Silly (or stupid?) for Silly Bandz

Do you know why they call them Silly Bandz? Well, because you'd have to be silly to shell out 6 bucks for a small packet of animal-shaped rubber bands, for crying out loud! Silly is a pretty kind descriptor if you ask me. I'll violate one of the house rules and call them downright stupid.

On the week school started, I did not know what Silly Bandz were. A friend mentioned them over coffee, and how they'd been banned already in New York schools. What seemed like moments later, my kids were feverishly trading them on the playground with their peers after soccer practice. Turns out one of my kids had gotten some as a perk for sitting through her dental cleaning. Who knew?

While they've yet to be banned in our school, they are met with groans and moans from the teachers and parents alike. I'd support a ban. I will also add them to the list of throw-away entertainments I deplore: balloons, party goody bags, party noisemakers, stickers, temporary tattoos, and kids' meal prizes.

One mom friend says she was able to sway one of her kids away from these things early on, by explaining they are bad for the environment. Brain child of an Ohio company (Heather, girlfriend, you have your work cut out for you over there…) They are made in (you guessed it) China. Of silicone, or shall we say 'silly-cone'? There's an unfounded internet rumor that they are made from, get this, recycled condoms!!. What I've noticed so far is that Silly Bandz are super easy to break, lose (and find!). I've found several among the bark chips on local playgrounds. So if I can find them, so can birds. Yet unlike the birds, I have no interest in eating them (especially if they really are made from recycled condoms!). But I imagine it's only a matter of time before Silly Bandz and their imitators start showing up in the stomachs of sea turtles, fish and birds.

My older daughter might be swayed by my friend's line of green thinking. After all, we've been surrounding ourselves with the beauty and wonder of plant and animal 'Life' lately. But my younger kid? Not so much. She wants, wants, wants and doesn't have that kind of discernment yet. I will keep working on her. REDUCE, Reuse, Recycle and all that. Maybe some day it will sink in. But I do promise one thing. I won't be buying any new silly-cone rubber bands for my kids from here on out. Who's with me?

Please support Mother Earth School: land acquisition

Mother Earth School, which has hosted both of our kids to some of the most wonderful summer camp days of their lives, wants to grow. They are looking to buy land so that the school can become a full bio-immersion grade school, instead of just the year-round preschool/kindergarten and summer camps it does now. We received this email yesterday from Teacher Kelly, and hope that you can help:

The land that we are pursuing for our grades program has been purchased by a developer who is moving forward (quickly) with the city in order to build an 8 home subdivision which would be next years' "Street of Dreams".  The co-owner of the land has agreed to have a meeting with me tomorrow at 2:00 and is willing to consider selling to a buyer who 'has the money'.  I told him that we can get the money, and we are going to talk business tomorrow. 
We cannot do this alone!!!!
If you want to see an outdoor farm school in Portland, please consider one or more of the following:
1.  Please send prayers/wishes/meditations/intentions out tomorrow (Friday) around the 2 o'clock hour.
2.  Please send prayers/wishes/meditations/intentions out for money (lots of it).  Price to be negotiated tomorrow.
3.  Please make sure to attend the next grades visioning meeting - even if it is the only one you attend.  We need the energy in order to conjure momentum.  We will most likely schedule an 'emergency' meeting before the 3rd Wednesday of October (which is the next regularly scheduled meeting).
4.  Please make a tax deductible financial donation to Mother Earth School for our land acquisition.
5.  Please tell people about us!!  Encourage people to support a truly grassroots environmental movement for the next generation.
Thank you!!

A free class for Portland parents who want to green up their schools

The Center for Earth Leadership is offering a five-session class through its Eco-School Network for parents  who want to bring Earth-conscious practices into their schools. The class, How to be an Agent of Change in Your Circle of Influence, will have a focus on schools and how each individual can make a difference. You'll connect with other like-minded parents and work together to form strategies and plans for change, as well as take early steps toward implementation. The classes will be held on five Mondays: Oct. 18, 25, Nov. 1,8 and Dec. 6 from noon to 1:45pm. There is no charge for the class, but advanced registration is required. Contact Emily Klavins at 503-227-2315 to register. The Center is located at 319 SW Washington.

What's in your kid's lunch box?

When we started soccer practice the week before school, it was great to see all the families that our kids have played with for years. Especially one family that moved (boo hoo!) across the river here in Portland, but chose to stick with the same soccer team to maintain the friendships (woo hoo!). The bad news? The two back-to-back practices are right around dinner time, and last two and a half hours. A few of us decided to pack picnic dinners so the non-practicing kid could eat while their sibling was playing. Lo and behold, said dear friend pulled out a thing of beauty that had most of the kids and moms ooh'ing and aaah'ing in envy.

