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Favorite Fall Family Activities

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Green Goes Simple: Family Footprints

Favorite Fall Family Activities

By Marisa Belger for Green Goes Simple

This autumn, make a commitment to have more fun — family fun. Fall is the ideal season for outdoor family frolicking. Emily Anderson — author of Eco-chic Home: Rethink, Reuse & Remake Your Way to Sustainable Style, blogger at Good With Style and mother of two — suggests you try these easy autumn activities for kids and adults. Turn off the TV, throw on a sweater and experience the bounty of the season!

Become a Leaf Detective
“Fall foliage is a perfect way to experience the earth’s natural state,” says Anderson. “Head to the park and enjoy the changing colors of the leaves.” Gather leaves of different shapes and colors, and then learn more about them when you get home by checking out LeafSnap, an online app created by the University of Maryland, Columbia University, the Smithsonian Institution and FindingSpecies.org.

Pick Your Own Harvest
Head to a local farm and pick your own apples, squash or pumpkins. Once you unload your bounty at home, Anderson recommends making an easy recipe together, such as butternut squash soup or applesauce. “Spending time on a local farm is a great way to support agriculture and to teach your kids about where food really comes from,” she says. Check out PickYourOwn.org for farms near you.

Eat Seasonally

The change of seasons is a perfect time to teach your kids about eating food that’s seasonal. Check out your local farmers market for the best of in-season produce that’s been grown nearby. “Eating locally grown food is good for the planet and can be a lot more affordable than the alternative,” says Anderson. “In-season items to look for are sweet potatoes, artichokes, arugula, beets, broccoli, carrots, cranberries, eggplant, kale, leeks and zucchini.” Visit LocalHarvest.org to find farms in your area and check out FruitsAndVeggiesMoreMatters.org for fall recipes you can make with what you find.

Go Slow
Consider hosting a fall-themed dinner party that features nothing but local and in-season food. It’s a great chance to bring friends and family together and to teach your kids about cooking with seasonal foods. If you’re not up for hosting, Anderson recommends checking out Slow Food USA, a sustainable and local food nonprofit that hosts local events around the country.

Decorate Naturally
“Use the bounty of fall to get started on your holiday decorations,” suggests Anderson. Acorns, branches and leaves can all become beautiful festive items with a little paint and imagination. Collect items from your backyard or visit a local park, and this Thanksgiving you’ll have nature’s answer to the ultimate holiday table setting.

Photo Credit: @iStockphoto.com/ericmichaud

Marisa Belger’s work has appeared in Travel + Leisure Family, Natural Health, Prevention and TODAYShow.com, where she wrote a column about eco-friendly living. She was an editor at Lime.com and collaborated with author Josh Dorfman on his bestselling books, The Lazy Environmentalist and The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget.
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Reusing and Recycling 101

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Green Goes Simple: Conservation at Home

Reusing and Recycling 101

By Dana Goeglein for Green Goes Simple

You want to be green, but it’s hard to know the difference between reusing and recycling. Fortunately, it’s not that complicated. Recycling and reusing have the same goal: to keep items out of overflowing landfills. The two tactics just go about it in very different ways.

Recycling involves reprocessing an old item — such as a can, glass or newspaper — and turning it into something new. Recycled paper products may be reprocessed into toilet paper and old tires may become a compound used to resurface roads.

Reusing, on the other hand, means avoiding the reprocessing plant altogether. Old items like containers, bags and appliances can be used again in their current condition for a similar — or completely different — purpose. Takeout containers can be turned into food storage (think: free plastic containers!), and plastic bags can be transformed into waterproof liners for planters or drawers.

“Reusing extends the lifetime of a product, from the time it is purchased to the time it goes to a landfill [or recycling plant],” explains Janine Kubert, director of operations at iReuse, a company that helps businesses and individuals become better reusers.

When you extend the lifetime of a product, you not only reduce the need to buy something new (which takes energy to produce), but you also save on the energy it would take to recycle that product. “Reusing allows us to get the most out of our virgin products and raw materials, and aside from reducing consumption entirely, it is our best resource for waste reduction,” says Kubert.

