Happy Earth Day

Last week (the 22nd) was Earth Day and I didn't want to let this day pass unnoticed. When I was younger, this was one of my favorite days of the year. I was an environmentalist, animal-rights activist (PETA member even - gasp!), and vegan and I never missed a chance to clean up a creek or park, or to do whatever eco-friendly thing I could, especially on this day. So, I decided to pass this on to my kids and planned a special day for them now that they're old enough to understand somewhat. Benjamin had preschool in the morning and surprisingly, they totally missed the boat and did a clown theme that day! What?!? They didn't even mention it. I thought that was kind of sad.

So, after he got home and Bella woke up from her nap, we got the party started. My favorite kids' craft website, www.notimeforflashcards.com, that's linked on the right side, was a great resource for many of these ideas. The first I copied was earth day muffins. We talked about what earth would look like if you were up in space looking down at it and what colors you would see. I googled pictures of earth from space so they could see what I meant and then we made muffins that kind of looked like that. The kids and I mixed up blueberry muffins, in which we colored the dough green, so they baked up like blue and green balls. They had a lot of fun making them - especially pouring in the green food coloring - and loved eating them. They tasted really good too!



While they baked, we read the book "Ms. Fox's Class Goes Green" and talked about the various things we can do to help the earth. The book is great for little kids and Benjamin still, this many days later, points out things we can do to "go green" like turn out lights when we leave the room or take shorter showers.

After snack, we went outside for a fun craft outdoors - in the beauty of nature and the earth. :) This also came from the website. She called it Magic Writing. Her son was so cute and focused with this craft, practicing his letters and such, so it gave me hope. I wasn't naive enough to do it inside, though, like she did. And I'm sooo glad I didn't! This involved cutting a cereal box in half, letting each child color the inside with window crayons and then covering the drawing with corn starch. Then they were to draw with their finger in the corn starch, easily shaking the drawings away and starting over, each time revealing the bright colors underneath.



My kids did super well with the coloring part and even each did one drawing in the corn starch, but then Bella thought, "What happens if I shake this box?"


That's when I lost control of the situation. :)




Once they'd thrown it on each other, I couldn't get away fast enough before I was their next victim.


That's when the camera had to be put aside and a "corn fight" (as Benjamin called it) was declared. It was a bad day to wear my new black maternity shirt. We ran all over the yard smearing each other with corn starch, throwing it in each other's hair, and even knocking each other down to get better shots. I have to admit it was pretty shocking to go sprawling on the grass as a 3 year old, with a fist full of corn starch, tripped me and then landed on top of me. All in a day's work as a mom, I guess.



Finally we'd exhausted ourselves and our supply of corn starch - so much for my educational craft! ;) So, we went on to the next stage of the day - the reuse/recycle portion. We headed to the salvation army to buy Benjamin some Sunday pants - his famous cargo pants are becoming floods - and to play with the used toys. We talked about how we can reuse old things and don't always need new stuff and we found some pretty great deals there. In addition to two new pants and two new shirts for Benjamin, I got a large, unscratched, teflon coated pot with lid for $4 and a bike helmet for Bella for this coming summer for $1. Not too shabby!

Then we decided we needed to enjoy the outdoors some more, so we went to a nearby playground and talked about the grass, the trees, the seasons, etc, and all that God has created, as they played until dinner/bed time.


All in all, it was a great day. We didn't do any garbage clean-up in local parks or anything like that, but we can do that when they're a little older. I want them to start out liking Earth Day! :) It's fun to share these kinds of things with my kids and I hope it continues.