Behold the Planet Box (you'll have to check out their site, as I was without a camera at soccer practice). Durable. Stainless steel! Dishwasher safe. Personalize with magnets! Insulated carrying case. An investment in your child's healthy eating future, thus, spendy.

Now, if that durable stainless-steel baby is not in your budget, and sadly, it's not in ours, there are alternatives. A dizzying array! A visit to our local Food Front Coop on its second birthday yielded a 10 percent discount on the stainless steel lunch containers I'd been eyeballing for the last few months, and also work with the soft lunch 'boxes' we have and want to continue using until they are falling apart, dead as a doornail. Thus, a LunchBots Uno for both of my kids. And a little To-Go Ware Sidekick. I picked the LunchBots because they fit a large, rectangular sandwich, unlike those darned baggies and other boxes that only fit square bread (that we no longer buy). I've used the To-Go Ware to pack yogurt and peaches -- the yogurt did not leak, the peach juice did. Both of these items have easy lids that my kids can open, but will probably be best for dry goods vs. gooey, leaky stuff.



What's in your kid's lunch? Do tell about the food storage containers you love (and hate)! Feel free also to share winning lunch food items. And give yourselves a hearty pat on the back if you're packing healthy lunches day after day and resisting the Siren-call of the dreaded Lunchable, since at this point in the year, as we all strive to build routines, anything to speed up the morning sounds desirable so that the kids don't miss the bus (ahem).

Portland elementary school chef is going to the White House

The scratch kitchen and chef at one of the Portland Public elementary schools is getting some nice press these days thanks to an invitation from the White House to learn about their best practices. The test kitchen at Abernethy Elementary is run by chef Nicole Hoffman, who was trained at the Western Culinary Institute. She works with fresh produce grown in the school's garden. There's a garden coordinator. The school has a full-time PE teacher. They speak in terms of a 'full-circle wellness program.' It is heaven on a stick, if heaven were a kabob. Which is probably something they'd have on the menu, which really includes such delicious sounding dishes as chicken panang curry and falafel with cucumber raita. Hoffman will be at the White House on Friday to take part in the launch of Michelle Obama's Chefs Move to Schools program, part of her overall Let's Move campaign.

Everything about the Abernethy program seems right. The locally grown, cooked-from-scratch food. The working kitchen! A school curriculum that is integrated with the garden. The garden itself, that is funded by the PTA. The chef that is well trained and paid a decent wage (let's hope). And it's all so different from the majority of the other schools in the district. And I cringe to say, but guess, the rest of the nation.

Here in the non-test world, we have heat and serve kitchens. With no dishwashers, so that a serving spoon has to be driven to a central processing facility to get washed. As sick as that sounds, I'm not kidding. I wish I was making that up. We've had proposals for school gardens, and we did have one in the past, but the reality is that test scores and the never-ending need to fund raise take up the majority of our school's and PTA's time. And the funding. As much as Abernethy seems like the ideal, if you can't get it to pay for itself and scale out to all the schools, then it's just dreaming.

I just wrote and deleted a paragraph bemoaning the state of public school funding. Thinking about it just makes me want to jump off a cliff (well, not really, but it does make me super depressed since we are in our annual school funding crisis mode where all the potential cuts sound awful). But I'm not going there! We're going to hang onto the audacity of hope! A local school test kitchen chef is going to the White House. We have an administration and a First Lady who care about the health of our nation's kids. I'm hopeful. Knock 'em dead, Chef Nicole!! Let's find a way to scale and fund it.

Please sign the Food Revolution petition, and vote for healthier school lunches

For a while there, it seemed like everyone I knew was buzzing about Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution tv show. My kids were dying to see the little snippet where he dressed up like a pea and ran around the school yard. My mom was watching. My husband even sat through a few episodes with me.

It seemed hard to believe it would ever happen, but he got that outspoken DJ Rod to come to his side. I also love that he finally made an ally out of ornery 'lunch lady' Alice. In the last episode, schools workers, parents and others were all coming together. Jamie Oliver is just so likable  -- I rooted for him, and want him to be successful in Huntington, Alabama West Virginia and everywhere in the US! And then in a flash, the show was over.

Their website is optioning some star power, and gradually adding signers to the Food Revolution petition that Jamie Oliver will present to President Obama sometime this spring. I just hope this hasn't fallen off people's radars, you know? What with oil spills, and failed bomb attempts in New York City -- it's easy to get distracted from this important foundation for the future of our country's health. Just last week, the reports came out about childhood obesity stats in the US. Mysteriously, Oregon seems better off than some states -- but overall, it's not pretty.

Please, folks. If you haven't already signed, do so. Encourage your spouse, mom, and friends to add their vote for healthier school lunches for our kids. 

Super school sign: idle free zone!

