugs bugging your babe?

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in May 2008

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Post from: Tree Hugging Family

If you’re looking for a greener summer camp for your littles, there’s still time. Check out the following resources:

Maine: Blueberry Cove Camp – part of the Tanglewood family of camps.

Pennsylvania: Longacre Leadership Program

Colorado: Camp Ecology & Camp Eco Sports

NSW Australia: Lightfoot Camps at Wangat Lodge have a number of sustainable programs.

Texas: EcoCamp at the Armand Bayou Nature Center

California: STAR ECO Station camps

Florida: Osprey EcoCamp

New York: E.C.O. (Ecology Camp Organon)

Washington: IslandWood at Bainbridge Island

This is just a sampling. You can also search at the American Camp Association – they list about 1,858 camps with specific environmental focuses. Or contact your local camp association.

If you’re in the UK, I’d check out this cool post – not camps exactly, but fun stuff for whole families: 5 eco-friendly camping holidays with children.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in May 2008

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Post from: Tree Hugging Family

What if you want to make positive changes but can’t afford it? Most changes you can make to save energy and conserve resources are inexpensive but when you add all the changes you should be making up it can be a drain on your budget. This time of year it’s especially hard to scrape together extra money because you also want your family to have a nice holiday which may mean time off from work.

There are organizations that can help your family.

The U.S Department of Energy (DOE) offers a Weatherization Assistance Program that, in the last 3 decades, has provided weatherization services to more than 5.5 million low-income families. How the program works is, “Weatherization service providers install energy efficiency measures in the homes of qualifying homeowners free of charge. These are not expensive upgrades—the average expenditure limit is $2,826 per home—but they are effective, and energy savings pay for the upgrades within a few years.”

Are you eligible?

The DOE estimates that around 20 to 30 million U.S. families are eligible for services. Both home owners and renters can apply. If you receive Supplemental Security Income or Aid to Families with Dependent Children than you are automatically eligible. Preference is also given to those 60 years or older, families who have one or more members with disabilities, and families with children. The criteria varies from state to state. You can see if your income is eligible by visiting the DOE guidelines page. While you may be eligible there is also a waiting list for services so the sooner you contact your state agency and apply the better.

If you can’t get assistance through the above program you might be able to get help from:

• Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
• Most local branches of energy suppliers offer assistance programs locally. For instance if you pay gas, water, and electric like me it can add up fast. You can contact your local provider and ask about consumer assistance in paying your bill plus get ideas on how to save money on your bill. Another reason to contact your local providers is if you’re moving. Some areas drain more energy naturally. If you ask your local electric company can tell you the average bills per month per area where you live. Sometimes they can even break it down per home. My friend rented a house and later (after super high energy bills) contacted her electric company and it turns out there was some sort of issue with wiring and building so it can pay to check before you choose a home.

Every family deserves a warm house and the lowest energy costs possible and the resources above can help.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family