Eco-Friendly Families
Together, your family can take eco-actions that help the planet while preserving energy and saving money.
Cherylyn Feierabend
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Eco-Friendly Families
Hey there! You’re listening to the Mighty Mommy with some quick and dirty tips for practical parenting.
Our guest writer this week is Full time mother, eco-enthusiast and author Helen Coronato. She offers environmentally savvy ideas and strategies in Eco-Friendly Families–a book that encourages families to embrace greener living by making practical changes in their everyday lives.
Regardless of whether you are in the beginning stages of going green or have knitted your own reusable bags to bring to the grocery store, the following tips can help you make going green a family event.
Start by preparing and serving a green dinner. Younger children may be hearing “green” a lot, but seeing (and tasting!) can help drive the point home. Try spinach noodles topped with butter and parmesan cheese. The taste is mild and the consistency is exactly like traditional pasta, but the health benefits are greater. Serve with cut up cantaloupe, sliced pears with nut butters for dipping, and frozen green grapes. Decorate outdoor picnic tables with fresh “flowers” like lawn-picked dandelions. Remember that going green is fun, so avoid using words like “chores” or “errands” at your eco-event. Focusing on activities, field trips and family time helps set a positive tone for your family.
While enjoying dinner with family and friends, share ways to green your vacation plans. Instead of thinking up ways to afford a big day out at a theme park or waiting and working towards a week-long getaway, enjoy the travel opportunities in your own backyard. Try one of these three fun and easy “vacation” ideas and take in the sights:
- Spend the morning exploring an area farmer’s market. The sights, smells, and tastes easily segue into a conversation about eating local – a great green idea. In the northeast, for example, we do not have pineapple trees, so buying a pineapple means it has to travel quite a distance. Travel uses resources and ages the fruit. But in June, the northeast is bursting with strawberries whose low-growing vines make harvesting easy for little hands.
- Contact your area’s historical society or chamber of commerce, and inquire about local history. Many towns have homes that have been registered as historical landmarks and are available for viewing with advance notice. Knowing that others came before us and more will come after us lends itself to a discussion in responsible living. What people did a hundred years ago affects us today, just as how we live today will affect people who live 100 years from now. Living responsibly today means a brighter future.
- Arrange a family field trip through the post office, supermarket, or bank, and learn how things work “behind the scenes.” The great advantages of modern conveniences like e-mail, self-checkout, and drive-through windows have made us a society that all too often does not know the names of the people we see on a daily basis. How can we believe we are part of a global community if we don’t feel connected to our immediate neighborhood? Learning that actual people are behind the doors of our conveniences helps foster a local sense of responsibility and camaraderie that can then translate into global awareness.
While on your “green vacation” remember to pack your own lunch, bring along reusable bags to collect treasures, and take public transportation or ride your bikes. Resist the urge to get other errands done along the way, and instead enjoy your vacation day. Turn off your cell phone, skip e-mail, and turn off the TV. Enjoy the people who are closest to your heart, while teaching your children how to better love and appreciate the world in which they live.
Finally, by appealing to children early in life we help ensure that the next generation will become conscientious consumers, passionate naturalists and responsible conservationists who are personal advocates for the earth. Together, your family can take eco-actions that help the planet while preserving energy and saving money. We can all make a difference. Helen Coronato’s Eco-Friendly Families can show you how. With this book, you’ll enjoy making memories whose effects extend far beyond your own backyard. I’d like to thank Helen Coronato for being a guest author on my show. Please visit Helen at her website www.helencoronato.com.
That’s it for now. I hope you’ve enjoyed the show. Thank you for listening.
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