Without much ado, this sign was posted at our elementary school earlier in the year. I wish it stood out a little more. I wish it had some flashing lights, saying 'Hey! Look at me! I'm talking to YOU!' It's set back about six feet from the sidewalk and parking lot, hanging with the other signs that state the school is a smoke-free zone and that no skateboarding is allowed. But I do like what it says:

• IDLE FREE ZONE
• TURN ENGINE OFF
• Young Lungs at Work

I also wish it had a special robotic arm that would extend out and knock on the windshield of the folks who don't seem to think this message applies to them. But that's just crazy talk. Perhaps they aren't aware of the many hazards of idling a car? Just a friendly little robotic arm tap. Nothing too aggressive.

Kudos to the Portland Office of Transportation for making the sign. I'd love to see one of these babies posted near every playground, school and library in the country. Like most things, if you just make people aware of the issues, they'll probably do the right thing. Baby steps.

Family friendly field trip to a transfer station?

Our school's green team is contemplating something a bit radical. A field trip. With kids. To the transfer station. Also known as 'the dump.'

I went to the transfer station while in Master Recycler training. I wasn't able to take a picture that really captured the vastness or essence of the transfer station. But I do kind of like this one:

The transfer station is huge. There's garbage trucks and pickup trucks and the hazardous waste section. There's the yard debris and construction debris. And piles of broken down sofas. And then the mountains and mountains of smelly stuff that is household garbage. You know. The bags of dog poop. The vacuum cleaner bags. The dinners our kids didn't finish. Oh and all the stuff from restaurants and school cafeterias and hospitals. Did I forget to mention the rats? The rats LOVE the transfer station, especially when food waste is mixed in. There's giant mechanical compactors and mind-boggling stats about the tons and tons of waste that are deposited here, then transferred to the landfill on a daily basis. Then of course, there's the smell. That's the primary reason a picture can't do it justice. The smell is hard to describe, but I'd guess you can imagine. The smell is not to be forgotten.

It is my humble opinion that anyone who benefits from municipal curbside waste collection should visit a transfer station and/or a landfill so that they can get down on their knees and thank the people who do this important job for them. I think it would make them pay their garbage/recycling bills with glee! They might start adding in tips for the haulers!

But kids? Not so sure. This field trip is planned for next month. I have a 5 and an 8 year old. Would they understand the enormity and importance of the job these people do? Or would they only complain about the horrific smell? Tell me, have you or would you take your kids to a transfer station or landfill?

Finding childcare that supports your green choices

A green-minded friend just had her first baby: a home-birth, mom, dad and babe are all doing swell -- lack of sleep, that crazy joyful adrenalin high, adoring new grandparents -- you know the drill. They've chosen breastfeeding and cloth diapers. Now the trick is to find a daycare when the mom goes back to work that wouldn't laugh her out of town when asked to support those green choices. Here's her dilemma:

we're not sure a nanny makes sense financially and a daycare facility just isn't great for an infant (think put in a bouncy seat in the corner) not to mention they're expensive, so we're thinking a small group in home daycare makes the most sense. they are affordable, about half the cost of daycare, and i like the child:adult ratio. the trick with these of course is finding the right person in the right location. we're ideally looking for one that is willing to do cloth diapers, supports breastfeeding by giving pumped breastmilk and preferably incorporates green activities, education, and outdoor adventures into their daily routine, not to mention good, wholesome food.

So, how did you find daycare for your infant or older children that was affordable and in-line with the green choices you've chosen in raising your child? I did suggest that my friend check out the Eco-Healthy Childcare Directory as a jumping off point. 

Easy home-made valentines with cardboard and file folders

Planning ahead has never been a strength in this family. Great ideas usually arrive a day late and a dollar short. But not so this year with valentines! We stumbled upon a cute and easy Reduce/Reuse idea for home-made valentines cards thanks to the Martha Steward Living magazine that mysteriously arrived in my mailbox a few weeks back (even thought I've not subscribed). Martha's February issue had many mouthwatering Valentines' Day inspirations, most of which we ignored (out waistlines will thank us later). But we did like an idea she had about making stamps with corrugated cardboard -- hers were little rosettes. We modified her idea and made hearts. Here's what the stamps look like:

We used washable Crayola kid paints to ink the stamps (because of course we ended up with paint on our noses to our toes). Once the valentines dried overnight, the kids addressed and signed their cards. Here are some finished cards:


Easy peasy. No glitter. No mess. One-of-a-kid valentines. Nothing new or store-bought with characters and smart-alecky sayings. We had plenty of corrugated cardboard in the recycling bin to make our stamps. It did turn out that I had no cardstock for the cards, but we found a wealth of old file folders that were willing to be down-cycled into valentines.

If you have any easy valentines ideas you'd like to share (especially those that Reduce / Reuse materials creatively), please send us a description and a photo. We'll feature them throughout the week. Let love with a spirit of Reduce / Reuse / Recycle fill the air for this year's Valentine's Day!