Whether you’re an avid recycler or new to waste reduction, here are some simple ways to reuse and recycle every day:

Reuse

  • Reuse bags, boxes and containers. For example, turn old shoe boxes into storage containers, packaging for gifts or a treasure chest (have kids cut out pictures from magazines and glue them to the outside of the box for a customized container).
  • Rather than buying a new product, borrow, rent or share items you use infrequently or for a short period of time.
  • When babies and kids outgrow toys, books, cribs, high chairs and strollers, sell or donate the items rather than throw them away.
  • Invest in quality, durable products. You may spend more initially, but they’ll last longer, which saves you money over time.

Recycle

  • Become a full-circle recycler. Buy products that can be recycled; sort and discard them according to your community’s standards; and finally, purchase products made from post-recycled materials.
  • For more information about recyclable materials, check out the EPA’s website: Epa.gov/waste/conserve/rrr/recycle.htm.

Going Above and Beyond
While waste reduction starts at home, communities nationwide are forming around the premise that less is more. Freecycle (Freecycle.org) — started in Tucson, Ariz., before spreading throughout the U.S. — helps people be the best possible reusers. Through the Freecycle network, members are able to donate — or pick up — used products, such as appliances, furniture, toys and bikes.

In need of a reduce, reuse and recycle tutorial? Companies like iReuse (iReuse.com) give personalized consultations to help you reduce waste, donate reusable products and save money.

If you’re not sure about your community’s procedures or standards for reusing and recycling, check your town’s government Web site or ask a neighbor. Through community boards, donation banks and home and school recycling programs, it’s getting even easier to do more to waste less.

Dana Goeglein received a bachelor’s in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College and a master’s in food studies from New York University. She is a writer, yoga instructor and whole foods educator in New York City, where she strives to help others create harmonious, connected lives.
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Green Goes Simple: Family Footprints

Spring Fling: Helping Kids Go Green This Season

By Amy Levin-Epstein for Green Goes Simple


Did you become greener after becoming a parent? Then you joined a conscientious club of moms and dads who increased their eco-efforts as their family grew.

“To me, there are two aspects to being green: The first is about how you and your family affect the environment, and the second is about how you let the environment affect your family,” says Dr. Jenn Berman, mother of 4-year-old twin girls, and author of the eco-friendly book SuperBaby: 12 Ways to Give Your Child a Head Start in the First 3 Years. Plus, “compassion for the earth inspires compassion for other people and animals,” she says. Try these six tips from Berman and other eco-experts to help your kids live greener lives this spring.

Make Composting a Family Affair
For Mary Talalay, an eco-friendly writer and mother of one in Maryland, composting is a huge part of her family’s green efforts. “We started a simple compost pile by fencing off a small section of our yard — away from the dogs’ prying noses — and now we literally never throw kitchen scraps anywhere but the compost pile,” says Talalay. “I weighed one of our daily tubs of scraps, and it was about a pound of carrot peels, orange peels and the like. That’s 365 pounds of waste that makes worms happy and stays out of the landfill!”

Go Meatless on Mondays
Switching the whole family over to vegetarianism might be too big of an undertaking for your family plan, but just one meat-free day a week can have a positive effect on your family — and the earth. “Research has shown that animal agriculture is the single largest source of methane, which is a greenhouse gas that is 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide,” says Berman.

Lead by Example
If you forget to recycle those empty plastic bottles or turn off the lights when you leave the house, your kids will too. “How we act is so important,” says Bruce Harley, author of Cut Your Energy Bills Now: 150 Smart Ways to Save Money and Make Your Home More Comfortable and Green. “The lesson of bringing cloth grocery bags to the store is lost if it takes a 6,000-pound SUV to bring two of us to the store in the first place.”

Rack up Environmental Goodwill at Goodwill
Secondhand stores save gently worn clothes from ending up in landfills, which makes them a great — and wallet-friendly — way to green your family’s wardrobe. “We bring clothes to Goodwill and we also shop there,” says Talalay. “Sometimes I feel like I am renting clothes because we buy things there, my daughter wears them until they’re too small, and back to Goodwill they go if they’re still in good condition.”

Make Showering a Water-saving Game
Kids like to compete, so the most fun way to make bath time green is by making it a game. “Shower timers in the bathroom are an easy and fun way for kids to get used to using less water and taking shorter showers,” says Caroline Howell, founder of Green Beanie.  “No one wants to be a ‘water waster,’ as we call it at my house.”

