Eco Child’s Play

Orion Magazine featured a wonderful article titled “Leave No Child Inside” by Richard Louv in the latest online edition. Louv has written a book called Last Child in the Woodsabout saving our children from “nature-deficit disorder”. According to Louv, “Within the space of a few decades, the way children understand and experience their neighborhoods and the natural world has changed radically. Even as children and teenagers become more aware of global threats to the environment, their physical contact, their intimacy with nature, is fading. As one suburban fifth grader put it to me, in what has become the signature epigram of the children-and-nature movement: “I like to play indoors better ’cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are.”
His desire is not at all uncommon. In a typical week, only 6 percent of children ages nine to thirteen play outside on their own. Studies by the National Sporting Goods Association and by American Sports Data, a research firm, show a dramatic decline in the past decade in such outdoor activities as swimming and fishing. Even bike riding is down 31 percent since 1995. In San Diego, according to a survey by the nonprofit Aquatic Adventures, 90 percent of inner-city kids do not know how to swim; 34 percent have never been to the beach. In suburban Fort Collins, Colorado, teachers shake their heads in dismay when they describe the many students who have never been to the mountains visible year-round on the western horizon.
Urban, suburban, and even rural parents cite a number of everyday reasons why their children spend less time in nature than they themselves did, including disappearing access to natural areas, competition from television and computers, dangerous traffic, more homework, and other pressures”
A movement has been born to correct “nature-deficit disorder”. I feel blessed to raise my children in the mountains, where we discover the wonders of nature around us on our daily hikes. Just this week we saw a green tree frog, a dead sparrow hawk, and a trillium making its first spring appearance.

Easter is a time for renewal and prayers, as spring erupts around us. This year, my children will be receiving Tibetan Prayer Flagsin their Easter baskets. Hanging the flags around our garden has become a tradition in our family. The prayer flags are beautiful and an easy way to create merit. Every time the wind blows, our positive thoughts for the earth and its creatures are dispersed throughout the cosmos. Hanging prayer flags in honor of deceased loved ones, including pets, has also become a family tradition. My favorite place to purchase prayer flags online is through Tibetan Treasures, which is based at a nearby gompa. In addition, Tibetan Treasures is a great resource for children’s books.

When my first child started to crawl, a friend gave me a used pair of Robeez shoes/slippers. I quickly fell in love with these natural, leather shoes for babies. I wanted my child to be able to keep her socks on during the cold winter months, but I didn’t want her in hard sole shoes. I believe that growing feet should be allowed to grow naturally, not conforming to a shoemaker’s idea about how the foot should be structured. Robeez allow your child’s foot to grow naturally, as if the child was barefoot (which is what I advocate in warm months). Without Robeez, my daughter’s socks would not stay on. I tried other leather and wool booties, but they would also fall off her feet. Robeez solved the problem, and both of my kids wore them well into toddlerhood. Here’s the story behind Robeez, “Sandra set out to handcraft a pair of brightly colored, soft-soled leather shoes for young Robert. She was pleased to discover that the shoes seemed to improve his balance, because the soft soles allowed him to “feel” the floor while he toddled about. Sandra decided to name the shoes after her son. “Robeez” shoes were born.” Robeez now offers gift collections and clothing to match their cute booties!

Have you ever wondered what families in third world countries or far back in history did for diapers? I have until I received the National Resource Defence Council’s “This Green Life” in my inbox. In North America, we assume diapers are a normal part of infancy and toddlerhood, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Having a diaperless babe works like this, “The method goes by a variety of names: elimination communication, natural infant hygiene and infant potty training, though the last is spurned by many who say there is no training involved. Whatever it’s called, it boils down to this: the parent looks for the signals (hand-clenching, grunting, squirming, a look of inner concentration, etc.) that the baby regularly shows in advance of having to go, then takes the infant to the pot, sink or potty, and makes a special “cuing” noise — for instance, “sss” — to signal back that it’s ok to proceed. Soon the baby makes the association. The family now has a communication system that can be used to avoid messes most of the time”, according to “This Green Life” writer Sheryl Eisenberg. Furthermore, she equates it to potty training a puppy. I find this idea very interesting, but it is too late for our toddler. If you are a diapering family, cloth diapers are a good solution. We also use Seventh Generation disposables (or landfill diapers as my midwife calls them) for overnight (I got tired of pee on my sheets) and trips.
For more information read:
A Culture Without Diapers
Diaperless Babies Seen as Earth-Friendly Solution
Kid Commando

There is reason to be concerned about toys made in China, which is most of the toys in the world market. According to news reports in India (US news agencies have failed to pick up on the story), 20% of toys made in China are unfit for children. Quality tests revealed industrial waste and gauze discarded by hospitals in toys made in China! This is an improvement from 25% of toys made in China that were found unfit last year.

Many of my friends boycott products made in China due to human rights violations in Tibet. I am not sure that buying products made in the US gives the consumer a clear conscious. There is no guarantee that just because a product was made in the US that the workers were paid living wages and received health care benefits. In addition, the US’s record on human rights violations is not clean. Watch the Ghosts of Abu Ghraib for a deplorable example of US torture and violations of the Geneva Convention. Buying from green companies, no matter their location, usually guarantees that ethical considerations are part of the manufacturing process.

