Eco Child’s Play

Silk is a wonderful, natural fiber that inspires your child’s imagination. Silk Fantasy Bowers can be hung over a child’s bed or from the ceiling to create a nice, cozy, private space. Children love intimate places, and every child should have such a special place to retreat to when their emotions are strong. Magic Cabin offers many versions of the silk fantasy bower. The fabric is very light and not meant for rough and tumble play. My daughter has the rose bower. Because they are made of real silk, the Magic Cabin fantasy bowers are expensive. We found our silk rose bower at a local toy store 50% off, and it is made by Sarah’s Silks. I have seen cheaper versions of play bowers on ebay and other sites; however, these bowers are not made of silk but polyester. If you want you child to be surrounded by natural materials, the silk bower is for you!

Our good friends’ daughter attends the Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School in Wisconsin. The school is sponsoring a Good Energy Raffle. The grand prize is a hybrid car or solar power system or solar/wind power system for any home/person in the US. Each raffle ticket is $50. At first, I thought the raffle ticket’s price was very expensive, then I realized the school is limiting the number of tickets sold to 2,060 tickets. These are good odds for winning your own alternative energy system or hybrid car valued at $23,000. Please click here to buy raffle tickets (if you live in Wisconsin). If you live outside of Wisconsin, please contact steve@thekickapoo.net to buy raffle tickets.

I am always fascinated by watching a young child discover the properties of gravity. I remember one grocery store experience, where my daughter repeatedly dropped things from her seat in the cart to the floor. She thought it was very entertaining to watch Mommy pick it up and kept repeating the activity. As we were standing in line to check out, a woman noticed my frustration. She said to me, “Isn’t it wonderful she is exploring gravity!” This kind woman’s perspective helped change my attitude from one of annoyance to one of amazement. Any toy that allows your child to discover gravity will be popular in your home, and the Rainbow Roller made by Alex is a wonderful natural toy. I have seen several different versions of the Rainbow Roller in various Montessori catalogues, but we have the one made by Alex (it can be purchased through Amazon or Magic Cabin). The brightly colored Rainbow Roller is aesthetically pleasing and made of environmentally friendly rubberwood. It comes with two single cars and one double car. The Rainbow Roller is rated for children three and above because of the small wooden wheels on the car; however, my son has been playing with this toy since he was one. Hearthsong offers a larger version of this toy.

I saw this video on Green Parenting and found its message very powerful and moving. I forwarded it to many of my friends and family members. Even the Bush supporters were moved by the message and signed the petition. To me, raising an eco-child is more than providing natural toys, but teaching love, compassion, and tolerance for all of earth’s creatures.

ReusableBags.com offers yet another excellent alternative to vinyl lunch bags. The Acme Organic Cotton Canvas Lunch Bag is a simple, affordable option for lead-free lunches. The organic unbleached cotton bag is surprisingly roomy, fitting my daughter’s entire lunch and snack for the day in it. The only drawback to the Acme Organic Cotton Canvas Lunch Bag is the relationship between the handle and velcro closure. My daughter found that when she carried the bag by it’s single strap, it caused the velcro closure on the top of the bag to open. In addition, the handle seems undersized for heavy lunch contents. Despite these drawbacks, I really like this organic lunch bag. It reminds me of the paper sacks of my youth in its simplicity, and it is perfect if you do not need an insulating bag. And thankfully, the organic fabric is not covered in promotions for corporate character’s targeted at children. Fair labor and wages are used in the manufacturing of this bag. The bag is machine washable with a drip dry. ReusableBags.com offers a deal of buy 3, get one free! At $6.95 a piece, it is easy to afford an organic lunch bag for everyone in the family.

“It is not possible to tell by appearance whether a vinyl lunch box may contain lead, so CEH is advising parents to avoid vinyl lunch boxes altogether. “Parents may need to seek out alternatives, since many mass produced lunch boxes are vinyl or vinyl-lined… a reusable cloth bag would be a good alternative.” – Center for Environmental Health

Click here for more of our posts on lead-free lunch bags.

Automoblox has combined design and function to create these super cool wooden cars with minimal plastic parts. Is it a car? Is it a puzzle? Automoblox cars come apart, and the parts are interchangeable. We have had our red Automoblox sport coupe (designed by Callelo) for a year, and both of my children love to play with it. The little plastic people have different shapes on their bottoms that insert into the car seats, furthering the puzzle experience. The people and tire treads do pose choking hazards, thus the Automoblox cars are rated for children over three years of age; however, we allow our two year old son to play with his. If your child has moved beyond the oral exploration stage, the toy is safe for use with supervision. Another bonus is there are not too many parts to get lost around the house when the Automoblox is disassembled. Unfortunately, the product is assembled in China for sale. Automoblox’s creator had several bad experiences and was lied to about the conditions of Chinese factories during initial production. For more information about Callelo’s experience bringing his idea to market, click here.

For Automoblox coloring pages, please click here.
For an Automoblox video, please click here.

With the news of lead in lunchbags and bpa risks in baby bottles and sippy cups, I have been wondering who and what the Consumer Product Saftey Commission (CPSC) is. The CPSC is an “independent” agency of the US federal government, meaning it does not exist within any department in the Executive branch; however, the president appoints commissioners. The Commission is normally made up of three commissioners, but one seat has been vacant since July 2006. My friend Tim alerted me to the issue that the commission can no longer act with just two commissioners. Bush proposes to appoint Michael E. Baroody to the CPSC. Baroody is the chief lobbyist for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), a powerful trade group that opposes aggressive product safety regulation. What a logical choice for the agency that protects American consumers from unsafe products! The CPSC can still issue recall alerts in this “semi-neutered status“,but it can not impose fines on companies that violate the laws. I can’t help but wonder if the lacksadaisical attitude of the CPSC regarding lead in lunch bags and bpa in baby bottles and sippy cups is related to the commission’s current status and direction from the president. Thank goodness for truly independent groups that test these products!

