Eco Child’s Play

What’s the scariest thing for a parent about Halloween?

Watching your children get hammered with a sugar buzz, a candy overdose, and a sick stomach.

Help to prevent your kids from eating too much Halloween candy with these 12 parenting tips:

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I used to love the foil wrapped chocolate gold coins when I was a child.  I don’t know why I thought they were so cool, but I coveted them.  I was recently sent an email from a friend warning parents not to let their children consume chocolate gold coins, because they contain melamine.  Snopes.com checked it out, and the Pirate coins have been recalled in Canada.

Melamine is has been found in Chinese milk powder and is responsible for kidney stones in infants.  Although melamine is considered nontoxic in low doses, it is described as, “Harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Chronic exposure may cause cancer or reproductive damage. Eye, skin and respiratory irritant.”  The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued the following warning on melamine in chocolate coins: Read the rest of this entry »

As the daughter of a dentists and a proponent of healthy eating, I have a reputation. I’m the mom who doesn’t buy her kid candy.

Nope.

I

Don’t

OK. So you don’t think I’m absolutely draconian, He does get candy in his Easter basket, I do let him eat a piece or two at birthday parties and yes, grandma, grandpa and even my DH buy him candy.

But I don’t.

You see, I grew up that way. We didn’t have candy in the house. Candy was something for holidays, other people’s houses and, of course, Halloween (though we gave out apples instead of candy to the disappointed trick-or-treaters that appeared at our door).

So Halloween’s a tough holiday for me. I cringe when I see the shear amount of candy he ends up consuming between Halloween parties, school events and even the candy bowl that magically appears at many of the stores we frequent around this time of year.

This time of year finds me furiously brushing his teeth and hoping for the best. Over time though, I’ve found a few tricks that seem to help reduce the amount of unrefined sugar he ingests.

1. Good Deeds Begin at Home – This year, instead of buying a bag of commercial candy treats consider giving out small toys instead. The dollar store often has trinkets that won’t upset your green soul too much – like chalk, crayons and notepads. If you tend not to get too many trick-or-treaters at your door, consider spending a bit more and buying little wooden toys or if you really must give out candy, make it organic.

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Even if you have not really thought about it yet, going green this Halloween is an easy and sustainable exercise. To make it even easier for you, I have put together this cheat sheet of Top 10 Green Halloween posts that were created in the last month. Have a wonderfully green holiday!

1. Eco-Libris: Book review of ‘Celebrate Green!’ (or: how to green Halloween)

This post was originally published on Eco-Libris blog on October 27th.

2. How To Have A Green Halloween

This post was originally published on the Green Gorilla blog on October 27th.

3. Go Green This Halloween: 5 Spooky Kids’ Crafts

This post was originally published on Eco Child’s Play on October 20th. Read the rest of this entry »

This post was originally published on Eco-Libris blog on October 27.

We’re back with our beloved Monday’s green books series, and today we’re celebrating! Our book today is:

“Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations & Traditions for the Whole Family” by Corey Colwell-Lipson & Lynn Colwell

Few weeks ago we announced here on our collaboration with the authors (buyers of the book on the Celebrate Green! website are offered to plant a tree with their copy of Celebrate Green!) and today we’re happy to review the book and to give away one copy of it.

I read quite a few guides for green living in the last year or so, but this is the first guide I know that is focused on holidays and celebrations. Why? the authors explain: “the reason it’s important to green up our celebrations is that holidays and special days are plentiful…holidays and special days don’t happen on one day only in one place; they occur throughout the year in homes, schools, and places of work across the globe.” (p. 20) Read the rest of this entry »

Diwali, India’s Festival Of Light, is the largest and most important holiday for the global Indian community. It is a time when the entire family gets together to participate in wellness traditions and festivities that hark back to the days of ancient India. Diwali is especially wonderful for kids.

Diwali celebrates light as a source of inner strength. A row of glittering clay lamps is lit up on the darkest night of the month to awaken the power of our inner light. Kids are taught this concept from a very young age. It is also a time when they wear traditional clothing and participate in festivity for a stretch of five days. A national holiday in India, schools are closed and people travel to their native towns for family reunions. The day after Diwali marks the first day of the Indian business year. Read the rest of this entry »

For years now I have been thinking about ways to lessen the excess and mass marketing culture that has been a trademark of the American Christmas season. Last Christmas, I wrote about ways to green your Christmas, and buy less stuff. When you think about the facts, it is truly appalling: Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Americans produce an extra 2 billion pounds of garbage PER WEEK. And how about this one (I am guilty as charged-) enough holiday cards are sold every Christmas season to fill a ten story football stadium. And one of my favorite ones, which lets me know how important purchasing natural, U.S. made wooden toys is: If every child under six received a quality wood toy instead of a plastic one, 17 million tons of plastic in the landfill would be spared.

You’ll find those facts in the new book, Green Christmas: How to Have a Joyous, Eco-Friendly Holiday Season by Jennifer Basye Sander and Peter Sander with Anne Basye. This little book is packed with ideas for how to have a less stressful, more meaningful and altogether greener holiday this year.
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Halloween is almost upon us, then it’ll be over in a flash. But before Halloween goes into hiding until next year make one more fun, green Halloween craft to your collection. This time make it out of small yogurt containers and black craft foam. It’ll make you go batty, but it’ll be worth it.

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Just because we enjoy an all natural (free of preservatives, colors and flavors) diet, doesn’t mean we can’t have a bit of candy every now and then.  

With Halloween nearly upon us, I have stocked up on better candy options.  When the kids come home from Trick or Treating, we will trade out their candy.  The collected candy will then be sent to the U.S. Military. Read the rest of this entry »

Because I love encouraging my kids to be creative, Halloween becomes another excuse to get them to make some great artwork that I will invariably want to put on display for the rest of the year. Best of all, there is more than enough in the way of recycled materials to use as raw materials for their artwork.

Here are my kids’ five of my favorite Halloween activities this year:

Green Monster Mask

Make a scary green monster mask from bits and scraps left lying around the house. In addition to what is described in the how-to, I like the idea of using an egg carton for scary teeth. Go here for complete details. Read the rest of this entry »