Greening Sam and Avery

Guest Post today!

I am a guest blogger!  YEAH! 

Want to see the things that I am loving right now?  Head on over to 2 Sweet Things

Day 75: Last minute guest blog

Abbie isn't feeling well and had a rough afternoon/evening today, so Dad is filling in with a quick post for her.  I got home a little early to take over the parenting duties and took the girls for a trip to the park.  It was a nice chance to get them outside and get some exercise while at the same time giving Abbie some peace and quiet.  Sam enjoyed riding her bike as she has so much lately, and I trailed pulling Avery in our wagon.  I am constantly amazed at how aware Sam is of her surroundings and how much she notices now.  She even stopped riding a few times to go back and show me a leaf or berry that she found on the sidewalk.  I didn't have any planned activity for the girls, we just had a great afternoon outside enjoying the perfect mid-September weather here in Wisconsin.

To make up for the lack of a creative activity for the day, Abbie's sister Jodie sent me some more pictures from their rainy walk. I love some of the action ones of the girls having fun in the puddles.  Hope you enjoy and Abbie will be back tomorrow.

Edited to add - Jodie wanted everyone to know that "the images are SUPER GRAINY b/c it was SO dark and wet in the woods that day! I barely edited them they were so grainy but I still think they're adorable!".  She always takes such great photos.  I just had to add a few more to what Chris picked as well! 

  
 

and the winner is....

ASHLEE!  Check her out here.

Congrats and I hope you enjoy all the great prizes from Acorn Naturalist.  

This was such a fun week. Thank you again to all my guest blogging ladies!

And in other news...I have my first entry into the August Monthly Challenge!  Thank you Tami!  This means that the contest is for sure a go this month and a prize will be coming!! So get out there and GET CAMPING!

Be back later today with an activity!

Day 51: safer products for babies and kids (guest blogger)

Please welcome Katherine to the blog!  She is a college friend, a fellow blogger and a VERY recent mommy of TWO! 

Safer Products for Babies and Kids

One would think that all baby products are "gentle" and "safe", or at least safer.  We would like to assume that companies take extra care to make sure baby products are held to a higher level of purity.  Sadly, this is just not true.  Personal care products marketed for babies and children are riddled with harmful ingredients such as, petroleum (mineral oils), fragrances, parabens, 1,4-dioxane, BHA, PEGs, and sodium lauryl sulfate.   

Children, compared to adults, have double the skin surface proportional to body weight.  Their immune and central nervous systems are still developing.  They are much more susceptible to toxins and much less capable of eliminating them.  Even something as seemingly innocuous as "fragrance" can interfere with their endocrine and hormonal systems.  It is critical for parents to limit children's exposure to unnecessary toxins.  One way of doing this is changing the type of personal care products we use. 

I'm not suggesting radical change or even investing in expensive "organic" skin care products.  I'm suggesting simplification.  Here are some easy alternatives to think about:

• Babies don't even need soap to bathe.  Most experts agree that for the first 6 months warm water and good washcloth will do just fine.
• Olive soap or fragrance free castile soap (eg. Dr Bronners Baby Mild) are gentle and effective and work for both hair and body.  Be sure to use mild or fragrance free varieties since essential oils can irritate tiny eyeballs.
• Instead of lotions, which are notoriously riddled with all kinds of questionable junk, massage baby with olive or almond oil.
• Keep the diaper area fresh and clean with a spray bottle of water mixed with a few drops of tea tree oil.
• Be mindful of the kinds of products your use, especially if your baby is still "in-arms".  Many lotions and soaps can leave behind a residue that is harmful to children and easily absorbed through contact. 
  
• Instead of relying solely on sunscreens, make sure children are well covered with clothing (including a hat), well hydrated and limit time outside when the sun is at it's highest (between 10 and 2).
• Use Abbie's amazing homemade laundry soap recipe!

The bottom line is that if you must use conventional products, TRIPLE check the ingredients list.  It seems cynical, but you simply can't trust any brand or company.  Ideally, if you wouldn't squirt it in your mouth and swallow, you wouldn't smear it all over your kid.  But, realistically, if you can find something that has understandable, familiar ingredients it is probably better than whatever Johnson&Johnson is pushing on your baby.

