When I was 20 I walked outside with my 2 year old niece. She screamed and ran back inside. Shocked I stood there looking into the empty street wondering what she saw that was so frightening. It turned out to be a bee. She learned from her mom who doesn't like bees.
This stuck in my head and I filed it away only to be pulled out over ten years later under the file ‘I don’t want my girls to be petrified of bees (or other insects).’
When my girls were one and three we would have scavenger hunts, looking for plastic insects (yes, plastic) I would hide around the yard - bees, ants, butterflies, spiders, etc. We would finding real ones too. I would put rolly pollys (sow bugs), worms, lightning bugs, whatever I could catch, in my hands for them to see, touch, and maybe hold too. I love nature and wildlife and I wanted my kids to appreciate nature too.
Bella holding a tarantula at the Field Museum
We played the scavenger hunt at least once a week. The following spring I took my family, including my 9 year old niece to Members Night at the Field Museum in Chicago. I always like the insect room because the beetle collection is as beautiful as it is diverse.
We walked in and the first part is live bugs. Among them there was a tarantula and Madagascar hissing cockroaches. I wanted my niece to touch the tarantula. I knew I had to do it first so she would feel it was no big deal. It worked. (Aunt pressure can be as persuasive as peer pressure).
When we moved up a bit I turned around and there was my preschooler (with her father), trying to snuggle with the ‘fuzzy’ tarantula, almost rubbing her face on it. Well, mission accomplished! I will never forget that night (even though I forgot the camera) because my little preschool girl did not see that big hairy tarantula as a scary monster. A few years later and I got a picture of her holding one.
The point is, if you want your kids to do something, sustainable or otherwise, it is best learned through modeling.
You can find more anecdotes and information on raising a sustainable child in Alexandra Gnoske's upcoming book: 'How to Raise a Sustainable Child' coming out soon.
Do you love the idea of growing your own fresh produce, making home made bread, blueberry preserves, kombucha tea and such – but you don’t live on a farm or know where to begin? Not to worry. We have a local gal who will have you living like a farm kid in the city in no time.
Mary Lydon Krystinak, founder and woman extraordinaire of Mary’s Wholesome Living Ltd., (MWL) teaches back to basic green living skills. She and her husband John always wanted to live on a farm and loved the idea of self-sufficiency, but life happened…career, family, etc. They still made sure they grew plenty of their own food and kept a small farm charm about their house.
Now Mary is on a mission to “provide practical education, real life experiences and helpful connections to live a more down-to-earth lifestyle.” She believes people want to know what’s in their food. Cooking from scratch gives you complete control over what you add or leave out (like pesticides). It is also a growing trend as the commitment to buying local food continues through CSA’s and farmers markets.
Upcoming Classes
September – All things tomatoes, salsas, marinara sauce, soup, etc
Canning is very environmentally friendly. Mary says glass jars can be used for years (she has some that are over 40 years old) and they need no additional energy for storage, with a shelf life of up to 2 years. She goes a step further and puts her scraps from canning into the compost or her worm bin to feed next years crop.
Mary’s Wholesome Living Classes are held around the suburbs, but are mostly often taught at the Two Mothers Foods’ kitchen in Naperville, Ill. The classes are all hands on learning and focus on what’s seasonal and include, but are not limited to, the following:
Canning
Pickling
Preserving
Cheese Making
Bread Making
Kombucha
Butter
Ghee
Gluten Free Baking
Composting
Worm Farming
Lasagna Gardening
Knitting
If you are interested in learning more or attending a class you can join MWL’s email list via wholesomemary@att.net or the website.
I COPIED THIS FROM THE WWF GLOBAL WEBSITE BECAUSE I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO SHARE.
Great Barrier Reef crisis: turtles are sick and starving to death!
Please make a donation by September 30th to help our marine turtles
The extreme weather events in Queensland in January deposited a 'triple whammy' of pesticides, sediment and fresh water on sea grass along the Queensland coast. And now our beautiful marine turtles are being subjected to another killer, a deforming virus that causes large tumorous lesions.
These combined threats have caused the Great Barrier Reef's polluted sea grass to die-off across massive areas and thousands of sick, starving and injured turtles have begun to wash up on our Queensland beaches.
And the prognosis? It will get worse.
WWF is and will do everything within our power to preserve turtle populations. Your donation to our turtle crisis appeal before September 30th will be used immediately across 3 programs to protect our marine turtles.
That which we call a plastic bag by any other name would still be bad for the environment, for wildlife, for all of us.
plastic bags in tree
For all the controversy surrounding plastic bags you would think they've been around forever. I mean they are all over the world, in every ocean, stuck on animals, found inside animals. But no, the plastic bags we usually think about, plastic grocery bags, were first introduced to grocery stores to replace brown paper bags in 1977.1 That's only 34 years ago - less than a life time.
What is it?
plastic bag on coral reef
Plastic bags are made from polyethylene which comes from non-renewable resources: crude oil and natural gas.1 They are very durable and flexible, reasons why they are so attractive.
Polyethylene is created through polymerization of ethylene, by reacting monomermolecules together in a chemical reaction to form three-dimensional networks or polymer chains.2 Under the right conditions of temperature, pressure and catalysis, the double bond of the ethylene monomer opens up and many monomers link up to form long chains.
Will it Decompose?
Well plastic bags won't biodegrade. When we say something is 'biodegradable' that means microbial organisms can break it down (basically eat it), transform it, into basic organic matter. When it comes to polyethylene, or plastic bags, microbes can't turn it into organic matter because they don't recognize it as food and won't eat it.
