Thank you to the Coonan family for sharing this story.

When all the calculations are tallied some adults believe it’s more environmentally friendly to use napkins made of paper, others think linen and still others believe organic cotton. But the fact still remains, that little Miss Coonan is right, she is saving trees by using a reusable napkin at home, at camp, in her school lunch, on a picnic, etc. instead of paper napkins.

According to the NRDC  if every household in the United States replaced just one package of virgin fiber napkins (250 count) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 1 million trees and if we replaced the recycled ones with cloth, look how many more trees we could save.

My favorite craft activity with kids is personalizing cloth napkins. They have a wonderful time drawing scenes and characters, they remember to bring their napkins and they learn and feel great about saving a tree and helping the environment.

What are some of your favorite eco crafts with kids?

Thank you to the Shein family for sharing this story.

You mean it’s green to eat everything on your plate or feed it to the worms?

I think back, I used to rid my plate of unwanted food via an under the table pass to my dog Frank, a fake sneeze into my napkin or I just smothered it in cheese, plugged my nose and chewed.

How eco cool is it to feed unfinished food waste to big squiggly red worms? VERY!

On school visits I always ask the children if they know about composting. Their stories and explanations are enchanting, eager and joyful; they are filled with scientific wonderment and eco conscious pride. Most hands shoot up immediately anxious to tell me, others shout out that their school is now composting and 9 out 10 children know bananas, coffee grounds and orange peel go in, but interestingly enough no one has ever mentioned broccoli.

When I received an email from the Shein parents, sharing their story about their twins asking, “mom, can the worms eat our broccoli for us?”I thought, how brilliant, kids have thought of a new “eco” way to ditch broccoli. I was curious too, will worms eat broccoli? What else will they eat? Should I ditch my old composting ways and get more “eco cool” and start a worm composter?

Composting and vermicomposting are great ways to reduce waste, teach nature’s life cycle, and provide nutritious soil for your garden and plants and think green!

Some facts:

• An average family of four produces 122 lbs. of garbage each month
• Americans throw away 25-30% of food we prepare
• America produces 96 billion pounds of food waste a year

Some links:

• EPA http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/organics/food/fd-basic.htm
• Have fun with the kids – http://www.sfenvironmentkids.org/teacher/lesson_plans/worm_diner.pdf
• For beginners – http://howtocompost.org

What else do worms like to eat?  Share some compost stories that will inspire others to start composting.

It has been a fun week, thank you for letting me share some green things the children say! Kids definitely understand big ideas and can encourage us (adults) to think green and improve our world.

Thank you to Timmy’s parents for sharing this story.

Day 1 – “Dad, did you know you should turn off the water when you brush your teeth? Because, you don’t want to waste our water”

Day 2 – “Dad, you know what I do, I turn off the water now when I brush my teeth and wash my hands” happily trying to positively encourage Dad.

Day 3 – “Dad, you know what my friend Alex told me? His Dad turns off the water when he brushes his teeth, isn’t that a good idea?” Assuming Dad would crack under peer pressure, the child is hopeful.

Days 4 & 5 – Dad is observed again, by the small shadow peeking in from the hallway, brushing his teeth, without turning off the faucet. No comments were made nor gentle reminders uttered, the shadow just made a face, shook its head and walked away, somewhat discouraged but not to be deterred

Day 6 – Dad enters his bathroom, but a little earlier than his regularly scheduled brushing time… The Dad smiled, thought he had escaped his smart, thoughtful and eco minded son, but as he reached down to turn on the faucet he noticed a book, politely propped open and a note on the side – “please read before brushing”. Dad picks up the book, reads the page:

“You got me!” Dad was surprised his son went to such lengths to encourage him to change his ways, he was also surprised his young son cared so much and was absolutely floored when he implemented the book strategy. He thought, well if my kid can turn off the water while he brushes his teeth, and Ashley does, and Alex’s Dad does… I guess I can too!

Some facts:

• Less than 1 percent of all the water on earth is available or clean enough to drink. The rest is salty or frozen.
• Every person in America uses about 160 gallons of water a day.
• Families turn on faucets about 70 times a day
• 2/3 of the water your family uses is used in the bathroom.
• Each person uses 2 gallons of water to brush their teeth (unless you turn off the faucet while you brush then you only use 3 cups)

Please read before brushing challenge, how many gallons can your family save a day, in a week and in a month?