Watch Your Garden Grow — Together
Have a picky eater? Green gardening is a great way to make sure your family is eating more wholesome veggies, says Talalay. Kids who help dig in the dirt will be excited to see — and eat! — the fruits of their labor. And you’ll rest easy knowing that the food you grew flourished naturally.

Photo Credit: Andy Cawood

Amy Levin-Epstein is a freelance writer who’s been published in magazines like Glamour, Self and Prevention, on websites like AOL, Babble and Details.com and in newspapers like the New York Post and the Boston Globe. You can read more of her writing at AmyLevinEpstein.com.

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How’s does your garden grow?

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Green Goes Simple: Conservation at Home

How Does Your Garden Grow?

By Elizabeth Barker for Green Goes Simple


Planting and cultivating a garden with your family can offer a bounty of benefits to you and your kids. Along with fostering your kids’ fondness for fresh fruits and veggies, gardening with your children can enhance their eco-consciousness.

“It’s so valuable for kids to see the direct effect of their taking care of the earth,” says Rose Judd-Murray, education specialist for the National Gardening Association. What’s more, working in the garden gives kids hands-on learning about hard-to-grasp concepts, like reducing pesticide use and preventing soil erosion.

Even if you’ve never picked up a trowel, starting a garden can be a snap! Here, four easy ways to build a kid-friendly plot that thrives:

1. Get Prepped
First, size up the soil quality and sunlight availability in your backyard. Choose a space that sees about six hours or more of sunshine each day. To prepare soil for planting, you can add composted matter (a great way to use the contents of your kitchen compost can, if you have one). Then, loosen the soil to give roots a place to grow, and remove any visible weeds. For more tips on prepping soil, visit Garden.org. Don’t be afraid to start small, says Judd-Murray. “You don’t need to dig up your entire lawn,” she says. “You can just begin with a couple of containers, or go to a garden center and pick up some transplants that pop right out of the plastic and into the ground.”

2. Choose Your Crops
When gardening with little ones, keep short attention spans in mind and include a few seeds that won’t take too long to sprout — think carrots and radishes for vegetable gardens, sunflowers and zinnias for flower plots. And while inspiring kids to try new veggies is a great gardening perk, focusing on foods they already love is also essential. “Children might like to plant raspberries to make their own jam, for instance, or grow the ingredients for homemade pizza sauce — such as tomatoes, peppers, onions, marjoram, garlic and basil,” says Elizabeth McCorquodale, author of Kids in the Garden.

3. Add an Eco-element
To teach your kids that plants can flourish naturally, look to eco-options for pest control. “Keeping plants healthy so they can defend themselves is key, so make sure to nourish them with homemade compost and use mulch to seal in moisture,” says McCorquodale. Building barriers from ground eggshells can also shield your plants from attack, she notes. And introducing beneficial bugs like ladybirds, lacewings and hoverflies can provide natural defense against the bad bugs and stop them from chowing down on your crops.

4. Cultivate Your Kid’s Green Thumbs
As your children get gardening, take note of the tasks they most enjoy. “Some kids will love the digging and weeding and organizing, while others will get a thrill from the competition of growing the fattest, sweetest or shiniest plants,” says McCorquodale. To keep that enthusiasm from waning, she recommends dividing the more tedious gardening duties into brief blocks of time.

Setting your kids up for gardening success is also a smart move, according to McCorquodale. “Give the children their own sunny corner and fill it with the best weed-free soil,” she suggests. “When it comes to nurturing their love for gardening, remember that a little success can go a long way.”
Elizabeth Barker is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and executive editor of fashion blog NoGoodForMe.com. Her work has appeared in Body + Soul, Natural Health, Vegetarian Times, Variety and Kiwi.
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How to Conserve Water Every Day

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Green Goes Simple: Conservation at Home

Water Wisdom: How to Conserve Water Every Day

By Cynthia Ramnarace for Green Goes Simple

If there is a sound that immediately drives me insane, it’s that of a running tap. And because you have to tell kids the same thing 5,000 times before they get it — “You don’t need the water on when you brush your teeth!” — I hear a lot of water waste as I go through my day.

It drives me nuts not only because it’s money down the drain, but also because water is such a precious resource. I was fortunate enough to see this firsthand during a trip to Kenya several years ago. When you’re living in a drought-prone region and the only water you have comes from collected rain water, conservation is how you survive.

