Nature Play Groups

August 7, 2009 by admin · 8 Comments 

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While reading Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv I decided to start “Nature Days” and invite others to come along. Some of my fondest memories growing up were unstructured “play times” in nature.

When I need to calm down, take a breath or need to get out of a “funk” I find myself thinking of times spent in nature as a child. These events included exploring the woods behind our home in Maryland, walking along the Chesapeake Bay, exploring the tide pools in Maine, hiking the mountains in Utah and impromptu excursions on the side of the road to play in fields of wildflowers. I hope I can teach my children the strength they can take from nature, to allow them to be able to have their own memories involving the outdoors and learn how beautiful everything around them really is.

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The Nature Days we host with the local community are quite simple and low key. We meet together to explore nature without set activities; we just let the kids play and explore nature. It is a wonderful monthly experience for the children in my local community. Recent studies show that children are smarter, more cooperative, happier and healthier when they have frequent opportunities for free and unstructured play in nature. It gives them the chance to explore, dream, pretend, experiment and come to their own conclusions all at their own pace.

Start a Nature Days with your friends in your community! It will be a great opportunity to let your children enjoy nature along with other children. No playground, no toys, no itinerary. You can meet from anywhere to a fishing hole to a dry patch of desert.

Filed under: Green I Am, Healthy Living, Recent Posts
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Cooking Techniques

August 5, 2009 by admin · 1 Comment 

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You can simply and easily reduce your carbon footprint, save money on your power bill and teach your kids through example how to help the earth just by tweaking your cooking techniques a bit!

Did you know:

  • Choose the right size pan for cooking and keep the lid on for most of the cooking process to reduce energy use by up to 90%.
  • Cook in batches! Plan out your family’s meals and prepare enough for several meals. Just freeze, refrigerate or dehydrate the remaining portions. It will use up less energy and make preparing meals for your family quite a bit easier!
  • Cook several items on top of each other in a stacked steamer to get the most out of the energy you use.
  • Try one-dish meals; they are easier for you but also use about a third of the energy than cooking a meal using tons of different pans. This means you can feel good about cooking a pot of diry rice, casserole, paella, etc. and also have less cleanup!
  • Stop checking! You waste heat and energy every time you open up the stove or crockpot to take a peek.
  • Don’t preheat the oven when it’s not required. For some recipes it is critical you do this but for manyyou don’t need to.
  • Stay away from prepackaged meals. Most of the time they aren’t terribly tasty and lack nutrients and fresh ingredients. Instead have a short list of go-to meals you know you have the ingredients for and are easy to cook.

For example, in my home we like to roast a large amount of butternut squash and use some of it that day, refrigerate some for the rest of the week and freeze the rest for the remaining month. We make butternut squash ravioli, lasagna, pancakes and even layer it in a sandwich in place of cheese. This makes putting together my family’s meals so much easier and also saves a lot of energy!

Filed under: I Can Help Too, Recent Posts
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Breathtaking

August 3, 2009 by admin · 20 Comments 

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Breathtaking! It reminds me how lucky I am to live on this beautiful Earth.

Filed under: Healthy Living, Recent Posts
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