Day 50: green picture books (guest blogger)

Welcome Holly to the blog!  Holly and I both went to the same college although not at the same time!  We met after college through our husbands who played college golf together.  Since that first meeting we have become blog friends and real life friends!

When Abbie asked me to be a guest blogger, I was a little nervous. I wondered what I could contribute. Other than recycling regularly, using reusable bags, and doing a garden in the summer, we don't do nature activities very often. Then she said she wanted people to write about an interest of theirs but somehow relate it to "being green". Okay, I could do that! I write a Picture Book Thursday post on my book blog a couple times a month. So today, is a picture book post in honor of Greening Sam and Avery!

While at the library with my kiddos last week, I picked up a couple picture books that I thought would fit into the environmental theme of the blog. Since Abbie's daughters are in the two and under age group, I wanted to find at least one book that might appeal to a very young audience.

The Earth and I jumped out at me both for the title and the author. I LOVED Frank Asch's Popcorn when I was a kid. LOVED it! And I have to say I really enjoyed this book as well. There are very few words. The pictures mostly say it all, which makes it great for a younger audience. It depicts one child's friendship with the earth: listening to the earth, helping her grow, playing in the backyard together. The book also shows the earth being sad (polluted) and how we can help clean the mess up to make her happy again. The pictures are really great and colorful.

He also wrote the companion book Water which looks to be just as colorful and interesting.

For the girly girls out there (this would include my girls!), Fancy Nancy: Explorer Extraordinare is the perfect guide to investigating nature. Nancy and her best friend Bree start a new club. Nancy writes on the first page of the book, "Bonjour, everybody! Welcome to our club! Bree and I love to go exploring in the wild. We collect leaves, watch birds and butterflies, and inspect insects. If you're like us, then you can be an Explorer Extraordinaire too." The pages that follow show the club rules (Nobody in the club thinks bugs are gross. No touching; just looking. We never catch butterflies because they are fragile.), talk about various bugs, their life cycles, birds and trees. Photographs depict different types of insects, birds and leaves. My favorite part of the book are the little activity ideas sprinkled throughout. They tell you how to make a cookie-cutter bird feeder, a pine cone bird feeder, a lavish leaf crown, and more.

The last two books, I actually haven't read, but wanted to include them because they are on the less girly side of things. I've seen them around and have been meaning to take a look at them. Ellie Bethel has written two pictures books starring Michael Recycle; Michael Recycle and Michael Recycle Meets Litterbug Doug. He's a superhero whose power is to teach people to recycle. In the second book, the green caped crusader must teach Doug to be less lazy and clean up after himself.

 

 


These are just a few of the books that fall into the category of the environment or promoting being green. If you're interested in finding more books, here is a link to what I found when I searched "environment" in children's fiction books on the Barnes and Noble website. There are so many fun books to take a look at!

Day 48: succulent wild children (guest blogger)

Please welcome Jen to the blog today!  Jen is one of the first blogs that I read and followed besides my sister.  I am honored to have her guest blogging for me!!

It’s an honor to write a guest post for Abbie, because I think she’s doing such important work with her blog. Outside is unfamiliar territory to many of us now.
I’m very lucky in that my tiny back yard butts up against part of our city’s sprawling parks system. Behind us is a triangular piece of wooded land, thick with ivy, scored by deer paths. This is where my kids’ growing freedom is tethered.
Starting with a fallen tree, my kids and about 10 other neighborhood children have crafted an impressive lean-to by propping fallen limbs against the downed tree’s branches. The tree was a giant. The small twigs are long gone, but the large branches have provided the framework for a structure that is now about 5 feet high, and probably measures 8’x6’ inside.
My kids are 8 and almost 6 – the oldest kid who works on this is about 10. When I wander back with parents coming to collect their children for dinner or bedtime, it feels a bit Lord of the Flies back there. I am on edge the entire time I’m back in the woods, waiting for one of the kids to get hurt. We’ve had lots of bruises and scrapes, and one set of sutures from playing out there.
I went out and raided their stash of discarded bottles, which they’d gathered as “treasure.” I was trying to make it safer (and less disgusting) but they were all so upset. I insisted, and threw away two large, heavy garbage bags full of several decades’ worth of bottles and cans.
But how safe can the woods ever be? How safe do I want them to be?
They’ve been scratched by the wall of wild raspberry bushes. They’ve found a dead squirrel that upset them. Once, during the winter, they found that a large bird of prey was squatting in their “fort,” and they ran home screaming in terror, and laughing. They are learning things out there that I can’t teach them in here.