I returned from Africa a water-use zealot, but that was a long time ago. My commitment to the cause has waned over the years. I realized telling my kids not to waste water wasn’t enough: I had to lead by example. So I did some research and came up with some easy water-saving solutions that any parent can easily use in their own homes.

In the Kitchen

· When you wash dishes by hand, collect the dirty water in a plastic container. Then use it to water your houseplants. “Food products in the water enrich the soil and nourish plants,” says landscape architect Shelley Sparks. “They have never looked better.”

· Switch to a self-foaming dish soap, which will allow you to wash more dishes with less water.

· Use water left in drinking glasses to give your houseplants a drink. Either pour them directly from the cup into the plant, or put watering cans in convenient places so you can fill them with each unfinished cup. “Throwing away water that remains in a drinking glass is really a waste, especially when it can be used to water houseplants or plants in the garden,” says Kimberly Button, a green-living consultant.

In the Bathroom

· Check your toilet for leaks by placing a drop of food coloring in the tank. If after 15 minutes your toilet bowl water takes on a new hue, you can be pretty sure you have a leak, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Most water loss can be easily stopped by replacing a worn-out toilet flapper (the rubber valve that flops up and down each time you flush).

· Filling the bathtub uses about 70 gallons of water! Encourage everyone in your family, kids included, to take showers. You’ll save 45 to 60 gallons per wash — not to mention serious money.

· When it’s time to get a new toilet, upgrade to a dual-flush version, which lets you choose a light flush or a heavier flush. The light-usage option uses less than a gallon of water with each use. For times when the toilet needs to work a bit harder, the heavier 1.6-gallon flush will do the trick.

· Install low-flow showerheads and faucet aerators, which add air to the stream, automatically using less water without sacrificing a bit of performance. A family of four that makes these changes will save about 4,500 gallons of water per year, according to the EPA.

In the Garden

· “Install a rain barrel on your downspout to collect water,” suggests Christian Rogers, a landscape architect with Blackmon Rogers Architects. You can easily use the rainwater, instead of your garden hose, to water your plants.

· Kids love to water plants! But remind them that their green buddies need just a sip, not a deluge.

· If you’re thinking of adding new plants to your landscape, consider ones that don’t need much water to thrive. Sparks recommends planting ivy geraniums, bottle brush, lavender, yarrow and wild lilac.

Cynthia Ramnarace is a freelance writer in Queens, N.Y. She is a regular contributor to iVillage.com and AARP Bulletin. Her work also appears frequently in American Baby and Kiwi magazines.
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Winter Boredom Be Gone! Indoor Eco-Activities

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Green Goes Simple: Family Footprints

Winter Boredom Be Gone

By Lynda Fassa for Green Goes Simple

It may be cold outside, but have no fear! Kids can be entertained — and educated — inside. Here are six eco-conscious activities guaranteed to engage any antsy kid.

Make Scents
Not sure what to do with that Christmas tree post-holiday? It actually contains all the ingredients needed to make lovely keepsake sachets. Collect needles and set kids up with 6 x 6-inch patterned fabric squares. Spread the fabric out, pattern-side down, drop a tablespoon of pine needles in, gather into a ghost shape and secure with a ribbon. The bundles can also be filled with dried flowers, herbs or potpourri, and then hidden away in drawers and closets to give spaces a lovely scent.

Start a Pretty-things Box
Often, what’s economical is also eco-friendly! This is especially true when you reuse what you were planning to throw away. After all those carefully chosen and meticulously wrapped holiday presents are, well, presented, there’s an awful lot of paper and ribbons that often get tossed. Save those — not for next year, but for the next time you hear, “I’m bored!” Tuck them away and start a pretty-things box. Arm each kid with a shoebox and have them collect the really good stuff after the presents have been unwrapped: ribbons, foiled paper, glittery name-cards and the like. Let your kids sort and label the goods, then stash them with the art supplies for the ultimate addition to a snowy, crafty day.

Create Your Own Telescopes
For this crafty creation, you’ll need:

  • Paper-towel tubes
  • Glue
  • Colorful cellophane
  • Rubber bands
  • Pretty-things boxes

Have kids decorate the outside of their telescopes with the contents of their pretty-things boxes, but leave the ends unadorned. Cut colored cellophane into squares and affix over one end with a rubber band. The world suddenly looks very pink, orange or green!

