What: Ol’ Macs Story Building Barnyard
Features: Imagination rules with this 95-piece barnyard building set from Sprig Toys! Kids will have a blast building their own farm, and creating a fun storyline to go with it
Green Factor: Made out of recycled Sprigwood, a bio-composite material comprised of reclaimed wood bits and recycled plastic. Sprigwood is free of paint, soluble heavy metals, phthalates and endocrine disruptors
Bonus: This toy is 100% battery-free!
Find It Here: Sprig Toys
What: Bamboo E-Plane
Features: Up, up and away! This wooden toy airplane from Hape is stylish, modern and built to last.
Green Factor: The environmentally-friendly E-Plane is made out of sustainable bamboo and is decorated with non-toxic, water-based dyes
Bonus: All of Hape’s products meet international safety and quality standards
Find It Here: Amazon.com
What: Goodie Boxes
Features: The crowning touch at children’s birthday parties? The goody bags, of course. But more often than not, those bags are filled with cheap, plastic junk from the dollar store that no doubt winds up in a landfill somewhere. Check out this greener alternative: Goodie Boxes!
Green Factor: Each re-usable box is made from recycled cardboard and is printed with soy ink
Bonus: There are several different patterns to choose from and Green Party Goods also carries a great selection of non-toxic, fair trade and earth friendlier goodies to put in your Goodie Boxes
Find It Here: Green Party Goods
What: Pupa Pupa dolls
Features: Available at Etsy.com, these adorable, handmade companions (there are boy and girl dolls, mermaids, fairies and a collection of various animals) are stuffed with 100% sheep wool and sport outfits that, in most cases, are made of vintage or salvaged fabric
Green Factor: The material used for the dolls’ bodies is 70% bamboo and 30% organic cotton, made in a facility that uses neither harmful toxins nor pollutants
Bonus: Because each doll is handmade, they’re all completely unique. Also, Gwyneth Paltrow is a big fan and recently featured Pupa Pupa dolls in her Goop web site’s newsletter
Find It Here: Pupa Pupa
What: Wooden tea set
Features: Everything about this tea set from Plan Toys is adorable! It’s thirteen pieces include two cups and saucers, tea bags and stir sticks; there are even two lumps of sugar to play with!
Green Factor: Items from Plan Toys are made out of unfertilized rubberwood that’s kiln-dried rather than chemically treated. This tea set was made using water-based dyes, soy-based inks and non-toxic E-Zero glue
Bonus: Exceeds all international toy safety standards
Find It Here: Plan Toys
What: Kits to make natural lip balms, perfumes, bath fizzies and soaps
Features: Everything you need to make your own fun personal care goodies
Green Factor: Natural ingredients like shea butter, witch hazel, essential oils with no fillers, additives, dyes or synthetics
Bonus: Fun to make at birthday parties and sleepovers!
Find It Here: Kiss Naturals
Win It: We’ve partnered with Kiss Naturals to give away a Bath Fizzie Kit and Lip Balm Kit to one randomly selected winner. Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter KN12 as the giveaway name and tell us how long it takes to make lip balm and soap with a Kiss Naturals kit. Enter by 12/21/09. $35 value. Open to residents of US and Canada. Winner to be notified by email. Contest Closed.
Healthy Child Healthy World has put together an impressive list of 200 great green gifts for the kiddos. Be sure to check it out before you start your shopping and while you’re at it, make sure to also check out this list of Unsafe Toys of 2009
Find It Here: Amazon.com
What: Bucky’s Woopsies Kids Soothing Packs
Features: Can be warmed up in the microwave or chilled in the freezer
Green Factor: Made with machine washable bamboo terrycloth and premium whole buckwheat seed filling
Bonus: These creatures, with their bright colors and funny faces, are sure to distract kids from their owies!
Find It Here: Amazon.com
On Our Blog: Bite on This: More Grocery Store Secrets
From Green Toys comes this sweet 15-piece toolset, a must-have for any budding carpenter. Kids can get right to work with the functional box and variety of tools, and will learn along the way because the hand-held tools bear their names on the handles. Not only is it made in the USA of recycled milk jugs— it’s also BPA, phthalate and lead free and is packaged in recycled cardboard without those super-annoying, impossible-to-undo twist ties. In other words, this is a toy that won’t take twenty minutes and a pair of pliers to open. Just open the box and PLAY! Fab green fact: For every pound of recycled milk jugs used to make the products from Green Toys, enough electricity is saved to run a television for three weeks, and a laptop for four. Wow—plastic you can actually feel NOT bad about buying!
Find It Here: Lavish & Lime
Chef Ann Cooper, also known as the “Renegade Lunch Lady,” has been making school lunch programs healthier across the U.S. for the past decade. This is your chance to bring her to your school or district for your very own action plan to improve your lunch program.
Just create and post a 1 minute (One little minute, yo!) video to Youtube showing why your school is in need of a School Lunch Makeover, and submit the link to: schoollunchmakeover@wholefoods.com
Send us a link to your video using this form and your email address, and we’ll randomly select one of you to win a $50 Whole Foods Gift card, on October 8th! (use WF as the giveaway name and put your link in the Entry Answer field) Contest Closed.
You can learn more about Chef Ann and the Video contest here.
It’s that time of year again…the most wonderful time of the year, if your kids are heading back to the classroom. This fall marks the first year that both of my children are in school full-time, and I’m trying to make a conscious effort to make it a great green year. Here are some ways that we can all keep the earth in mind as we get our kids settled in to school again and throughout the year.
Use the goods you’ve already got – Take stock of what you’ve got at home and can use again (such as clothing, shoes, knapsacks and school supplies) before you buy everything new.
Reusable lunch containers – Instead of sending sandwiches and snacks in plastic baggies, I picked up a couple of sandwich containers, a compact water bottle and several small reusable containers to pack my kids’ lunches with. I’m not only curbing my household waste output this way, I’m saving money by not having to constantly buy plastic baggies. Read the rest of this entry »
Cardboard—it ain’t just for boxes anymore.
Well, okay, so it is but these fun, functional boxes from Green Lullaby are a far cry from their boring brown counterparts. Designed for younger kids, MultiBoxes are made out of 100% corrugated, mostly recycled cardboard and are great for storing, stacking and sitting. They withstand up to 110 lbs. and are outfitted with two built-in handles and a sturdy lid. The tops and sides are brightly illustrated with kid-friendly shapes, letters and numbers, and each box is treated with a non-toxic, flame-retardant coating for longevity and durability. Kid appeal, eco-friendliness and hello? Extra storage—all in ONE box.
Find It Here: Green Lullaby
