Green Options

Sneaky Green Uses for Everyday Things: How to Craft Eco-Garments and Sneaky Snack Kits, Create Green Cleaners, Remake Paper into Flying Toys, Assemble … a Robot Recycle Bin with Everyday Things is a fun and fabulous book for people that love to create their own gadgets.

This book is almost like a science project book. Both my older kids are checking it deciding which fun gadgets and experiments they want to try.

If you do homeschooling this might be a great book for you to get since it is full of green projects, experiments and even some crafty fun.

I love discovering new artisans on Etsy!  This time, I have found SewnNatural.

Home of modern eco picnic and baby blankets, quilts, toys, kids’ hip bags, toddler dresses & more using all natural, organic and rescued upcycled fibers. We believe it’s possible to create something beautiful while making the world a little better at the same time. Sustainable and original design with great care in craftswomanship.

We were recently sent a kids eco messenger bag.  This bag is made from organic cotton and vintage cotton fabric and is handmade in Ontario Canada. They are playful and delightful and sure to charm any child (and parent).  Each bag is one-of-a-kind.

One Small Step was founded by a mom who needed alternatives for her daughter’s lunches. Renata Bodon’s daughter’s school requires waste free lunches.

That led to One Small Step, an online resource for reusable, eco-friendly, stylish, and environmentally safe lunch products and food wraps with no BPA, no phthalates, and no PVC.

In addition to eco-lunch containers, reusable sandwich wraps, and environmentally friendly lunch bags One Small Step also carries eco backpacks, EcoStaplers, and Greenciles (pencils) for your back to school needs.

This contest is now closed thank you to all that entered.

(Never had such a hard time giving away free stuff before, so far two winners have been chosen and emailed but no one emails me back with shipping address. I’ll try one more time to choose a winner. Thanks)

TerraCycle is offering a free back to school prize pack for one lucky Eco Child’s Play reader.

Would you like to win a TerraCycle Billboard Backpack, a Drink Pouch Lunch Box, a Drink Pouch Pencil Case, and a Chips Ahoy Notebook, for a retail value of around $55?

All you have to do is read through this post and leave a comment with your contact info to be entered in the contest.

Sand dough is a great choice for recycling the pretty clean sandbox sand that remains in your sandbox at the end of the season, which is when we usually make it, but I can imagine that it would also make a super-fun beachside project, perhaps even your own sandcastle souvenir, complete with seashells and a moat ready to be filled with salt water.

Even for play dough aficionados, sand dough has a terrifically gritty texture that provides an entirely new sensory experience to the act of working with the dough, and it can be an excellent component to a sensory table for a special needs child or as a teaching tool for a tactile learner—use it in conjunction with the sawdust dough for two very neat and unusual experiences.

Like the sand dough and the sawdust dough, oil dough is another unique sensory experience. It’s smooth and creamy and soft, and yes, it will leave your hands and work surface oily, so be prepared.

The oil is what makes this dough truly special, however. You can use the cheapest oil available and your dough will work just fine, but for a treat you can substitute in any other oil that you’d like, taking advantage of its properties—something to soften the skin, perhaps, or something soothing especially for a child with eczema can play with, or you can substitute in some essential oils for an aromatherapy benefit (be cautious, of course, about using essential oils on children—they’re smaller than we are, and you know that a little essential oil already goes a long way).

You will need:

Unlike the sawdust dough, the sand dough, and even the oil dough, the cornstarch dough uses no flour, but instead calls for cornstarch and salt. This makes a good play dough for someone who might be sensitive to most flours, or perhaps to use up some more of that cornstarch that I keep making you buy for other art supply recipes.

Unlike the other dough recipes that I’ve shared, as well, this dough does require cooking over low heat, which actually most play dough recipes do require. It’s just something to be aware of when you have little helpers on hand.

You will need:

One thing about bubble solution is that it’s super cheap. At the beginning of the season I marched stalwartly into Target to buy tampons (I avoid Target, because although I try to avoid new purchases, I am weak in the face of a deal), and somehow ended up with gallons of bubble solution for basically pennies. A lot of which the girls managed to spill into the minivan carpet on the ride home, so it was just as well that I bought extra—bonus carpet shampoo, I suppose.

Sometimes, however, you don’t want to buy something just because it’s a deal. Perhaps you have an empty container of bubble solution and just need some product, not the packaging, or perhaps you and your child like to experiment with recipes, or perhaps you’re just of the DIY mindset and would rather make something yourself rather than purchase it—admirable goals, all.

You can make play dough a gazillion kabillion six million ways. Trust me—I have made play dough from laundry lint, and thusly I know my stuff.

As the packrat/eccentric lady/aficionado of bizarre craft projects and art experiences, I am the designated inheritor of a myriad of passed-down recipes for homemade art materials from both sides of my family. And having two little girls with a lot of time on their hands and a love for anything messy and hands-on, we have taken it as a project to make pretty much every recipe at one time or another. For my next few posts, I’ll be sharing with your our favorite and most unusual of the recipes we’ve collected.

First up: Do you have any sawdust?

I could tell you all the educational reasons for making soap crayons—children’s learning should be experiential, experience with art should be as varied as possible, following a recipe utilizes math concepts, making something that you can use builds self-confidence and self-sufficiency, having a brand-new experience along with an adult adds adventure and models coping—but the truth is just that soap crayons are fun. You’re in the bath, so you’re supposed to be getting clean, but you’re drawing! With color! But the crayons, they’re soap! So you’re still getting clean!

Who would not have fun attempting to wrap their head around that?

To make soap crayons, you will need:

Kidzsack is an eco-friendly backsack made from 100% recycled cotton and soda bottles. A cute bag for back to school, the end of summer, or just to have for fun these bags allow a child’s creativity to come through.

The Kidzsack comes with a set of 8 washable markers that kids can use to decorate the bags. Then they can be washed and colored again. It’s usable coloring sheet for kids to enjoy.