With summer here, maybe you’re looking for something new to do. We’ve posted lots on fun kid activities, so I thought I’d round up a good bunch of stuff that you and more importantly, your kids, might enjoy. Don’t forget, if all else fails, there’s always a picnic at the park.

Nature based fun:  

Nature Experiment – Make Your Own Rain Bowl
Journey North: One of the best earth-based youth activities available
Make Your Own Solar Light!
Ditch your watch and use the sun to tell time

Messy & colorful fun:  

Make Your Own Natural, Colorful Dyes
Homemade Organic Paint Soap for Kids
Fun Beach or Sandbox …read more

Let’s see what you you may have missed this week…
Instead of a green audit, this week we looked at green yard renovations. We checked out: Composting for Soil Health, Greening Your Lawn, and Choosing the Right Plants.
Make Your Own Dowel Vase Cover
Recycled kitchenware in amazing colors.
How to test your dishes for lead
Bake a greener birthday cake plus some great cake recipes.
Where to get used coffee grounds for your garden – and why in the heck you would want to.

14 Ways You Can Love the Earth
Great green architecture links
Free Green Home Poster
We hugged (and learned about) the Cheetah …read more

Kids will love collecting the nature items they need to make this as much as completing the actual project.

Look here to see full project instructions.
As I hope you gathered from the picture this autumn nature wreath craft is from Craft Ideas. They have many neat fall projects right now but I like this one because you get to go for a walk outside plus use recyclables and nature for art.
You can use a glue gun the project states but I’d bet any sort of plain old craft glue will work. Also, I’d plan on using whatever your …read more

I received an email from a green-minded reader asking about how she could recycle prescription bottles. In the past (and still) there have been some negative issues surrounding the recycling of prescription bottles and other plastics without necks.
The gist of it is the same reason plastic lids have non-recyclable qualities — even though the plastics may show the same number as your recyclable plastics they go through a very different manufacturing process. Marti at Eco-Cycle has a longer answer that talks about the process part of the problem.
That said there are some things you can do.
First you need to …read more