Take 8 children between the ages of 4-7, canteens, mess kits, bathing suits, sleeping bags, a well chaperoned camp fire, hot dogs, corn & s’ mores, a lake (an unheated pool – go with me on this), a threat of a thunderstorm and what you have is Camp Laugh A Lot!

One of my favorite summer pleasures (inspired by Richard Louv and his book Last Child in the Woods) is to invite a few neighborhood kids to camp overnight in tents. No showers, no brushing teeth, no clocks, television, video games, organized sports or activities…just a backyard, bare bones camping experience.

Our campers played, as we did many moons ago; hide and seek, cops and robbers, tag, they picked flowers and decorated their “fort”, chased lightening bugs, went for intermittent swims, ate and at last retired to their tents well beyond their regularly scheduled bed times.

Just as they got settled, rain drops began to fall and off in the distance you could hear the rumblings of thunder.

Alone in my little one man tent, only steps away from the kids, I contemplated an evacuation plan.

I unzipped my tent, took three giant steps over to theirs and asked, “OK kids, looks like we have a storm, is everyone ok?” “Yeah!” shouted the crowd. “It’s raining pretty hard, is anyone getting wet?” “Yes, we are, only a little though” was the response from the littlest ones in the front by the screen door. With no requests to evacuate, I zipped all their flaps and retreated back to my tent, still a bit worried about my campers. I managed to lie still, as the rain picked up and the rain fly of my tent started contorting in the wind. For ten more minutes, I anxiously awaited the screams of “help I am a child, used to the indoors, electronic games, organized activities, a world void of bugs, creepy night noises and scary stories – GET ME OUT OF HERE!”, but no such shouts or pleas came.

Making one last attempt, I asked, “OK kids, it’s like a monsoon outside, some of you are getting wet, is anyone scared?” “NO!” was the unanimous response. Still I thought, better evacuate now rather than at 2am…again I said, “I think we should head inside!” Very disappointed, Camp Laugh A Lot would be washed out this year.

Then from the back of the tent, two big blue eyes popped up, stuffed bunny in hand and in a soft voice said “No thank you, I’m not going inside, this is what I came for.” Everybody agreed! I chuckled, realized I was probably over protecting, over projecting and over reacting…I finally left them alone, to tell their jokes, stories and enjoy their camping experience together. Not another peep was heard from the counselor nor the campers until dawn.

Happy campers, to evacuate or not? What are some of your kid camping stories?

I have the great privilege in my everyday life of sharing the gift of reading and environmental awareness messages with 3-8 year olds. I am always tickled by the ideas they have, impressed by the questions they ask and thrilled when I receive an email or phone call from parents letting me know the master plan to get all adults to think green, via their children, is working! Each day this week I wanted to share a child’s comment, view or observation with you coupled with some facts about the topic.

Please write me with your experiences as well.

Best to you,
Jeanine Behr Getz

“Mommy why is that person still using a plastic bag?”

When I was young my mother used to remind me not to stare, not say inappropriate things in public about people’s appearances, not to speak with strangers, along with a long list of additional manners and rules to live by. So imagine my surprise when my 5 year old asked me in a loud enough voice that all the nearby checkout lines at our local grocery store could hear, “mommy, why is that person still using a plastic bag?”…

Before I tell you what my reaction was, I have to share with you several plastic bag statistics:

• Plastic bags were introduced 25 years ago.
• The average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in only four trips to the grocery store.
• According to the EPA, U.S. consumes over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps each year.
• More than 1 million seabirds, 100,000 marine mammals, and countless fish die annually through ingestion of and entanglement in marine debris, including plastic bags.
• Less than 1% of all plastic bags get recycled in the U.S.

(Thank you Alex for sending me this wonderful video from across the pond)

…Well I stood still, in shock, mouth & eyes wide and a bit flush, questions running through my head, should I remind my daughter not to talk about other people’s appearances, like mother did? Should I let the person, who clearly heard her, answer? Should I hug my child and tell her how proud I am of her for noticing and knowing? Should I just pretend I didn’t hear a thing and ignore the situation? I had to think quickly and do the proper parenting and as it turned out… I didn’t have to say a word. A lovely man behind me quickly came to my rescue by saying, “look little girl I brought my own bag”, then his quick thinking prompted another person, one line over, to lift her bags high so my daughter could see them and then with great pride and camaraderie a swell of others held up their reusable bags as well for the 5 year old to see. She turned to me with a great big smile and said, “Wow, so there are more people thinking green here!” I smiled back, held her soft little hand and as we walked away assured her that we are all trying to change our habits, make a difference and think green!

I think the question is a reasonable one, do you?