Not only is recycling good for the environment, it can help save you money, and you can recycle creatively! You can transform baby food jars, paper bags, orphaned socks, and several other items into crafty masterpieces. Let's all 'Craft Green'.

Make sure any items you recycle into crafts are clean and dry - most can be washed in hot soapy water. You should also make sure there are no sharp edges or small parts which may pose a choking hazard for younger kids. Simply make sure you use common sense before you use your imagination!

Please use you imagination when crafting green (recycling items you might normally throw away to create great craft projects, games, and more). Most importantly enjoy this experience.

We spend a lot of time and effort here trying to share ideas and examples of how to reconnect children with the outdoor world and encourage them to embrace sustainable living. 

How about a simple exercise which can help develop an appreciation for wildlife and teach sustainable behavior?  Help out your neighbor avian population while recycling. A simple birdhouse can be constructed out of an old milk carton. After washing the carton out, cut a two-inch hole on one side, stick a short pencil stub under the hole for a perch, and seal the top with waterproof tape. Use a piece of wire or cord to hang the birdhouse on a tree. Not only are you helping wildlife, but you are also reusing materials that otherwise would have gone into the garbage.

This summer, why not embark on some of these planet-friendly activities with your kids? You’ll foster in them a love for the environment and sustainable action, and have fun at the same time.

• Green is the new black. When your kids pester you for the latest fashions, discuss ways that you can be creative with their old clothes or personalize ones that you buy secondhand at a local thrift shop. Recycle them into new creations by choosing a saying or picture and printing it onto t-shirt transfer paper to iron onto their t-shirts. Add some personality to clothes by using fabric paint to stencil or free-style a design. Sew patches, sequins, trim, ribbons or buttons onto clothes or bags.  Or throw a clothes and toys swap with other families that have kids the same age: ask each family to bring cds, dvds, books, video games, clothes and toys they no longer use to swap for “new to you” items.

• Handmade gifts are from the heart. Making handmade soap is good clean fun for everyone. There are a multitude of recipes online for soap, face-cleansing masks and other spa essentials.


• Wrap it up. Have your children wrap gifts with homemade wrapping paper made from old calendars, newspaper comics, paper bags, unwanted magazines, cereal boxes, reusable tins, baskets or old posters. Skip the ribbons and bows and go on a nature hunt for greenery that dries well.


• Turn off the TV and plan a naturally fun family trip. Go for a bike ride, nature walk or beach day, or play in the park. 


• Carpool with other families whose children go to the same school as yours.


• Recycle and compost as a family. But most importantly, teach them how to REDUCE.  Remember, recycling and composting is great, but reducing the amount you buy really takes the stress off the planet. 


• Volunteer as a family. Join one of the many volunteer programs with an established local organization or come up with your own family programme, for example, by planning your own marine or land clean-up day.


• Plant a family garden. Space restriction is not an excuse! Container gardening is fun and there are free courses at most local nurseries to help get you started.


• Pack waste-free lunches for the entire family. Get your kids in on the fun by having them chop fruit and veggies for lunch and come up with ways to make fun meals and snacks with you rather than relying on processed, individually wrapped sizes. Have kids decorate their reusable containers with stickers or draw on their Tupperware with permanent markers to personalise them.


• Add environmentally conscious chores to your rewards chart or allowance plan, such as putting the compost in the compost bin, putting recyclables out, checking that the lights are off when not in use, and unplugging appliances when not in use so that they don’t draw idle current.

Did you children ever wonder what life is like under water?

Well now is your chance to help them find out where different insects and their larvae or nymphs live in a stream. The critter scope is an exploring tool that can peek into the lifestyles of the wet and wiggly world.

Materials

• a can opener
• a clean coffee can or large juice can
• waterproof tape or duct tape
• clear plastic wrap
• a large and strong rubber band
• scissors

Procedure

1. Carefully remove both ends of the can and cover sharp edges with tape.
2. Place plastic wrap around one end of the can, leaving about one inch extra around the edge.
3. Put a rubber band around the can and plastic to keep the plastic wrap tight.
4. Cut excess plastic wrap away and put tape over the rubber band and plastic wrap.
5. Take your critter scope for a test run in a sink. Look through the open end and place the closed end (the one with the plastic on it) in the water.
6. Now you are able to visit the wet and wiggly world of a stream.

Note: You might want to try using a clear plastic cover from a fast food salad as a critter scope too!

It is never too soon to start a savings account for your children, but in today's banking reality where do you start? Who can you trust? Although small in overall deposits and branch numbers there is a growing trend towards responsible or green banking. If there was ever a way to start you children down the green path and savings account which a socially responsible bank would seem to be a good start.

What is going on? The word Green is everywhere. Green TV shows, Green Industry, Green Facebook Applications enough already. What happened to getting out there and doing something. Sure green is the new gold, it's cool it's hip, but nothing has changed. We as a people are still amazing lazy. "Alright NBC is a green company. Now I'm going to sit here on the couch for a few hours do nothing just getting fatter and watsing electricy." 

Come guys, we can do better. How about turning that TV off. Better yet just get ride of it. How many Law and Order epsisodes can you really watch? As parenets we are teaching our children through our actions. So this wekend why not grab the kids and tour some of the most eco-freindly homes in your area. Show them how cool the technology is. If you are really daring, go out and by a solar cell. Then you can truely say you are green.

If you think so get to work. http://99designs.com/contests/20675/brief

There are not many more important days highlighted on the calender of the green conscious families across the US and the world. This week marks the 39th anniversary of Earth Day. Responding to widespread environmental degradation, Gaylord Nelson, a United States Senator from Wisconsin, called for an environmental teach-in, or Earth Day, to be held on April 22, 1970. Over 20 million people participated that year, and Earth Day is now observed each year on April 22 by more than 500 million people and national governments in 175 countries.

Now in it's 39th year Earth Day has a large following within the green community, but it simply is not enough. Let's celebrate Earth Day 2009 by reaching out to those less inclined to join in, to try and bridge the divide. It is in everyone best interest that Earth Day get bigger and bigger each year. We have come so far but have so far to go.

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