As a parent who tries very hard to live simple and green, it important to me that my toddler learns the same. Sustainable living is all about ensuring that we create the least amount of impact on our environment while fulfilling our own needs and requirements. While it may seem tough or challenging to explain all of this to a preschooler or even, an older kid, it really isn’t so. In fact, if you use the right tools and ideas you can make sustainable living fun, interesting and educational for young children.

Here are some easy-to-do and fun ways to teach kids about sustainability and why it is important live in an earth-friendly way.

• Get Down and Dirty. Gardening is a great way for kids to learn about sustainable living. Give them a patch of their own to dig into, feel the earth, weed and plant. This will also teach them about being responsible since they’ll have to feed and water the plant as well. My toddler, like most toddlers, loves to get all messy and what better way to do that than have them dig around and learn how to be responsible for a plant. Even if you live in an apartment, like me, you can buy small flowerpots and grow herbs and flowers. Have your children paint and decorate the pots and take turns in digging and watering them.
• Nature Walks and Talks. Another fun way to learn about sustainability is to spend time with Nature. Walks in the park, day trips to the lake, a camp out in a wooded area are all great ways to learn about the importance of Nature. Depending upon the age of your child, you can talk about how the ecosystem works and point out different species of plants, bugs and animals. A favorite craft activity for us is to pick leaves and flowers, dry them and then, glue them onto cards and sheets of notepaper.
• Have Fun Shopping Green. Older kids will enjoy learning about how their decisions can impact the environment. Back to school shopping can include buying eco-friendly backpacks made of recycled material, organic cotton or hemp, instead of toxic PVC, notebooks made of recycled paper and pencils made of FSC-certified wood or even, recycled newspapers such as the ones made by Tree Smart!
• Visit the Farmer’s Market or a Farm. A fun day trip idea is to visit a farmer’s market and pick up new and interesting fruits and vegetables. This is also a good trick to get picky kids to eat those fruits and veggies. Several families also farm their own produce so if you can visit one of those farms, it will be a great way for kids to see how food is grown.
• Books, Videos and Websites. One of my favorite websites is Ollie’s World. It offers great tips and activities for kids to learn about the earth, an eco-friendly life and living sustainably. Books and videos are another great tool for teaching even toddlers about living green. A few great books that I’ve read and used with my toddler are Easy to be Green by Ellie O’Ryan, The Greenzys by Danielle Mentzer and William is Going Green from the William the Garbage Truck and Crew series.

While these are some great ways to teach kids about sustainable living, they are relatively long-term. However, there are several baby steps that you, as a green parent, can start taking right away.

Baby Steps for Sustainable Living

1. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
2. Turn off the lights as soon as you leave the room.
3. Save water by turning it off when brushing teeth.
4. Take a bath with a bucket of water rather than showering. In fact, fill up an inflatable pool and let the kids splash around instead of a regular shower one day a week.
5. Walk for groceries rather than drive.
6. Spend at least 30 minutes outdoors, running, playing and basically, having fun with Nature.

Simple steps such as these are ideal for teaching sustainable living to children of all ages. Just choose the ideas that work best for your family and start small, but do start. Meanwhile, do share your own tips for teaching kids about sustainable living. What works best with you to show kids how to lead a greener and more earth-friendly life?

Over the 4th of July weekend we spent quite a bit of time outdoors at night.

I don’t need to mention what happens outside at night in the summer. If you go out without protection, you are eaten alive. I don’t care how close you sit next to the citronella torches and candles, you still become mosquito bait.

Mosquito Repellents

Over the years we had tried several mosquito repellents. We tried the traditional products that are available in stores that contain deet and we tried home made remedies such as Avon’s Skin So Soft and natural plant oils. I’m particularly fond of Neem, but we can’t always find it at our local health store.

Enter Bite Blocker Insect Repellent

My hubby found a product called  Bite Blocker while surfing the Magellan site. He ordered a 4.7 ounce spray bottle of the stuff and we got to try it out this weekend.

Bite Blocker imosquito repellent has the following ingredients:

Soybean oil
Purified water
Coconut oil
Glycerin
Lecithin
Citric acid
Geranium oil
Sodium bicarbonates
And
Vanillin

These ingredients are much less harmful than spraying a can of deet all over the body. In addition to the lack of deet, it has a subtle non overwhelming fragrance. To me it has a light lavender smell. It actually smells pretty good.

