GREENWASH ALERT!
Marcal Small Steps motto is “Paper from paper, not from trees”.
For over five decades, Marcal has been saving trees and reducing landfill by making its paper products from recycled paper. Marcal uses paper collected from curbs in residential neighborhoods in cities and towns across America; from the small blue baskets in office buildings, unwanted junk mail, and waste from printers; all in an effort to do something good.
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by Jennifer Lance on January 23, 2010 · 5 comments
Available from Essere Organics, this adorable collection of organic plush is truly natural. Made from certified organic cotton and an eco-friendly natural dye process, these are toys you will not worry about harming your child, besides they are truly delightful. Made by miYim, I really like the organic FairyTale knit collection.
Fairytale Knit Collection characters are soft and naturally colored with embroidered details and natural unprocessed/unbleached cotton filling. Three distinctive characters create the Fariytale knit collection. Pick up your favorite: Baby Victoria Bunny, Baby George Monkey, and Baby Abigail Bear. It’s all in the ingredients! The miYim process is the secret to creating our charming colors. When woven, the cotton is allowed to retain its natural form untreated, unbleached, and unprocessed. It is dyed using only all-natural ingredients derived from nature’s plants and minerals. miYim is water-washed, clean and pure combined to form the world’s first all-natural children’s toy.
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I fondly remember Scholastic book orders from my childhood. It was always so exciting to get that little newsprint catalog each month and browse the affordable books. My children experience this same excitement, only problem is…their book orders suck!
What has happened to Scholastic’s quality? Do they really think parents want to buy crappy cheap Chinese toys and video games instead of quality literature?
It’s been eight years since I taught elementary school full time, and even then I noticed the children were more attracted to the fuzzy diaries and the cheap horse necklaces than the actual books in book orders. As a teacher, I liked being able to provide affordable books for families to purchase, as well as earn points redeemable for classroom books from our orders, but I hated sending home all that junk and poorly written books. [read the full article...]
This updated version for kids of the classic 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth is a handy reference for any child looking for small steps they can take to live a greener life. The layout is user friendly and appealing, and it is a great resource for the classroom and home. Not only does this book include tips, such as “plant a tree” but it includes “eco-experiments”, such as making your own recycled paper. As you would expect, this book is printed on “certified chain of custody” recycled paper with soy inks.
Would I buy this product? Probably not. My experience with these sort of books is they sit on shelves, good ideas or not, without much use. Besides, most of the information can be found on the 50 Simple Kids website for free.
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by Jennifer Lance on December 31, 2009 · 5 comments
Photo by
kowitz
FTC finds PG-13 movies are marketed to young children
If you are like me, you’ve taken your eight-year-old child to a PG-13 movie. After reading all of the Harry Potter books, how could we not go see the movies? As a parent, that is my choice, but unfortunately, many movies are marketed to young children even though they carry the PG-13 rating. For example, a four-year-old child in my preschool has seen Transformers 2 even though it carries a PG-13 rating because he loves the toys. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has found for the seventh time that “movie studios intentionally market PG-13 movies to children under 13, and the movie industry does not have explicit standards in place to restrict this practice. The growing practice of releasing unrated DVDs undermines the rating system, and confuses parents.”
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Cutting Food Box
One of the most captivating activities for youngsters in our house is working with food – helping to prepare it and serve it, and of course, eating it. We let our 4 year old help out when we’re cutting vegetables by giving her a standard table knife (butter knife) and setting her up with a cutting board and a carrot or celery or other veggie, and she enjoys it immensely. But when we aren’t in cooking mode, having a play food set to work with will keep her busy for hours. [read the full article...]
Our goal is to provide you with the highest quality certified 100% organic cotton non-toxic apparel for your baby. Our hip and stylish organic baby basics collection includes short- and long-sleeve tees, snap-bottom bodysuits, wrap-around bodysuits and pants.
A cute little bear adorns the front above the words “natural life” on this soft, natural kimono style, long-sleeve onesie. This adorable organic onesie is made with nickel-free snaps and 100% organic cotton that is GOTS certified. Before reading this product’s description, I had never considered that the snaps in children’s clothing could contain heavy metals.
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by Derek Markham on December 16, 2009 · 2 comments
Go Green Bear
Trying to keep your house free from toys that have dubious origins and unhealthy materials can be tough sometimes, especially when well-meaning relatives send gifts that they think your kids will enjoy (but that come from mainstream toymakers).
So when Vermont Teddy Bear offered to let me review a couple of their eco-conscious bears, I was jazzed to check them out and to see what my older kids (ages 11 and 4) thought about them. [read the full article...]
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