Eco Child’s Play

BBC Scotland is leveraging kids’ pension for codes, clues, missions and 007-style in a fun little interactive for young kids 7-9 called The Environmental Intelligence Unit.

In classic “the world needs your help” secret agent mode, the game puts the child in ‘action-hero’ context to take on traffic, pollution and rubbish aligned with the three R’s of reduce, reuse, recycle.

It’s a pretty basic primer to seed core concepts in sustainability, but definitely age appropriate, incorporating factoids and video clips as kids become environmental agents on a mission to ‘find the missing R.’ (spoiler alert: the teacher’s page will fill you in on what that “R” is!)

There are four island missions (house, clear out, school, beach) and if kids engage in all four to obtain the right code words they can receive a final Eco Certificate. (hmnn…I know this is geared more for ‘reach and teach’ tactics, but I could think of some more creative/green awards that might be a better fit than a printout! So ping me, BBC, the idea hamster here will give you some freebie creative director ideas!) Read the rest of this entry »

For 12 years, I have been a teacher at a very small school (7-25 students, grades K-8) in northern California.  I have never felt unsafe or threatened in my isolated community, so I was shocked to learn that teachers in a small town in Texas can carry guns to school.  With the increase of school shootings lately, this just seems ludicrous.  How can we tell students not to bring guns to school when their teachers can?

Harrold, Texas is a town of about 300 residents (70 more than my community). Harrold has become the first town to allow its teachers to bear arms.  School superintendent David Thweatt explains, “We are 30 minutes from law enforcement.  How long do you think it would take to kill all 150 of us? It would be a bloodbath.”  Of course, Harrold’s teachers will receive training in “crisis management”. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m glad someone is trying to do something about children not getting enough fresh air and outdoor time. I just read  mcmilker’s post about the No Child Left Inside campaign. I wish I had known about it sooner. I would have been promoting it, and sending information about it to my daughter’s elementary school.

McMonagle Elementary, part of the Westwood Heights School district in Michigan has cut daily recess from their curriculum. This is a school that houses K-5th grades. Those poor kids are going to be stuck inside all day unless their teachers take pity on them and take them outside for some fresh air. Read the rest of this entry »

We St Louis bloggers all know Mae Mason, otherwise known as  MuthaMae.  She’s the mother of a three who not only blogs, but video-blogs (vlogs) and produces her own online show, Word To Your Mutha.  Mae’s blog discuss all kinds of parenting and family issues in a lighthearted, humorous way, and in her latest show, she tackles how to instill the value of recycling in her four-year-old and two one-year-olds…when she doesn’t really recycle herself.  Best of all, she used Green Options to help her figure it out… Read the rest of this entry »

As The US House of Representatives votes on No Child Left Inside this week, this is your last chance to let your legislator know you want MORE funding for training teachers in outdoor education, MORE funding to expand environmental education programs and MORE programs to ensure that US graduates are environmentally literate.

You can write your representative directly and/or find out how she our he stands at the No Child Left Inside home page. With school budgets cut and the increased emphasis on teaching to the test, not much needed recess, this effort is needed now more than ever.

Jennifer Lance wrote about this effort back in May, but it bears repeating especially as the bill comes up for vote.

While Congress waits to vote, there’s an effort afoot to pass around this video to bring awareness to the issue, by adding this video to your blog. You can get the link on Youtube here.

Related Posts:

Can You Imagine Your Kids Going to School 4 Days a Week?

No Child Left Inside Video

Uniting Schools at Green California Schools Summit

With back-to-school in full swing, I know many of you have been packing healthy and tasty meals for your kids–or yourself!  Luckily, EcoChildsPlay is full of great tips on packing just those kind of lunches, whether it be recipes your kids will love, or containers you know are safe for your kids.  The folks over at Healthy Kitchenware are doing the same thing by featuring plastic-free products for your kitchen and lunches, including these stylish tiffin-style stainless-steel food carriers.  The best part?  You can win one!  Find out how, after the jump.

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I have opted out of traditional preschools for my three year old, instead choosing to bring preschool to her at home. Our plan for the year includes one letter a week (D’Nealian, as that is what our grade school teaches), plenty of outdoor activities, music, and environmentally sound crafts.

The first step in becoming more Earth Friendly is to consume less. In an attempt to do this, we will make supplies such as fingerpaints & playdough (if you don’t want to make your own, look for eco-friendly fingerpaints). We will reuse household items such as cardboard rolls & scrap paper. We will go on scavenger hunts to find rocks, leaves & bugs. We will make music with water in glass jars and drawing journals out of cereal boxes and recycled paper. The apples will be picked from the tree in our yard and flavored applesauce will be created and enjoyed for snack time. Read the rest of this entry »

In my experience, one of the hardest places to green our family’s life is our children’s school.  As a parent and a teacher at this school, I am constantly met with resistance when I suggest ways we can green our children’s education.  The excuses from lack of money to health regulations never cease, but I never stop trying.  Ironically, these excuses are actually reasons why schools should become more eco-friendly.  Green schools reduce sick days for staff and students, as well as cost 2% less to run, according to the Organic Consumer’s Association.  Here are five ideas to help you change your child’s school:

1. Start a the top with the school board: All policies for school districts are set by the board of trustees.  The administration takes their directives from the school board. If you can get the school board’s support, your schools will go green.  Compile a packet of information on the benefits of green schools and submit it to the board. You may look to other schools or states as models, such as New York requiring the use green cleaners, and New Jersey requiring all new schools be built according to LEED standards.   OCA also has materials available you could use, and Green Schools has a sample school board resolution.  Have parents write letters supporting these changes (letters are more effective than petitions).  Request to have an agenda item listed, then organize a presentation with parents asking the board to adopt a green schools policy or resolution.
2. Work your way down the school’s hierarchy: If you can’t get support from the school board, go to the site’s principal.  If you can’t get the principal’s support, go to your child’s teacher, etc.  Don’t forget the teachers’ union, as they may include in their contract negotiations a reduction in chemical exposure, etc. 

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Even though I spend a lot of time championing the outdoors as the ultimate green play time, greening kids’ minds with environmental stewardship happens online daily.

From greening your electronics to green gaming and havens for the budding naturalist, there are plenty of online to offline bridges to walk if you put on the right hiking shoes.

I love kid-lit and fabulous tree tales like A Forest of Stories and The Giving Tree is still my favorite book of all time…but paper free, online media like Dizzywood’s virtual world of collaborative play prove eco-literacy can transpire on a screen too…In Web 2.0 live-chat, 3-D immersive, fun!

Last week at the massive Virtual Worlds Expo in L.A., Dizzywood’s virtual critters and cuties turned some heads learning that kids’ reforestation efforts online enabled 15,000 REAL trees to be planted off line, thanks to their eco-partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation! Created for preteens 8-12 and Privo  Safety Seal tested with accolades out the wazoo, Dizzywood is thankfully, NOT an anomaly…Check out these OTHER eco-positive picks that prove green media is not an oxymoron! Read the rest of this entry »

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