Out there my daughter doesn’t suck her thumb. My boys are treated as equals by the older children. My youngest, not yet 4, is encouraged to help drag branches. She is valued and included in something “cool” and almost secret. And out there, the kids seem to be able to settle arguments that would require my mediation, were I within earshot. The fort is a collaborative project that makes them feel empowered and mature.
Meanwhile, I worry. Of course. I could list my worries, but it would be counter to my point which is that we probably ought to let our kids be wild and get hurt a little and build hideous forts that attracts buzzards to the woods behind our homes. They are steeping in the mud and leaves and wild onions, and that has to be good for helping them to respect the green spaces they find, when they find them.
Don’t forget to comment – you’ll be entered to win Abbie’s giveaway! How do you encourage your kids to get their hands dirty? How do you balance your worries about safety with their desire to explore?

Day 45: green cooking -the making of a solar oven (guest blogger)

Please welcome Amber, a friend of mine from college, to the blog! 

I’m so excited to be guest blogging here at Greening Sam and Avery!  While we are avid recyclers at my house I would not exactly call my family “green”.  I use way too many paper products (plates, napkins, paper towels, etc) to make my life a bit easier and to limit the number of times I have to run the dishwasher or wash dishes by hand every day.  The point of me telling you all of this is because Abbie continually inspires me to try to become more green and teach my children more about the earth which they are lucky enough to inhabit.  My parents live on a farm so my children (5 and 1 ½) are exposed to that environment, but I want to teach them more about the surroundings in our day-to-day life. 

While looking for a project to do with my kids I wanted to stay true to things we like to do, but just do them in a different way.  I came across a solar oven project that seemed a perfect fit for my family.  My daughter (5) loves to make/build things and food is always popular in this house, so I gathered the supplies and we set out making our oven.  A very simple list of supplies: black poster board, cardboard box, tinfoil, scissors, hot glue.

I cut the poster board in half lengthwise and glued the ends together and covered one side with tinfoil. (I hot glued the tinfoil to the poster board)

Put a piece of poster board at the bottom of the cardboard box.  Roll the tinfoil covered piece into a cone/circular shape and stick in the cardboard box with the tinfoil facing in.

Our oven looks different than the picture on the website, but we just went with it!  Brianna set out putting together s’mores.  The direction said to put the s’mores in a plastic bag, but in trying to be environmentally friendly we put ours on a dark plate and put them inside the oven.

We put the oven out on our deck and set the timer for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes the chocolate was really melted, but the marshmallows were not (the marshmallows were a little dried out).  We waited another 20 minutes.  This part was hard for Brianna, all of the waiting, but I tried to explain to her what was happening and how the sun was cooking the s’mores.  She sort of understood how it worked, but in her 5 year old mind, she just wanted to eat the s’mores.  After 40 minutes we removed the s’mores.  The chocolate was very melted and messy and the marshmallows did melt finally.  The finish product was enjoyed by the harshest of critics.

The messy details: I found the instructions for the oven at Great Green Science Projects for Kids.  If I were to do this again, I would get an oven thermometer to find out exactly how hot the oven gets, I might also try to find another type of oven that maybe has a lid to keep the heat in more.  All-in-all a great project for my kiddos and good tool for discussions about different ways we can use the sun for energy.

Day 44: our week away

We are currently getting ready to get on a plane! My husband and I are headed with his family for an amazing boat trip around the british virgin islands.  They are all ocean lovers, snorkelers and divers and so this is the trip of a lifetime because they will be able to do those activities several times every day. 

I, however, am terrified of the ocean.  I just don't like the idea of being eaten and can't get over the idea that there are things living in that water that I can't see and can't control that might want to eat me. 

But even with the fact that I may not put one toe in the ocean I am still very excited about this KID FREE week long trip!  That's right, my girls are staying with Grandma and Pawpaw for the week.  We can not thank them enough!

