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Celebrate Dr. Seuss’s Birthday

 Celebrate dr seuss birthday

This is the week to talk about Green Eggs and Ham and The Lorax with your kids. Why? Well it’s Dr. Seuss’s birthday on March 2nd. Dr. Theodore Geisel’s wonderful story books deserve a special time to celebrate the silliness of them.  Our own collection of Dr. Seuss books are hand-me-downs, some from my own childhood and others from my younger cousins. I love sharing them with my kids and laugh at their questions about all the funny things everywhere. We had a fun Dr. Seuss party and here’s some fun food and decorating ideas.

READ

No question the best way to celebrate Dr. Seuss book’s is to read them. You may be reading aloud with your little ones like us, or you get to listen to young readers work their way through funny phrases. Read Across America Day is this week and there are numerous events to get involved. “Grab Your Hat and Read with the Cat” is the theme of Read Across America week for 2013. Pottery Barn Kids will be hosting a special story time and craft activities to celebrate Dr. Seuss. A “Cat-a-Van” will travel the country stopping at 17 cities to promote literacy and giveaway more than 20,000 books.

Dr. Suess Books RandomRecycling

Be green and borrow Dr. Seuss books from your local library. If you want to fill in your own collection, Toys R Us has a special buy 2 get the 3rd free sale this week. We also have the Dr. Seuss app from the Apple Store. It’s a collection of stories and it has both the read aloud or read to me functions. I love having these books on hand when we travel!

WATCH

My kids are PBS kids and they love watching The Cat in the Hat. My daughter calls Nick and Sally “friends.” This Friday, there will be two new episodes on PBS Kids. THE CAT IN THE HAT KNOWS A LOT ABOUT THAT! will feature two brand new episodes. “Rumbly Tumbly / Planet Name Game” features a super shrunken trip into Thing One’s stomach as well as a whirlwind trip to each of the eight planets, and “Top of the Sky / Jiggle Bones” follows the Cat, Nick and Sally as they travel to Audrey the Astronaut’s space station and visit Dr. Giggles to see why bones are important.

LEARN

Use the books as inspiration to do a project with the kids. Here are a few I came across that look fun!

  • Create silly photo props. Let the kids take some pictures with their Thing 1 and Thing 2 hair. 
  • Make Silly Socks. We may need these for “Wacky Wednesday” at preschool this week.
  • Who-ville hair anyone?
  • Decorate a Lorax door. Talk about the message of The Lorax and share some ways to be green with your kids.
  • Handprints Thing 1 and Thing 2.
  • Did you know Dr. Seuss is a SigEp? My husband reminds me every time we read one of his books. 😉

Happy Dr. Seuss week! Please share any events or happenings in your school.

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Teaching Young Children to be Eco-Responsible

One question I get asked often is, “How did you learn how to be green?” For me, it’s an ongoing learning process. However, most of what I do was taught to me by my parents. If anyone could live off the land, it would be my Dad. He taught our family a lot about making the most of our resources, reducing our waste impact, and growing much of our own food in the summer months. One could also say he is really frugal, which spearheaded a lot of these routines. Totally true, but he taught me many valuable lessons about how be eco-responsible well before it became the trendy thing to do.

Teach Kids to be Green

I walked around the house the past few weeks looking at all the ways I encourage and teach my kids to be green. Some are simple words we use, others are the systems we have in place for our family. The list below is ways that work for our family, with children four and under. As they grow, I expect this list will change and hopefully expand as they take on more responsibilities.

Recycling Bin for Closet

  • Recycling station is accessible and easy to understand. The kids also learn what can and can’t be recycled. 
  • Compost is a part of their vocabulary; they know to save their banana peels and apple cores for the shiny bucket under the sink.
  • Walk to do errands instead of driving
  • Offer paper from the recycling bin for coloring. Explain the importance of using both sides of a paper.
  • Turning off lights when we leave the room.
  • Conserving water. We encourage this while brushing teeth, washing hands and while washing dishes.
  • Use a shower timer. Both kids love showers and they know that when the timer is up, it’s time to get out.
  • Not wasting food. Still tough for them to understand, I’m trying to be more mindful of reducing their portions and let them ask for seconds instead.
  • Spending time outdoors instead of in front of the TV
  • Explaining the idea of making donations when we have too much toy clutter.
  • Saving clothes that are too small for younger family members. (JJ thinks his girl cousin will wear all of his too-small clothes!)
  • Reusing the same glass throughout the day.
  • Teaching the kids how to cook and talk about where ingredients come from. We had a great conversation the other day when Madison asked if we could make maple syrup as our afternoon project.
  • Involve them in gardening if you have the space. Even if it’s just a pot of basil on the windowsill, let them help water and nurture the plant.
  • Reuse their artwork as wrapping paper or use what’s on hand, like newspaper.