One application lasts for 8 hours and its waterproof and sweatproof.

Bite Free July 4th Bar-B-Q

We pulled out the bottle of Bite Blocker at the 4th of July Bar-B-Q and I was pleased to find that the next morning I didn’t have any new mosquito bites to scratch. I’m particularly ecstatic about this because in every gathering there is one person the mosquitoes usually prefer. Yours truly is that person. Now I’ve got a deet free solution to the common mosquito bite problem.

Now that we know it works, we’re stocking up. BTW, if you don’t like sprays, Bite Blocker also comes in a lotion.

(NAPSI)-There are more products available now than ever before that will help erase stain spots, scour tubs and clean the floors of our homes. According to Dr. Alan Greene, a noted pediatrician, author and green-living expert, recent scientific evidence shows increasing links between common household chemicals and children’s health problems.

“When you think about the rise in rates of childhood illnesses such as asthma, attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder, allergies and cancer, it is not our genetics that have changed, but our environmental exposures–including ingredients in household chemicals,” said Dr. Greene.

“The Toxic Substances Control Act [TSCA] was created 33 years ago to regulate our nation’s chemicals and has done nothing but allow these chemicals to slide through the system and into household products,” noted consumer advocate Erin Brockovich. “Consumers are entitled to have more information about the chemicals that go into the everyday products they buy, and that’s why I am urging people to join the Million Baby Crawl to ask Congress to enact stricter safety testing.”

Until stricter safety testing on household products exists, Dr. Greene shares five simple ways to decrease toxins in your home now:

1. Be an advocate for change by supporting stronger toxic chemical laws such as the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act. Go to www.millionbabycrawl.com for more information and to participate.
2. Open your windows. EPA research has found that indoor air can contain levels of pollutants two to five times higher than the air outside.
3. If you are using plastic, store food in No. 1, No. 2, No. 4 or No. 5 plastic containers, which are less likely to leach unsafe chemicals including BPA. Never heat food or serve hot food in plastic of any kind.
4. Stay informed, read the labels of products before purchasing. Avoid anything that says “danger,” “warning” or “harmful.”
5. Remove toxic household cleaning products and replace them with natural cleaning products, such as those from Seventh Generation, that won’t leave behind harmful chemical residue or pollute indoor air.

For more information on nontoxic living, visit www.seventhgeneration.com.

Photo credit: Seventh Generation, Diane Bondareff

(NAPSI)-Letting in the sunshine could be a bright idea–especially when you update your home with energy-efficient windows. Homeowners installing qualifying windows can get as much as $1,500 back from the government under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“There’s never been a better time to replace your old, inefficient windows,” said James Ruppel, window expert at Four Seasons Sunrooms. “The government is actually paying you to save money on your energy bills.”

Four Seasons Sunrooms–the award-winning sunroom, conservatory, patio room and enclosure manufacturer–recently expanded its product line with energy-efficient windows that meet and exceed the U.S. government’s strict energy-efficiency criteria for a 30 percent tax credit. Made with the company’s exclusive super energy-efficient ConservaGlass Select technology, the heavy-duty vinyl replacement windows include, at no extra charge, consumer-friendly features such as Stay-Clean Technology, which keeps the glass cleaner longer; Glass Masking, which protects the windows during transport and installation; and a Transferable Lifetime Warranty that protects your investment for the lifetime of the windows, even if you sell your home.

The company is well known for the outstanding performance of its year-round solariums, screen rooms and patio enclosures and is is now bringing its over 35 years of experience to consumers with super energy-efficient windows.

For more information, visit Four Seasons Sunrooms.com.

After many years of submerging my hands in water, doing household chores, cleaning, diaper changing, etc., my hands have become extremely rough. They’re so rough that I’m scared to touch myself.

Wiping away tears means that I’ve got to pull my long sleeved shirt over my hands to wipe my daughter’s tears or giving a soothing back rub means that I’ve got to cover my hands first or else I might draw blood.

Lotions, Creams and Other Stuff

I tried all kinds of lotions and creams to ‘take the edge off’ of my sandy hands, but nothing seemed to work. Little did I know that the solution was sitting in my kitchen all the time.

My Rough Hand Solution

It’s so simple that I can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner. In a small bowl I poured sea salt (finely ground, not the chunks), some olive oil (just enough to make a paste) and a squirt of homemade hand soap (any liquid hand soap will do).