I plan on spending the week reading a ton of books, getting a great tan, eating amazing food, playing adult card games, relaxing, catching up on sleep and just having alone time.  It will be fabulous. 

But I won't have much internet access.

SO for the next week my blog is going to be taken over by guest bloggers!  I have a great line up of amazing moms with some really neat ideas to share.  There will also be updates from my family as to what my girls are up to.  AND throughout the week I will be running my first GIVEAWAY! 

That's right there is a GIVEAWAY!  The folks at Acorn Naturalists very generously sent me a great box of goodies for me to test out and give away to my readers.  I am SO excited about this.  I have bought supplies from them for camps and programs that I have worked in the past and they have incredible stuff. 

Here is the plan/guidelines for the giveaway: 

Over the next few days I will post my reviews for several of the items that will be the prizes, so you will have to stay tuned to learn about those.  Throughout the week there will be lots of guest bloggers.  For each guest post you can leave one comment and in return will get one entry into the drawing for the prize (the prize will have THREE great nature themed and educational toys). So each new guest blogger is another chance to win (one comment per post).  PLUS you can get one extra chance to win by going to the Acorn Naturalists website and taking a look.  Come back here and leave a comment at any point throughout the week about an item that you liked on their site!  Lots of chances to win. 

I really hope you will all stick around with me this week to see what these amazing women have to share.  

And I am hoping to be able to occasionally tweet about the trip and what I am up to. So if you are interested to see how you spend a week on the ocean without actually getting in the ocean follow me on twitter! (alenlund)

Day 38: squirrel tightrope (guest blogger)

So Abbie is gone all day today, working an overnight program for a Boy Scout group.  Since she had to leave at 7am this morning she asked me to fill in for her for the day.  So be prepared, that means you have the B team today  and Dad has to fill in.  Hopefully I can live up to her standards. 

She left me with a few easy options to take it easy on me, but I figured since I got the whole day to myself and it was my only real responsibility for the weekend that I would take a shot at an actual project.  I decided that we would set up a Squirrel tightrope in hopes that we could watch a squirrel or two. 

So for this project I needed a long rope or twine, some string, and a bunch of peanuts.  Sam and I sat at the kitchen table and she began helping me pick out which peanuts we wanted to use for the squirrels. 

 

I had her help me and showed her where on the string to put the peanut and then I would tie the peanut to one end of it.  She really enjoyed this part, but really didn’t like it when I had to tell her that certain peanuts wouldn’t work.  Obviously Sam wasn’t able to really help tie the peanuts, but I think all the projects Abbie has been doing with her gets her really excited to help and try something new.  She hung in there a lot better than I expected.

 

After we had tied all the peanuts to the strings it was time to tie the strings onto the twine.  This is when she officially checked out and left me to finish the job.  “Ok dadda, I’m all done.  It’s your turn now.”

After I had finished tying all the peanuts to the twine, I called Sam over and we headed outside get it all set up.  We don’t have many trees in our backyard, so instead of tying it between two trees I set up to tie one end to the climbing wall on our swingset.  My mistake for the day (it was guaranteed to happen) was having Sam carry out the tightrope.  Not sure that I could have avoided this either, but once I got it out there it was a tangled mess.  Can you see the spot that really annoyed me?  I took this picture right before Sam decided to pull....just perfect!

 

I would strongly suggest that if you want to do this to avoid having to move it once you get it put together.  Maybe tie the strings to the twine/rope once you are out in the yard.  Sam played in the yard as I spent some time detangling the strings.  Sam loved helping me to hang it and thought it was so funny that I was tying it to the swingset.  

The final touch to try to get the squirrels to notice it was also Sam’s favorite part.  I had brought out a couple extra peanuts and we got to crush them and spread them out under the tightrope.  We have been monitoring the backyard off and on all afternoon waiting to see if any squirrels decide to give it a go.  So far we haven't had any takers, but we really don't have a lot of squirrels around either.  Maybe there will be some tomorrow.

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The Nitty Gritty!

This idea came from one of Abbie's books: Fun with Nature Take-Along Guide.  It really is a pretty simple project, and I bet it would have been a lot of fun if we had a lot of squirrels in our neighborhood.  Obviously with older children they can be more involved, but Samantha really enjoyed being a part of this one.