According to The Good Human3 plastic bags will photodegrade, a process by which the ultraviolet radiation from the sun breaks an object down. However Scientists aren't sure the resulting synthetic granules completely decompose and the concern is the synthetic material will build up in the environment, becoming a part of the food chain with detrimental, exponential effects.
plastic bags in river
How Much is there?
While plastic bag production was in it's infancy 34 years ago, today people in the U.S. take home 100 billion every year (according to Worldwatch Institute). Only 0.6 percent get recycled, but there seems to be some dispute about this number, with others claiming up to 7 percent. Still, that's 93 billion plastic bags that end up in the garbage or litter. Even bags that go into the garbage or into recycling bins can easily blow out. And these numbers are just for the United States.
Where do Plastic Bags go?
We know that plastic bags have made their way around the world and back again. Wind and ocean currents carry the light-weight bags wherever they go.
Plastic bags go in garbage, landfills, trees, streets, alleys, yards, parks, drains, rivers, lakes, oceans...they find their way into every environment. They end up stuck on animals, strangling animals, getting eaten by animals, and eventually getting eaten by us.
plastic bag stuck on bird
Wonder what plastic bags will do to our bodies, our immune system, our reproductive system...
What can You do?
This is the most powerful question you can ask. The simplest answer is take your cloth bag with you everywhere and say no to plastic bags. While this may not seem like much, it really does make a big difference. This is a change in culture. It only took one generation to create a plastic bag crisis. It can easily be reversed. Your power is in your action.
The other answer to the question is 'a lot!' Many cities, and countries around the world have banned or restricted plastic bags (and even plastic bag production) - 25% of the world according to Wikipedia. Other places have issued a tax. You can work with others in your community to help create a ban. You can also join organizations like 'No More Plastic Bags Please' in San Diego to help clean up and bring awareness of the issue.
Some people and organizations have found ways to reuse or make new products out of plastic bags (like New Life for Old Bags in Chicago). While these efforts are important to deal with the current plastic bag waste, it is important going forward to use cloth bags and give up the plastic.
A little humor to lighten the serious mood
What if I end up with a plastic bag?
It happens! People drop stuff off for me in plastic bags. Buns, bread, frozen vegetables, products ordered through the mail, just about everything comes in plastic. You can find an organization that uses plastic to make new products; you can cut up your plastic so it doesn't have a ring or whole that can get caught on an animal should it accidentally end up in the environment; you can recycle it; if you are really crafty you can reuse it yourself (try knitting it into a matt).
In the end, it's up to you. Will you carry cloth bags? Will you carry your 5 items to the car when you forget a cloth bag? Will you buy a reusable bag when you forget your own? Will you take your cloth bags to stores beyond the supermarket? It's really simple and I hope you can see that you make a difference.
Last week I wrote about sharing my passion for green beans, fresh picked and eaten in the field. I mentioned that I shared my passion and described excitedly the memory I had of this experience to my then small children - and the result was they reacted the same way, did the same thing...picked the bean, broke it in two, took a big sniff, bit it, and mmmmm, 'this is awesome Mom!'
Wow - I felt like I brain washed them! Did they have any choice but to do what they did, feel what they felt? Let me just say I am not an advocate of brain-washing children.
I was uncomfortable when I went back and read my blog, wondering if I was somehow suggesting that brain washing is a good parenting technique. But then I began to wonder, what is brain washing? What is the difference in raising my kids to think a certain way - share my values - and brain washing?
I was relieved to find out that I'm not brain washing my kids. Brainwashing is when someone "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator(s), often to the detriment of the person being manipulated" (according to Langone, Michael. "Cults: Questions and Answers". www.csj.org).
So sharing my values with my kids is not to their detriment and I'm not using unethical methods. I'm off the hook. Of course we all influence our children with our good and bad habits, values, actions, words...even when we hope they aren't paying attention.
It's good to be conscious of your actions because those kids, whether they are little or not, are influenced by us, their parents. That's just the way it is...even when they say they don't care, aren't listening, hate us, etc. That's actually when our behavior matters the most.
My great uncle had a farm in Kenosha, Wisconsin and my family would help him on weekends. He sold the farm when I was very little but I will never forget the many sensations of picking green beans and eating them fresh and warm (and a little dirty) right in the field.
That memory never left me and it’s why, even though I grew up a city girl and my parents didn't grow food, I always wanted to. So when we bought our house the first thing I planted the next year was green beans.
I didn't realize how well I had described my personal experience of eating fresh picked green beans until my children picked ours. All three of them snapped the bean in half, smelled it, and took a bite...they all smiled, made little yummy noises, and declared how wonderful it was.
It was like I was watching myself out in that field years ago when I saw my children do exactly the same thing. But I realized what I had done. My memory was so strong and I was so passionate about it I must have described what I did and how I felt several times that summer while I tended to the green beans. My kids almost had no choice but to act the same way (a little scarey how well I had brain-washed them).
Now we have cherry tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, and yellow squash (little gourds too, but not for eating). My kids get excited about anything I bring in from the garden. But I'm even more excited because I know I'm sharing something special with them, my love of gardening and growing my own food.
I greatly increased the chances that they will grow their own food and flowers by sharing with them, especially when they were only toddlers and preschoolers. They understand that food grows from the soil; that water, sun and insects are a part of growing food; and they can do it.
Anything you want your kids to value or do, introduce it at an early age and let them see you doing it. Young children learn most from modeling. They copy their parents. My kids bird watch, drink water, and poke around the yard because that's what I do (I won't mention my bad habits they've copied).
I was lucky to have that farm, if only for a brief time. That was all it took. But you don't need a farm to instill the love of gardening. You just need a window, a pot, a seed and a model!