After wetting my hands with warm water, I apply the paste and massage the palms and backs of my hands (don’t forget to get between the fingers too). The salt helps to remove the dead, dry, craggy skin while the olive oil helps to moisturize at the same time.

The squirt of hand soap makes it easier to rinse it off with warm water. First I tried the hand scrub without the squirt of hand soap and realized that I had oily hands (oil and water just won’t mix). I needed a small amount of soap to encourage the mixture to come off of my hands.

I guess you could always omit the soap and just wash your hands with soap afterward, but the soap will serve to dry your hands out again (just what we’re trying to avoid).

You’ll be amazed at how soft your hands will become. I leave a little container of the mixture next to the kitchen sink, so at the end of the day, or at the end of a heavy cleaning session, I use the mixture to soften up again. After my hands are dry, just for safe measure, I apply my favorite hand lotion.

No More Embarrassment

No longer am I afraid to touch people. The other day in church the Pastor asked that we try something a little different. “Let’s try holding hands as we pray today.” I looked to the right and to the left and was able to confidently take the hands of the people standing next to me without fear of them screaming in pain and drawing back bloody stumps for hands.

If you have rough, dry hands, give it a try, you’ve got nothing to lose.

If you have not done so already, I strongly suggest that you take a look at the Consumer World website.  In addition to looking through the website, you should sign up for their newsletter.

Consumer World has a fountain of information that everyone who buys anything should be aware of.  As a result of a link from their site, I recently read an article on how Purina Dog Food reduced the size of their dog food bag from 20 pounds to 18 pounds.  The price?  Well of course the price remained the same.

The folks at Mouse Print attempted on more than one occasion to get an explanation from Purina as to the reason for the downsized portions.  Rather than re-word their findings, check it out for yourself.

Lots of Info

No need for me to say anymore.  Check them out and check out the sites they link to.  If you’re like me, you’ll bookmark the Consumer World as a valuable resource.

I was looking around the internet for a recipe for natural air fresheners. Let’s face it; we all have those occasions where we would like to clear the air, if you get my drift.

Rather than using the grocery store aerosol sprays, I would prefer something a bit more natural. Sometimes potpourri doesn’t cut it. Imagine my surprise when I saw the recipe for ‘Air Care Room Spray’ found on the Rainforest Organics site. It calls for ¼ cup of distilled water, ¼ cup of vodka and 25 drops of natural oils.

The instructions say “combine an enjoy.” Hmmm, do I spray it or drink it. Let’s face it, after throwing back a few shots of the room spray, who cares how the room smells?

It’s been a little over a year that I’ve been using homemade laundry detergent. I’ve got to say that overall I found it to be a positive experiment. There are a few tweaks here and there and a little bit of intervention required but all in all I will continue to use the homemade laundry detergent. Here are my general observations:

This is the more economical of the two options (here’s the recipe). It makes a much larger batch and can go a lot further than the powdered option. However, I found that modifying the ingredients a little bit gave me varying results.

Variation 1: Ivory soap.

I believe the best batches of homemade laundry detergent were those made with Ivory soap. For a little extra cleaning power I tried a combination of Ivory and Fels Naptha soap. The only problem was that the Fels Naptha caused the solution to be more gloopy and difficult to stir. It required more stirring and chopping every time I used it (A small price to pay for clean clothes).

Variation 2: Lever Soap

One day while making homemade laundry detergent I realized that I and didn’t have Ivory soap and I was in a pinch so I used Lever instead. Although I liked the smell of Lever, I found that it didn’t quite get rid of some of the odors.

When the clothes came out of the washer and dryer, they smelled good and fresh, but once the clothes came into contact with human sweat, they generated an unpleasant smell. The smell was not overpowering but just enough to realize that your clothes shouldn’t smell like that. I found that the neckline of the t-shirts seemed to smell the worst, probably because it’s closer to the nose than other areas.

Let’s face it, no one smells like a daisy after a workout, but this smell was a different smell and one that I’d rather not have in my clothes.

Powdered laundry detergent
I found the powdered laundry detergent to work best. It’s not only quicker and easier to make, but it seemed to get rid of odors and clean the clothes very well. It costs slightly more than the homemade liquid laundry detergent, but it’s worth the extra couple of cents per load. It’s still much less expensive than store bought laundry detergent.

Downside:

I did find one downside is that there seems to be in accumulating dinginess that occurs with white clothes. It took me a little while to realize the change, but after looking at the white clothes over a period of time, they seemed to lose their brightness. When I first noticed it, I added additional bleach to the wash, but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. I noticed this more with the liquid than the powdered detergent.

