Green Options

One of the gifts my son received for his 2nd birthday was a subscription to Wild Animal Baby published by the National Wildlife Federation. The magazine is printed on FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified paper. Wild Animal Baby is a children’s magazine for the age range 12 months to 4 yrs.

Wild Animal Baby is a wonderful way to get your toddler involved in reading at an early age. The magazine encourages children to get outdoors and appreciate nature. My son loves to get the mail and often asks to check the mailbox for his monthly copy of Wild Animal Baby.

Wild Animal Baby is just the right size for toddler hands. The pictures are bright and engaging and it is filled with several interactive activities for your child. Including I spy, letter/color/shape recognition, songs with illustration motions, captivating stories, child participation and much more.

My son loves to look for Sammy Skunk! I enjoy reading Wild Animal Baby to him because it is  educational and entertaining. We burn up some good time going through the pages and doing the activities.

Now that the weather is warm there is opportunity to shake off the winter doldrums and get the kids some fresh air and sunlight. Hopefully getting your kids to want to spend time outdoors will not be an issue for you but if it is you may just have to get creative.

Indoor entertainment certainly has its place but when they get outside to play or just enjoy a sunny day they get exercise and they connect with nature. Richard’s Louv’s book Nature Deficit Disorder is just full of reasons why we need to make a conscious effort to get our kids out of doors.

One simple way to do this is to take story time or homework outdoors.

This post was originally published on Wednesday, June 25, 2008.

The Chicago Tribune reported earlier this month (and thanks to Treehugger for the update) that Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley announced on a summer reading program with a green focus, named “Read Green, Live Green” program.

The program, which will run until the beginning of August, includes, according to the Tribune, a series of discussion groups aimed at celebrating nature and the threats against it. The program will be offering books, reading tours and performances for adults and children on environmental issues including climate change, energy and farming.

Children and adults will be able to explore the environment with a good read during the summer at any of the 79 Chicago Public Library branches.

Participating children will read, report on books of their choosing and have fun with green programs and projects. Children will receive a sticker for their book log for each book read, win book prizes and earn a Read Green, Live Green t-shirt by reading lots of books!The list of events for children can be found here - http://www.chipublib.org/dir_documents/SRP08_Kidsa.pdf.

This post was originally published on Wednesday, June 18, 2008.

Two weeks ago we started with a new series ‘My Green Bookshelf’, where we’re taking a look at the reading habits of interesting people from the green world with special focus on their green reading.

As a small token of appreciation to our guest on the series, Eco-Libris will plant with its planting partners 50 new trees on behalf of each and every participant!

Today we are very excited to have with us a special guest from France: Sophie Young, the founder of g=9.8 (http://www.g98.fr/).

g=9.8 is an organic lingerie and loungewear brand g=9.8 offers a unique combination of seductive ecology: naturally sensual, combined with the velvety touch of pine fiber. Yes, all the sexy items manufactured by g=9.8 are made from a fiber originating in the branches of white pine (the pine trees used to produce this material are grown specifically for this use and new ones are replanted to replace ones used for production). Production is made locally in France.

Sophie graduated in 1995 from the University of Architecture in Paris. Her work focused on the creation of a recycling site in the center of Paris, visited as a museum. In 2005, after several years working in architecture, she founded g=9.8 in order to create a line of underwear respectful of eco-principles, such as minimizing the water consumption in the industrial production, eco-packaging, waste recycling and eco-marketing.

Editor’s note: Our friends at Eco-Libris rolled out a new feature on their blog last week. “My Green Bookshelf” focuses on green VIPs and their relationship with books: their reading habits, their libraries, etc. For the first installment, EL blogger Raz Godelnik talked to ecopreneur Ron Gonen, co-founder and CEO of Philadelphia’s RecycleBank. This post was originally published on Wednesday, June 4, 2008.

I don’t know about you, but when I read about green celebrities, CEOs of green companies, and other green figures, I’m always curious - what do these people read? What’s their favorite green book? How many green books they have on their bookshelf? So I decided that it’s time to try and get some answers.

Hence we begin today a new series - ‘My Green Bookshelf’. In this series we will take a look at the reading habits of interesting people from the green world with special focus on their green reading. As a small token of appreciation to our guests in the series, Eco-Libris will plant 50 new trees on behalf of each and every participant with its planting partners!

Our first guest in the series is Ron Gonen, the co-founder and CEO of RecycleBank.

RecycleBank is a Philadelphia based company that has revolutionized municipal recycling in America, by initiating a brilliant recycling program that rewards people for recycling at home. RecycleBank, which was founded in 2004, currently provides service in more than 35 municipalities in the states of Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.

In the spirit of the seemingly endless campaign for the presidency of the U.S., I am going to put a little green twist on a question that was raised on the PBS program, Bill Moyers Journal, the other night. Moyers showed clips of one question that CBS’ Katie Couric had asked of all the candidates she interviewed;

“What is the one book, other than the Bible, that you would take with you into the White House as the next president?”

But as soon as I heard the question, my irrational fascination with all things green led me to wonder, what book with an environmental theme would I consider to be an essential read for the next president. I thought about that question a lot and came up with too many answers.  Please help me flesh these out a little by helping me answer the green version of Katie Couric’s question: 

[Other than the Bible] what ‘green’ book should the next president take into the White House?

Leave a comment with the name of the green-themed book you think is a must read for the incoming president and you could win a book yourself. Here’s the catch, you’ve got to make a case for it.

Valid entries will consist of a reply that is concise, clearly articulated and well-reasoned. One submission meeting those very simple requirements will be randomly drawn to win a copy of …

Editor’s note: This is the first of a weekly guest spot by children’s media consultant Ashley. Ashley is a television and online producer and Executive Editor of Children’s Media Consultant.com. She holds a B.A. from Columbia University and a M.A. concentrating in children’s educational media and preschool ecology from New York University. She resides with her family in downtown New York City. You can visit her blog at childrensmediaconsultant.com.

The Green Series: Eco Kids Books

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately on how families and children can “go green” without spending a fortune. Let’s face it: bamboo cribs, cork floors and reusable diapers aren’t for everyone. Additionally, there’s an issue about how to teach kids about the environment. Parents and caregivers are in a position to either foster an appreciation for the natural world, or, unfortunately, terrify their kids into submission (no more polar bears!).

The truth of the matter is, media can sometimes play a hindering role in eco-education, challenging families to stay indoors and watch TV rather than go outside and jump in the leaves. But not all the time. Children’s media has its role on the green bandwagon, too. So with that idea comes the first in what will hopefully be more of Children’s Media Consultant’s The Green Series.

If you are a true localvore, does that mean you read local tales to your children? I try to chose local goods as much as possible, and I have always had an affinity for Native American stories, so Fire Race fits into my localvore ideals by providing a locally based story to share with my children.  In California Native American tales, Coyote is often the trickster. Click to Continue Reading