Newspaper Wrapping Paper

What else do you practice in your home to educate kids to be green?

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Valentine’s Day Craft Party For The Littles

Prior to the arrival of Blizzard Nemo, our friend Susan hosted a wonderful Valentine’s Day party for some little preschoolers. It was a cute morning filled with craft projects, cupcakes, glitter glue and coloring.

Valentine's Day Cupcake

All he remembers from the party is this cupcake.

Valentine's Day Preschool Card Making Party

Card making craft time for the kids. Stamps, glitter glue and stickers for their special Valentine.

Gingerbread house for Valentine's Day

Who says gingerbread houses are just for Christmas time?

Valentine's Day craft party

Lunch time with heart-shaped peanut butter and jelly sammies.

Pom Pom Crafts

Who can resist using some fun pom poms.

Toddler Valentine's Day craft tableUse paper to cover the table for toddlers, they can decorate it themselves!

Valentine's Day Outfits

They are trying to make hearts with their hands.

Valentine's Day tights

How cute are all those tights!

Janie and Jack bow shirt

One very happy girl!

Heart Felt Valentine's Day BagsAdorable goodie bags!

Personalized coloring page

The perfect parting gift~ a personalized coloring page from Frecklebox.

Thank you Susan for hosting a wonderful party! It was great to watch the girls make some masterpieces, both with their Valentine’s day cards and their cupcakes. Hope everyone has a Happy Valentine’s Day this week! If you still need some inspiration, stop by and see what’s new on my Valentine’s Day Pinterest board.

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Make the Switch to a Reusable Squeeze Pouch

Reusable Squeeze Pouch

We are big fans of the applesauce squeeze pouches.  They are awesome for travel, church and the playground.  However, I’m not a big fan of the waste they create, and also the price tag.  So I asked around and discovered a reusable squeeze pouch.  My friend Amanda at The LittleLilyPad said her friend tested out five different options and this was the best one, the BEABA Babypote.

I don’t understand the name, but I do know that it works.  It’s easy to fill, easy to clean and both kids can work it.  For the little guy, I do have to help him get the last bit out, but that is no different from the applesauce squeezes sold in the store.  Plus, I discovered my choice in apple squeeze pouches  got a C+ rating from Fooducate. (an awesome iPhone app if you are interested) Turns out there is a lot of hidden sugar in each pouch.

I have only put in my homemade applesauce recipe, but I expect it would work great for traveling with your own homemade baby food.  I plan to make some mixes with fresh summer fruits, like banana blueberry or a raspberry apple blend.

Happy travels!

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Disclosure: I bought this product on my own and was not compensated for this post. Affiliate links are included in this post. I’m sharing this post with Sustainable Ways & Your Green Resource, and Tuesday Baby Link Up.

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Strawberry Fruit Roll-ups

Strawberry Fruit roll-ups, or fruit leather, are probably the kids’ favorite snack right now.  Both get excited when they see the blender come out.  The tricky part is the one year old is so slow eating his, big sister tries to take what he hasn’t eaten yet!

Strawberry Fruit Leather
Ingredients
1 lb Fresh Strawberries  
2 tablespoons honey

Instructions
Wash strawberries and remove the green stems.

Place strawberries and honey in a blender and puree.

Pour strawberry mix on a dehydrator tray with the fruit leather tray. Spread evenly.

Cook at 135 degrees overnight, or about 10 hours.
This is a bit trickier with an oven, as friends have confirmed that getting an evenly cooked roll-up is difficult. However, you can cook it on a very low oven temp on a parchment lined baking sheet.  I would advise using a cookie sheet with no sides to allow for better air flow, or turn on the convection oven blower.

It will be done when there are no sticky spots.  You want it to be pliable, not brittle.
Let cool completely, then peel fruit leather from tray and move to parchment paper.

Little hands got to this before I could get my picture!

Roll the paper and fruit leather together into a long roll.  Cut with scissors into desired length.  Store in an airtight container or zip top bag.

Strawberry Fruit Leather RandomRecycling.com

See the previous post for the Cinnamon Apple Ring recipe.
Enjoy!

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