Conclusion:

I will continue to use the homemade laundry detergent using the powdered version more so than the liquid. The liquid one I found to be a great pre-treatment for hard to get rid of stains. I poured the liquid detergent directly on the stain, rubbed it in a little and laundered as usual.

Homemade laundry detergent has gotten us through a year of ground in grass, dirt, mud and geese poop stains on white football uniforms. It also got us through various and assorted construction projects, cheer leading uniforms, gym workout clothes and normal every day wear and tear (not to mention Fido’s bedding).

So far, the homemade laundry detergent has been able to handle 98 to 99% of all the stains. I would recommend purchasing one box of your favorite store-bought detergent to periodically use on white clothes to maintain their bright whiteness.

As far as the cost savings…

I average about 2 – 3 loads of laundry a day six days a week. At two per day, over a period of a year that equals 624 loads for the year (an underestimation).

If half of the loads were washed with homemade liquid detergent and the other half with homemade powdered detergent, the calculations would be as follows:

624 divided by 2 = 312 liquid and 312 powdered

312 times 1 cent per liquid load = $3.12
312 times 3.5 cents per powdered load = $10.92

Total cost to wash 624 loads = $14.04

Do you think the store-bought detergent will get you 624 loads of laundry for $14.04?

I love nature just as much as the next person but there are a few things that really work my nerves. The insatiable hosta munching deer is one of them, second only to flower box and yard destroying squirrel.

Hair to Repel Deer

There are several ways to deter deer from eating your plants (they seem to love hostas). There are store bought deer repellents, but I prefer to use a natural deterrent. A friend of mine uses hair. She takes hair from her brush and spreads it around her plants, sort of like decorating a Christmas tree. I guess the individual’s scent is enough to deter the deer from eating the plants.

That works well as long as weather conditions leave the hair in place. A few windy rainy days means re-decorating the plants with more hair.

The Deterrent that Every House Has Plenty Of

If hair is a scarce commodity in your home like it is in ours (we keep our hair very short), you might have to choose another method. Just like with hair, I’m using a substance that is plentiful. As a matter of fact, I’m 100% sure that every household has this commodity and it’s 100% natural. Deer don’t like urine. Yep, every day ordinary pee.

Last year we didn’t have a deer problem because we allowed Fido to pee wherever he chose; the front yard, side yard or back yard. It didn’t make a difference as long as it wasn’t in the house. It was a wonderful natural deer deterrent.

The upside is that the deer didn’t eat the hosta plants; the downside is that the yard looked like it was a battleground for a serious intergalactic conflict. The dog pee created a plethora of burn spots in the grass.

This year we decided to improve the looks of the lawn and trained Fido to pee in one spot. Our lawn has improved, but the deer have decided to return. So, keeping with the urine theory, we decided to sprinkle urine on the plants.

Outfit the Bathroom

Wait, it’s not as gross as it sounds. All you have to do is keep paper cups in the bathroom. Once every few days, fill one of the cups and sprinkle the urine over the outdoor plants. It will deter the deer.

The only downside is that the urine gets washed away every time it rains so you’ll need to ‘pee’ on your plants after a good soaking. For some reason kids love this deer repellent method…go figure.

Word of warning, do not store urine. Urine has a tendency to develop muscles over time and you may not be strong enough to be able to withstand the odor. Urine is an abundant commodity. Why not put it to good use?

While you’re looking for pest repellents, try this natural mosquito repellent.

Yet another use for white vinegar. Pour some on your pesky weeds, give them about a week and watch them dry up, turn brown and whither away.

I poured white vinegar on some of the weeds that always grow in-between the bricks on my patio. A few days later, look at the difference. The one with vinegar is drying up. Once they’re dry, they’re easy to pull up.

Untreated Weed

4 Days after Vinegar

I’m hesitant to use this method on weeds that are mixed in with viable grass. It might kill the surrounding grass as does the chemical products sold in home supply stores. Who knows, maybe I’ll try it on an inconspicuous portion of the lawn and report my findings.

In the meanwhile, I’m thrilled to be able to use a natural product to remove the weeds from the patio.

One word of advice…use a funnel or something that will aim the vinegar to just the right spot. I attempted to pour it straight from the bottle into the cracks of the patio and got more on the bricks than the cracks.