For more information on unfit Chinese toys, click the links below:
NewKerala.com
zeenews.com

This is a follow up post to “One Love“, as we have made our B is for Bob inspired t-shirts. Using Adobe Photoshop, I created the images to be printed on the shirts; however, any word processing program could be used. In the previous post, I mentioned the print needed to be flipped for it to appear correctly on the shirt. This step is not necessary for the HP iron-on paper, but it is neccessary for some brands of iron transfer paper. The HP paper allows you to iron the image on without flipping it. After the image is pasted/inserted into a document and sized, the text is added. Next, using your ink jet printer, print the image. Follow the directions in the package of iron paper to peel away the backing, use a thin piece of tissue paper transfer paper on top, and then iron the image onto the shirt. Voila, you have your own custom made t-shirt! The children and parents of my preschool were so excited for their personal name shirts. These shirts are great for teaching name recognition, phonemic awareness, and letter recognition. Research supports the use of a child’s name to introduce them to alphabetic principles. A child is motivated to learn the letters and the sounds of their name, as well as the names of their friends and families. Using a child’s name to teach these skills is an authentic task, rather than the arbitrary letter of the week task of my own early childhood education.

Given all the latest information about lead in children’s lunchboxes, I became worried about my daughter’s backpack. Her backpack, obviously bought by Grandma and adored by my daughter, is made by a very commercial company (Disney) that targets children through character promotion (princesses). Since it has some vinyl on it, I wondered if it also contained lead like certain vinyl lunchboxes. I bought this home lead test kit at our local hardware store (I laugh when I use the word local to describe a hardware store two hours away) to do our own experiment. The test kit is very easy to use. A few drops of water is applied to a pad, then the surface of the backpack is gently rubbed for a couple of minutes. The results: her backpack is lead-free. We are relieved by the results, but I do wonder if lead is present in other vinyl products designed for children.

My daughter purchased the Easy-to-do Ballerina Doll Making Kit at a museum gift shop. Over the weekend, we assembled her doll. This was a great activity for us to do together. The doll making kit comes with everything you need to assemble your doll, and the directions are easy to follow. The doll body is made of unbleached muslin fabric; however, I am sure the inside filling is polyester. The other materials are a combination of synthetic and natural fibers, so I am not sure if the Easy-to-do Ballerina Doll Making Kit fully qualifies as a natural toy. The kit is rated for children five and above; however, the fine motor skills required to assemble the doll would be difficult for a kindergartner to do alone. The two-sided tape was especially difficult to peel. My daughter did apply glue, wrap the yarn for the hair, and peel the tape. Even though she was unable to do more of the construction, it was still a great experience. The doll is highly cherished.

March 12, 2007 – Letter from Steve Wasik, President, SIGG USA:

On March 9th, it was brought to my attention that a website sponsored by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) made mention that SIGG bottles contain plastic liners with bisphenol A (BPA).

I can assure you that SIGG bottles are absolutely not made with a plastic liner and are in fact lined with a proprietary non-toxic, water-based resin which has been refined over decades of study and is extremely safe & stable.

Based on the confidence we have in our product backed by numerous laboratory studies, we questioned the EWG and requested that they provide us with the testing they have conducted on SIGG – or alternatively to remove the “SIGG” mention from their website if they have not tested SIGG. Within 24 hours of this request, the EWG removed SIGG’s name from their report.

Unfortunately, in the meantime this message was picked up by a few other websites, one of those being The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and their newsletter Organic Bytes. When we questioned the OCA on their mention of SIGG, this is the emailed response we received:

“We made a mistake. Sigg bottles do not contain BPAs… it was read wrong and there was confusion. Apologies about this.” - Member Services, OCA

As you may know, the BPA issues surrounding Lexan plastic bottles (polycarbonate #7) involve the migration of chemicals from the plastic into the contents of the bottles. On the other hand, SIGG bottles have been thoroughly tested in Europe to ensure 0% leaching of any substance - no trace of BPA, BPB or any phthalates.

“According to the results of our evaluation, use of a SIGG bottle does not add to the beverage any particles and/or components which are innocuous to human health.” – Dr. Ulrich Nehring, European Institute Nehring

We understand the controversy and concern surrounding BPA leaching from plastic water bottles and can assure you that SIGG bottles are leach-free and 100% safe. We are upset about the misinformation which has circulated and are working feverishly to clear the good name of SIGG.

Thank you for your continued support and trust in SIGG.

Steve Wasik
President
SIGG USA

ReusableBags.com offers these unique stainless steel food containers made by Timolino. The Kapsule Vacuum Jar comes in a variety of sizes, and the canister is air tight! According to ReusableBags.com ,”Safe, stylish and very reasonably priced, the 10 oz Stainless Steel Vacuum Food Jars will keep food and beverages hot for up to 3 hours or cold for up to 5 hours using state-of-the-art vacuum chamber technology. A safe alternative to reusable plastic containers, the 10 oz Stainless Steel Vacuum Food Jar stainless steel construction will not leak harmful chemicals and is neutral to taste and smell. As plastic degrades through aging and wear & tear of washing, leaching of potentially harmful chemicals increases. Stainless steel is also 100% recyclable, meaning less waste in our landfills. In fact, over 50% of new stainless steel comes from old re-melted stainless steel scrap.” Unfortunately, this product is made in China, but we are assured by ReusableBags.com that “The 10 oz Stainless Steel Vacuum Food Jars are manufactured in a certified factory partnered with The Walt Disney Company. Adhering to high International Labor Standards, the factory is annually monitored by auditors to ensure its compliance with The Walt Disney Company’s business and ethics standards, including child labor laws and applicable environmental regulations.”

My daughter took macaroni and cheese with kale for lunch in her Kapsule Vacuum Jar. She found it very easy to use and wants to take soup in it next. The Kapsule Vacuum Jar did make her lunch bag heavier, but that is a minimal trade off for food safety. Why pack your child a healthy, organic lunch, just to have the meal tainted by plastic. ReusableBags.com offers great alternatives to plastic food containers. Just type in “stainless steel vacuum jar” in the search box at ReusableBags.com to find this great product.