Now that warmer weather is coming it’s time to hustle the littles outside. I know I talk about this until I’m blue in the face, and all of you are sick to death of it, but seriously, kids who get outside = kids who love nature = kids who grow up into adults who WANT to preserve nature.

That said (again) below are some surefire ways to get the kids outside and keep them outside.
1. Get artistic: The best thing about outside art time is that your inside stays tidy! Set up easels or an art table with a tie on …read more

All month we’ve been running our Green Toys giveaway and taking a close-up look at the prizes in this great giveaway.

Cookware & Dining Set
Indoor Gardening Kit
Sand Play Set
Tea Set

As mentioned before, all Green Toys have the following perks:

Easy open 100% recyclable packaging made from recycled corrugated boxes with no plastics, cellophane or twist-ties.
Made from plastic made from recycled milk containers.
Locally produced – as in, every step in the process, from milk container recycling to toy production to final assembly, occurs in one place (in this case California).
Contain no traceable amounts of Phthalates or BPA.
Designed without …read more

Gardening is one great way to get your kids outside. However, if you don’t allow them to stay busy, toddlers can create more work for you. Here are some tasks toddlers and young children can help with.
Placing seeds: Put a few seeds at a time in a medicine cup so they don’t go nuts.
Pulling deadheads: I remember popping off my mom’s deadhead flowers as a kid; and it was pretty fun. You can let little ones pull off dead flower heads, dingy leaves, or even have them pull up dead plant. Give them a pair of kid friendly gloves.
Worm …read more

Summer is on its way! In hopes of adding a little more fun (and green) to your summer, Tree Hugging Family has the perfect contest launching off today.
Grab your kids (or someone’s kids) and get ready to win a great prize.
Thanks to our wonderful sponsor, Green Toys, we’ve got four amazing toy sets to give away.

We’ll be looking at each toy a little closer over the next three weeks, and we’ll be learning more about Green Toys. But to keep this contest entry post short and sweet; here’s a simple quick run down to kick this contest off.
What you can …read more

A new release from HealthDay News relates that young children who live on tree lined streets, or technically in neighborhoods with plenty of trees, have lower rates of asthma than children who live among fewer trees.

In New York City, asthma is the leading reason for hospital admissions among the 15 year old and younger set. Research looked at where these children live, and were able to directly correlate less trees in the immediate environment with more asthma admissions. This research held up even after factoring in sources of pollution, socioeconomic status and population density.
Researchers note that tree density itself may …read more

These photos sent by mama Shawna are truly breathtaking. I’m so jealous. I want to take photos this nice.

See how right I am – just beautiful. Shawna notes that these shots, “Are from a camping trip we went on this last weekend to South East Utah. It’s called Buck Horn Wash! Very beautiful!” I agree.
Many parts of Utah are exceptionally beautiful. We’ve been there often and Cedar loves visiting. It’s a great family friendly state to visit with plenty of get up and go activities. During our trips there Cedar managed to sled, ice skate, and ski, all before he …read more

The other day my best friend and I took our kids to this cool garden area in Washington. There are different gardens – like English, herb, veggie, and more, plus a couple of ponds, a forest, fields, bees, greenhouses, and more. The kids had a great time. Actually we’ve been there before and Cedar always has fun.
In other news, I got a new camera, so now I can take pictures of our little outings – of course, not well. A photographer I’m not. My best friend is, so maybe she should have been the one taking pictures. Sadly her camera …read more

Today was a no school day here in WA. Being unschoolers, Cedar and I usually go for a long walk each day, rain or shine. More rain usually – we are in WA. Today he asked if his two schooled friends could go, being that they were home. I said sure, we went and picked them up. They were reluctant because they wanted to stay at home and play video games, but we talked them into it.
So, 20 mins into our walk his friends start whining. Massive whining:

“I’m too tired…”
“Why do we have to walk?”
“There’s nothing to do on this …read more