For more information visit:
Z Recommends for information on recalls
Consumer Reports
Wikipedia
Our previous posts on lead in children’s toys and lunchbags (including alternative products)
Safe sippy cups and BPA risks in bottles and toys.

When I alerted my friend Laura of the Bar 717 Ranch Children’s Camp to the lead in lunchbag issue, she found a great company ReusableBags.com, offering a critically acclaimed line of reusable shopping bags plus a growing family of smart, earth-friendly products all designed to help you reduce, reuse and save. ReusableBags.com offers many lead free lunch boxes, as well as great products such as Klean Kanteen and Sigg water bottles and sippy cups. ReusableBags.com graciously sent Eco Child’s Play some sample products. On Friday, we tested the Cool Totes Insulated Lunch Bag, available in many great patterns for children and adults. The Cool Tote Insulated Lunch Bag is made from Therma Tek insulation, which is made from recycled soda bottles! There is a velcro closure if you chose the shoulder strap model or a buckel closure for the backpack model. Included with the Cool Totes Insulated Lunch Bag is a non-toxic reusable freezer pack that has its own pocket inside the Cool Tote bag. Personally, I don’t like these freezer packs, as I don’t know what they are made of and if they should puncture, this mysterious nontoxic liquid would get all over your lunch. However, if you really needed to keep you lunch cold, this system would work great. In our experience, the Cool Totes lunch bag is so well insulated, that the freezer pack was not neccessary. We tested the medium insulated lunch bag, and it was a tight squeeze to fit my daughter’s lunch in the bag. I would suggest buying the large sized Cool Tote’s Insulated Lunch Bag. Another great characteristic of Cool Totes is the bags are made in the United States, workers are paid fair wages, and fair labor practices are used. Cool Totes is an ethical company. Thank you ReusableBags.com!

For more information on lead-free lunch bags, please click here.
Please visit our other posts on lead in children’s products.

Pack a meal with our colorful range of lunch bags for kids, teens & adults. From lead-safe lunch bags to handy food containers & sandwich bags, to cool insulated lunch sacks, we offer a smart style for everyone.

Living in a family of all girl children, my access to typical “boy” toys was limited to other people’s houses. One of my early childhood memories is playing with my best friend’s brother’s plastic parking garage. I loved working the elevator and letting gravity pull the cars down the ramps. When I saw a wooden version of the parking garage, I had to buy if for my son’s birthday. Actually, my daughter was the one that found it and really wanted it for herself. She tried to convince her dad to build her one.

Wheel Town Parking Garage is available through Hearthsong for about $60. Made of wood, this natural toy replicates the plastic version of the toy. The Wheel Town Parking Garage has three different levels and comes with a working elevator, helicopter pad (helicopter sold separately), gas pump island, one car, and a car wash. There is place where you can attach wooden railway or roadway tracks and expand the play. Additional accessories are available, such as a Wheel Town Fire Station and Wheel Town Gas Station. This natural toy is rated for children three and above, but as long as your child doesn’t place the car or gas pump nozzles in their mouth, I believe it can be used with younger children. There is not a day that goes by without my son playing with his Wheel Town Parking Garage. Unfortunately, our elevator does not work as smoothly as it did when the toy was new, but I am sure it is fixable (if I had the time to figure it out!)
HearthSong Best sellers

We spend a lot of time playing outside and having a beautiful, soft, green lawn is important to me. After many years of experimenting, I have figured out the best way to get an organic lawn: regular watering and Gardens Alive Lawns Alive! fertilizer. I have tried other organic fertilizers purchased from local gardening stores, but nothing competes with the beauty of a Garden’s Alive lawn. Gardens Alive makes several different fertilizers for your lawn. I use the Fall Lawns Alive! in the October and Spring Lawns Alive! in March. These fertilizers are specially designed with all natural ingredients that quick release and gradually release. Just two applications a year is all that is needed, compared to four or five applications a year with chemical fertilizers. I would not want my children or pets playing on a chemically fertilized lawn. Growing up, I remember seeing signs on chemically treated lawns warning people and pets (like pets can read) to stay off the lawn for 24 hours. What about the wild animals and run off from chemically treated lawns?

Gardens Alive offers many opportunties to save money on their organic products. If you join Gardens Alive’s Garden Solutions Club (formerly Stay Organic Club), you will receive 10% off your order. In addition, twice a year (at the perfect time for ordering your fertilizer), Gardens Alive offers $20 off your order of $40 or more. In my experience, this coupon pays for the shipping of the organic fertilizer, so ordering from Gardens Alive is no different then buying a lesser quality product locally. Gardens Alive’s catalogue is packed with very useful information, including a once a year pest solutions insert that is definitely a keeper.
For more information on the dangers of chemical lawn fertilizers and pesticides, please read:
COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT CHEMICAL LAWN CARE
Poison In The Grass: The Hazards And Consequences Of Lawn Pesticides
California Finds Lawn Chemical Dangerous to Health
You don’t need to use chemicals to have the perfect lawn!