Clay Your Way
You can cook up your own clay in less than five minutes — and kids can make anything with it, from ornaments to dinosaurs.

What you’ll need:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
  • Food coloring

Mix the flour, salt and oil, and then slowly add water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until dough becomes stiff. Drop onto foil and let cool. Knead until it reaches the proper molding consistency. Divide and add food coloring. If you want to go super-natural, color with spices like turmeric and cinnamon. Try to keep kids and pets from eating this dough — it’s filled with way too much salt! You can store unused dough in zippered plastic bags for the next indoor-activity day.

Start Baking
Baking is truly the activity that gives back. The process is fun and messy, and the results are sweet and delicious! My family can’t get enough of these couldn’t-be-easier peanut butter drop cookies.

What you’ll need:

  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg

Mix together sugar, peanut butter and egg. Roll into balls and pattern with a fork. Bake at 350 F for 12 minutes. Makes 12 chewy cookies.

Think Apple Pie — All Year Long
Apples are a favorite fruit that won’t break the budget. If you want to put them to use through the winter, try canning — an easy and fun activity to do with the kids.

What you’ll need for apple pie filling and canning:

  • 7 quart-sized canning jars, cleaned and sterilized
  • Apples, peeled and sliced (enough to fill all 7 jars)

What you’ll need for the syrup:

  • 4 cups sugar
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup cornstarch
  • 1/3 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 12 cups water
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice

For the syrup, cook the sugar, cinnamon, salt, cornstarch, nutmeg and water together until they thicken. Stir in 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Pour over apples in jars. Seal and process in a canner for 20 minutes. This also makes a great topping for ice cream!

Lynda Fassa is the founder of Green Babies, an organic-cotton baby clothing company, and the author of two books (Green Babies, Sage Moms and Green Kids, Sage Families). She is a frequent blogger for sites like Grist.org, ParentsConnect.com, Treehugger.com and PlanetGreen.com. Lynda has also appeared in People, The New York Times, Parents and Parenting, and on the “Today” show, “Planet Green,” “Fox News Happy Hour,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” “ABC News” and more.

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The Planet Friendly Kitchen

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The Planet-Friendly Kitchen

By Cynthia Ramnarace for Green Goes Simple

Without a doubt, the kitchen is the most popular room in my house. From meal prep to mealtime, homework to crafts, it’s the center of our family life — and the ultimate candidate for a recent eco-makeover.

In the interest of increasing my sustainability IQ, I first took inventory of what I knew about conservation in the kitchen:

1. Don’t leave the water running. (This one’s easy — if I slip, there’s a 6-year-old water watchdog always ready to remind me.)
2. Recycle.
3. Stock up on non-disposable plates and utensils and embrace the durability of reusable shopping totes.

This is a good start, but my kitchen — and I — clearly needed professional assistance if we were going to take it to the next level. This is where green living expert Annie Bond came in. The author of Home Enlightenment: Create a Nurturing, Healthy and Toxin-Free Home shared some surprising tips for transforming everyone’s favorite room into an environmentally savvy space:

The Dishwasher is a “Do.” A full dishwasher uses less water to clean a day’s worth of dirty dishes than hand-washing them in the sink.

DIY Dishrags. “Let’s say you’ve got a pair of old, unused pajamas made from beautiful soft fabric,” says Bond. Grab a pair of scissors and give them new life as dishrags and hand towels. But get ready for a bigger laundry basket — these need to be washed daily to prevent bacterial growth.

Compost your Scraps. Vegetable peels, fruit rinds and coffee grinds make excellent garden fertilizers. If you have an in-house compost bin, you can keep unwanted odors away by cleaning it out every couple of days.

Downsize your Oven. When you can, bypass the energy-guzzling oven and stove in favor of smaller cooking appliances. Look beyond toast, and you’ll find that a toaster oven is ideal for heating up or cooking small amounts of food. Slow cookers and electric kettles are also everyday energy savers.

Use Natural Critter Control. Bond recommends trading chemical pesticides for the homemade variety. Drop a few cotton balls into a small glass jar and fill it halfway with a mixture of 1 part Borax (a natural pesticide), 1 part sugar and 3 parts water. Watch as the ants go marching one by one into the jar, where they take their final swim.

