Seven Words Kids Should Know

Image by Adventures in Librarianship via Flickr

The Oxford Junior Dictionary raised some eyebrows recently when they swapped some words in the new edition of the dictionary - chatroom, voicemail, and blog were added to the dictionary. Of course, they can't make the book heavier so those words came at the expense of words like dandelion, fern, porpoise, spinach, and brook. Apparently, words related to nature (everything from weeds to flowers to vegetables) didn't fair well in the update. They did add a few new words that I like - biodegradable, drought, and endangered.

That got me thinking about what words we should be teaching our children as they grow up. They hear the word "green" all the time in the media, but what about words that more accurately describe the issues our planet is facing? My choice for words to talk to my kids about are listed below. To see kid-friendly defintions, as well as many other words, click the link for each word which will take you to an Ecology Dictionary on PlanetPals.

• sustainability

  Image via Wikipedia

• climate change
• greenhouse gas
• conservation
• carbon footprint
• deforestation
• fossil fuel

My kids know just a few of these words - carbon footprint because we measured ours recently and climate change because they know about the challenge the polar bears are having - so we definitely have some room to grow our minds this summer. What words do you want your children to know?

The Vegetable Experiment - Part I

The three-bite rule.
The no-thank you bite.
The shred-it-and-hide-it-in-the-sauce trick.

In my quest to get a morsel of vegetable into my seven-year-old's tummy, I have tried all of the above and more - everything from patiently waiting ("let the child decide when he's ready to eat the vegetable") to bribing with dessert - I know it's not recommended, but it does work sometimes...

I suppose I can't complain. He happily eats peas and corn, although a fellow mom in the same shoes pointed out to me that corn hardly qualifies - it's kind of like counting french fries as a vegetable. Although he will suffer through 1 baby carrot, 1 green bean, 1 broccoli stem, or 1 forkful of lettuce, the offending vegetable must first be drowned in either parmesan cheese or ranch dip. I'm not sure its worth it based on the microscopic amount of vegetable he actually ingests on these occasions.


My new plan is The Vegetable Experiment. Let him plant the vegetables, let him watch them grow, let him care for them, let him eat them. OK, I realize that the final step may be a complete bust. The mom I mentioned above said she is on her 3rd garden and her son's vast vegetable palate is still limited to salsa and tomato sauce.

Regardless, we're plunging forward. The seeds have been planted and they are now growing in Stephen's room where they can get a warm and sunny start. He was thrilled to see them pop up on Day 1 (to be honest, as the neophyte gardener that I am, I was quite surprised) and now thinks on Day 4 that they've outgrown their peat pellets. I'm voting for a little longer inside.

Is he going to eat the vegetables? I have no idea, but I figure we'll benefit in other ways - fresh organic vegetables that did not have to be trucked across the country or shipped around the world to make it to our table. While I would love it if he would try something new, I'm vowing to just enjoy the process. If all goes well with the garden, at least I'll have yummy veggies to eat this summer!

Snack Mom Reduces Game Day Waste

It's game day and you're on the list as "snack parent" for the day. What do you do? Run to the grocery store and pick up one of those snack packs filled with Doritos and a case of water bottles?

I have absolutely been that mom - and have even done it during the game when I suddenly realized it was my day! I figured this week was my chance to redeem myself - what could I provide if I had some advance planning?

The goal was to reduce the waste, while still providing a healthy, fun snack for the kids. I settled on local Gala apples, homemade chocolate chip cookies, and cans of Crayons (a new all-natural, locally produced juice). I originally considered a big thermos of juice and paper cups, but I know, as a parent, that most of us are in a hurry to get home after an evening game so I went with something that was portable and recyclable instead.

One kid did ask what the fruit was for and then happily grabbed one when I told him it was part of the snack. That tells you how often we parents tend to offer healthy snacks after games.

I do admit it took more time to make the cookies than run to the store, but my younger son loves cookies and I rarely make them (because then I eat all of them) so it was worth it. The extras went to school today for Support Teacher Appreciation Day so we had homemade gifts for the teachers and no leftovers for me. Perfect!

Greener School Lunches

180 school days times two children = 360 packed lunches in my household. That's a lot of lunches! While my greatest challenge remains finding healthy food that my children will actually eat, another struggle is how to avoid all that plastic baggie waste. For me, I try to keep the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle mantra in mind with their lunches.

My solution was helped by the fact that from an early age, my kids refused to eat sandwiches. Why, I never could figure out, since they will eat bread, meat, and cheese separately, but that's another story. My default answer became a thermos full of last night's leftovers. This way they get to reuse the leftover food and we get to reduce the overall waste factor, by not using a plastic sandwich bag. The thermoses have contained everything from chicken and veggies to soup to spaghetti.

For all the other items (fruits, veggies, crackers, etc.), I use reusable plastic snack containers. Truthfully, these are the same ones I've been using since they were babies with their first snack of Cheerios, but they do the trick. They also each take a reusable water bottles and plastic silverware. I used to send them with cloth napkins, but those came back unused everyday, so I gave up. Who was I kidding? Little boys don't use napkins of any kind!

I'm happy that we skip the plastic baggie route most days, but we still have room for improvement. One of my kids gets a small can of apple juice each day, while the other buys a carton of milk. While these items can be recycled, I don't think that's currently happening. The school did just send out a notice on reducing its carbon footprint, so I'm going to make a note to follow-up on their in-class recycling options. They also each usually get a small yogurt (hiding under the carrots in the picture). I tried converting to home-packed containers of yogurt that come from the larger tubs from the store. It would be cheaper and there would be less waste, but I haven't sold the kids on that idea yet - their favorite flavor/brand doesn't come in the big containers. Ah well...

There are many options for going green with school lunches including reusable sandwich wraps, but I have yet to try these. I think it's all about what works for each family and our plan seems to be working for now. Anyone else have other tips or tricks?