Raising Environmentalists Without Rallies

Ever since I was 4 years old I have been going to a rustic cabin on a remote lake in Ontario Canada with my family. The water is clean enough to drink right from the lake, there are few people and there are more stars at night than a city dweller could ever imagine. Over the years this became a place where I recharged my soul for the year ahead. It is where I feel one with all of creation. It became sacred to me by the time I was 8. Around that time, we heard that the government was going to open up the land to logging and a road was going to be built near our cabin. Prior to that time we had to take a boat across a 10 mile lake to reach our cabin. I am sure the adults initially saw this as a relief and a welcome convenience. My brother and I were horrified. I felt as if I had been punched in the stomach. After I cried over the news, I became angry and wrote a letter to the Prime Minister of Canada letting him know how logging was going to ruin this place for my family and all the animals that lived here. This was my first act as an environmentalist.

I share this story to illustrate that I did not learn to protect the earth from anything I was taught at school, from Earth Day celebrations or from hearing about pollution in the news. I learned to be an environmentalist when something I felt a deep connection to was about to be taken away. I felt the wrongness of it in my core, even at that young age.

As an environmentalist I hope to share my convictions with my own children in hopes that they too will learn to live lightly and make the world a better place. I have been tempted to take my children to rallies and I admit that I have shared too many of my frustrations about the latest political/environmental clash from the news. Our young children don't need to know what is wrong with the world, at least not yet. Adult problems are for adult to work on. Children these days have enough of the despair of the adult world to carry around on their shoulders. What young children need is to spend time in nature in a state of wonder and awe. They need to find their own sacred places that become a part of who they are. My hope is that one day they too will be enraged at threats to the environment, but not because of what I have taught them, but because of how they have lived.

Spelunking at Ledge Park

I grew up in Wisconsin and have lived here my entire life minus three years, yet I am still discovering new and wonderful places. Our family's new favorite place to go is Ledge Park in Dodge County. This park is a few miles East of Horicon at the base of the the Horicon Marsh. It is about a 50 minute drive from the Lake Country area. The park has camping and the marsh, effigy mounds and the Wild Goose bike trail are all nearby. 

What makes this park so wonderful is the Ledge trail. This is a cluster of big rocks that make a series of "open caves" (feel like caves but are open at the top). Kids and adults alike have a fantastic time exploring and climbing. Both times we have been there, the kids were literally squealing with delight! 

Courtney and I would to hear about your favorite nature outings so we can keep discovering.

Nature Kids - Taking a Power Vacation

This month Kris and I will be blogging about ideas for exploring nature with your kids, places in and around Lake Country that are great for nature hikes, and ways to get your kids outside. We hope you will add your favorite places and ideas in the comments!

This weekend my husband and I hosted our 6th annual Cousin Camp, an event we host during the summer for our nieces and nephews. Each year we have a different theme (space camp, archeology camp, Survivor camp...) and this year the theme was "Unplugged". The premise was that no electricity could be used during camp (2 days). This theme paved the way for many cool activities (like tubing down the Bark River, as shown above) and it was great how not using electricity became a sort of game for the kids. Actually, pretty soon it was apparent that no one even missed the electricity... brushing teeth by the light of the campfire was fun, not a sacrifice. After camp my husband mentioned that we ourselves should have occasional "power vacations" where we turn off the power for a couple days. I thought this was a really cool idea and a great thing to do with kids as summer break winds down. What can you do on a "power vacation"? Here are just a few ideas:

• Spend the whole day outside, making it a goal to not go inside (except perhaps to use the bathroom!)
• Make tin can lanterns in preparation for an evening by candlelight
• Cook dinner over a camp stove or campfire
• Make a solar oven and bake cookies or some other goodies
• Play outdoor games, a great list of all those old-time games can be found here
• Build something (we built a play fort during camp using no power tools... the kids had a blast using old-time, manual drills and saws)
• Put on an outdoor play
• Read
• Talk amongst yourselves
• Go on a nature hike. Then go on another. Then another. Re-visit the same trail at different times of the day and see how it changes.
• Count stars
• Sleep in a tent
• Make your own music
• Bust out your old Snoopy Sno-cone maker or ice cream maker and build muscles while making tasty treats

The list could go on and on, of course, this is just a start. The point is to take yourself off the grid for a day and see where it takes you.

Another great reusable bag option

Check out this reusable bag company, Bags on the Run, http://www.bagsontherun.com/
They are inexpensive ($1.50) so you can get some extras for the trunk of your car so you don't have the "I'd like to use cloth, but I keep forgetting my bags" excuse. I like the option of getting an organization logo printed-could be a great school or church fundraiser or promo.