I took Bond’s suggestions for my kitchen and found an added bonus: These tips are time savers too! Filling the dishwasher is faster than washing dishes, and toaster oven cuisine is refreshingly speedy. Saving time and the earth — what’s not to love?

Cynthia Ramnarace is a freelance writer in Queens, N.Y. She is a regular contributor to iVillage.com and AARP Bulletin. Her work also appears frequently in American Baby and Kiwi magazines.

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Conserving at Home

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Green Goes Simple: Conservation at Home

Go Green — and Save Money

By Amy Levin-Epstein for Green Goes Simple

Sure, protecting the environment can sometimes mean spending more, but there are plenty of ways that greening your life can help keep more green in your wallet. “Living green and healthy can be done on a budget and, in many cases, can actually save you money,” says Sara Snow, green lifestyle expert and author of Sara Snow’s Fresh Living. Here are six tips from Snow on how any family — with any budget — can start helping the planet and saving money today.

Make Time for a Tune-up
Next time you get your oil changed, spring for a new air filter, which can improve fuel efficiency by 10 percent. Driving around with a clean air filter, properly inflated tires and working spark plugs can save you as much as $600 a year in fuel and maintenance charges.

Be a Biker
If you haven’t already joined the ranks of the two-wheeled, you can start by buying an inexpensive used bike online. Assuming you spend about $30 a week in gas, you could save up to $1,500 a year in fuel costs by peddling from point A to point B. Even if you only bike once or twice a week, it will still add up to some serious dough. The bonus? You’ll get nice toned legs along the way.

Go Veggie
Not only does meat cost more money than vegetables, it costs the environment more resources, including water and feed. Even if you can’t quit turkey, well, cold turkey, try going veggie a few days each week. If you spend about $20 on meat each week, you could save around $500 a year by eating it half as often. Plus, a healthy plant-based diet may reduce your medical bills as well.

Streamline Your Stuff
Be the ultimate antihoarder by selling valuable household items that you rarely use. The Belgian waffle maker gifted by your Aunt Suzy last Christmas? Let it go. The vintage roller skates you never got around to using? Say goodbye. If you sell your I-made-one-juice-last-year $300 juicer for $100, you’ll be recycling the product — and cycling some money back into your bank account. You can host a garage sale or offload used things to new owners online.

Buy a Better Bulb
Compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) use 75 percent less energy and last 10 times longer than standard incandescent lightbulbs. Plus, each CFL can save you about $30 in energy costs over the lifetime of the bulb. Figuring that a CFL bulb will last about 10 years, that’s $3 per year per bulb. By replacing 20 bulbs in your house, you’ll save $60 annually in lighting costs — clearly, a bright idea.

Take Control of Your Thermostat
Your thermostat no longer calls the shots automatically. A one-time investment of $30 will upgrade your old device to a programmable version that will allow you to control when and how intensely your home will be heated or cooled. You can also set the thermostat to turn off when you’re away or asleep, saving around $100 a year in energy costs.

Amy Levin-Epstein is a freelance writer who’s been published in magazines like Glamour, Self and Prevention, on websites like AOL, Babble and Details and in newspapers like The New York Post and the Boston Globe. You can read more of her writing at AmyLevinEpstein.com.

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Making Eco Friendly Art

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Having a three year old son and being an artsy person myself we make a lot of art in our house. Finding eco friendly art supplies is important.

One of our favorite mediums is crayons on cardboard. I love the way the colors look on the tan cardboard.

Lately we have been going through more art supplies. Crayons get broke into tiny pieces and become unusable. Play doh doesn’t get put away becomes hard. We paint on the front and back of everything possible.

I am keeping all of the bits of crayons thinking someday I will melt them together and make one big crayon or some cool shapes like these.

recycled crayons

I have seen a lot of recipes for homemade play dough but I haven’t tried any yet, Do you have any that you recommend?

Here are a couple great websites I have came across while looking for eco art supplies :

Clementine Art -Natural. Fresh. Real. I am going to have to check these supplies out. I am especially curious about the paint(especially for my art projects)

Eco-kids eco-kids is dedicated to offering art supplies for creative play the natural way using only the most natural ingredients and eco-friendly packaging.

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