Clean Your Plate

I grew up in the era where you ate everything off your plate, without complaint, before you were excused from the dinner table. While I wish I could have carried over the "without complaint" part, I made a decision early on in parenting not to force my children to eat. I wanted them to learn to listen to their own bodies rather than eat food simply because it was there. We do have rules-they need to try everything (3 bites) and eat something from every food group. I also give them a small helping and encourage them to finish that before having seconds on what they love. And, even though I said I would never do it, we do bribe them with desert.

I assume our household is not unique in that we have a lot of food that goes to waste. I recently heard that the national average is 40%. Scary! I am pretty sure that we come in below that number. I wrap up half-eaten sandwiches for another lunch and reserve the same helping a few times rather than throwing it away (don't tell my kids). A friend of mine has a diet plan where she just eats what her kids have left over (she always lost her pregnancy fat quickly!). I tended to do the opposite and eat my meal PLUS the rejected bread crusts. At some point I stopped doing this deciding that I was worth more than PB&J bread crusts.

Of course those crusts don't just go in the garbage! In our house food gets recycled too. Here are our top recycling systems

1. Dog and cat. I honestly don't know how anyone could have a toddler without a pet. I'd be spending all day cleaning the floor. I remember one of the first times we ate out at a restaurant and I was horrified to see how much food ended up on the floor. With a dog, I never knew. The downside....fat pets.

2. Chickens. Our girls get many savory morsels. They especially love those over-rip strawberries that are rejected by everyone but still free of mold

3. Worms. Yep, we've got a bin of red worms in our basement that eat some of our fruit and veggie scraps. Vermicomposting is a fun educational project and it is amazing how these worms turn food into good fertilizer for the garden. They are so easy that they we have been unable to kill them despite months of neglect. The little ones love picking out (saving) the worms from the finished compost come springtime. Another bonus-good fishing worms!

4. Outdoor compost. This is a must-have for families. I now see all the waste as a RESOURCE! I don't encourage waste, obviously, but I also don't stress about it either. Todays tossed banana peel is tomorrow's garden loam. My kids know that I am a compost freak and just love seeing how this food and weeds get transformed into dark rich soil every season. It is another perfect educational opportunity to learn all about micro-organisms, soil life and bugs and worms. Another bonus-taking out the compost bucket is a easy do-able chore for almost any age child.

Instead of "clean your plate", my kids will have memories of me calling out "scrape your plate"

kudos to Camp Invention

My son is attending Camp Invention this week and I was happy to see that not only are the kids building their inventions out of broken appliances and recyclables, but they are being taught how to disassemble their contraptions at the end of the week to separate out trash from items that can be recycled. They were taught that 85% of household waste is recyclable and that Waukesha Co has a higher rate of recycling than the nation as a whole. One of their "challenges" is to figure out ways to clean up a polluted Sludge City (today was contaminated water). It is always nice as a parent when I know my kids are hearing the same message away from home as in the home. Thank you Camp Invention.

Free Lunch at Mom's

We can't have a Green Parenting month without mention of the environmental benefits of breastfeeding. I realize that this is a decision that can only be made at a specific time in a woman's life and that not every woman or baby can breastfeed, even if they wish to (although, medically, this is not common). I also realize that there are many other health and personal benefits that breastfeeding families enjoy, but that is a topic for another blog. For anyone out there reading this who might be expecting or planning a pregnancy, here are the reasons it fits with Green Parenting:

Think about the energy that goes into making formula. First you have to either grow soybeans or have a dairy production-both that require lots of energy input and chemicals such as pesticides and hormones. Yes, I realize that there are organic formulas out there which is wonderful for those unable to breastfeed, but this isn't the choice made by the majority of formula-feeding parents. That commodity is then sent to a plant to be processed and then likely another plant to be made into formula. Other chemical vitamins must also be produced, shipped and then added to the formula as well. The product is then shipped to stores around the country. Parents then drive to the stores to buy it and mix it with water in bottles (that also had to be manufactured, most from plastic). This doesn't count the miles put on the cars of all the 20-something sales reps as they canvas the OB/GYN's offices or other marketing. Then there is the energy output to heat the formula and the energy needed to clean the bottles.

Now lets talk about the energy needed to breastfeed. Human milk is made from the energy from food that the mom eats or that is stored in her fat cells. Talk about sustainability! What if we could run cars off fat cells? What mom doesn't have a bit extra at the end of a pregnancy? The milk is the perfect temperature, always at the ready, comes in it's own attractive container and doesn't need to be refrigerated between feedings. All that and healthy too.

If you are not in a point in your life to be making a decision about breastfeeding, you can still help by supporting others that do make this choice. Smile when you see a breastfeeding mom in public, bring a meal or other help to a new mom, stand up for a baby's right to eat wherever he/she is hungry (not in the public restroom), support breastfeeding moms in your workplace when they need to take breaks to pump milk.

If you are expecting or a new mom with breastfeeding questions or concerns, check out a local La Leche League group at http://www.lllofwi.org/
There are several groups that meet monthly in Waukesha County. Trained leaders are available for telephone help 7 days a week.