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: Wheely Bug

Features: The Wheely Bug is unisex, durable, lightweight and small – perfect for indoor play. Available in two sizes for children up to fifty pounds.

Green Factor: Made with non-toxic materials and is PVC-free. Each bug’s plywood base is made from renewable plantation timber

Bonus: Winner of numerous toy awards, encourages gross motor skills. Also, choose from a ladybug, a cow, a bumblebee or a gray mouse (complete with big pink ears and a tail!)

Find It Here: Prince Lionheart

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

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

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 »

Have you ever wondered what your kids’ art supplies are made of? One of my daughter’s favorite pastimes is painting, and there were a few occasions this summer where she wound up with paint in rather precarious places. Like her eyelashes. And I stood there and wondered just what, exactly, is in that paint? As previously noted in this post, many finger paints (and regular paints) contain heavy metals, VOCs and petro-chemicals.

From Clementine Art comes a line of all-natural children’s art products with nothing to hide. The ingredients, all of them, are listed right there on the package. Now that’s a first! The six creative staples–washable paints, soy crayons, water-based markers, flour-based modeling dough, soy crayon ‘rocks’ and washable glue–are made right here in the US of A using natural, non-toxic materials. Kids can dig in and express themselves, and we don’t have to worry about what it is they’re digging in to.

Cool things to note: the modeling dough is colored with turmeric, spinach and carmine, there’s a Clementine Art blog, and an informative ingredients glossary on the web site (look for the ‘nitty gritty’ heading).

Find It Here: Clementine Art

What: Extra soft t-shirts, onesies and thermals for kids (tees for adults, too)

Features: Designs with a vintage southern flair; cool without being too hipster-ish

Green Factor: Southern Brand uses water-based, soy & vegetable inks and offsets the carbon emissions of their shipments through the purchase of carbon offset credits.

Find It Here:  Southern Brand

Minimal Mercury Marinated Tuna by Small Footprint Family — Like tuna but hate those pesky high mercury levels? Dawn highlights some sources for tuna with much lower levels of mercury and as a bonus, shares a recipe.

Will Your Kid Be Carrying a Pesticide (Triclosan) in His School Supplies? by The Smart Mama — Jennifer illuminates an issue that has been chapping my proverbial butt for a while now… Microban is in/on lunch boxes as well as a ton of other school-related items and it’s not good stuff.

Color My Driveway: Cornstarch Sidewalk Paint by Pink and Green Mama — This homemade sidewalk paint, made with ingredients you can probably already find in your own kitchen, is so cool that I wish I’d thought of it first.

Do I Make You Uncomfortable? by Heather’s Homemaking — Do you ever wonder if your commitment to the environment makes your less-green friends uncomfortable?

How to Clean a Toilet by Oooh Baby Green Living and Parenting — J. Claire teaches you how to clean your toilet the green way.

Cleaning Out Plato’s Reusable Closet with a Stylish Texas Teen by Greenopolis — Consignment stores can help fatten up a teen’s wardrobe at a fraction of mall prices. And? It’s much greener than buying new.

On Our Blog:  Back to School at the Thrift Store

Buying things today is more than just the purchase. It’s about making smart choices—ones that aren’t harmful to the environment and you can feel good about, like buying from companies who are as committed to the earth as they are to their product. Take, for example, Print*Pattern*Paper, a handmade art and textile company that not only believes in environmental responsibility, but practices it, too.

Designer Rebecca Peragine takes the term ‘made from recycled materials’ to heart—all of her original prints are created from scrap materials. They’re packaged in biodegradable materials and Rebecca uses soy ink and recyclable materials and many, of her products are made in the United States using locally-sourced goods. Print*Pattern*Paper chooses to support smaller, local businesses, and donates both their images and designs to raise money for children and families around the world.

From wall art (prints and canvas), number cards, posters, cotton bags and stationery, Print*Pattern*Paper is original and stylish and philanthropic and totally ecoguilt-free—NO compromising required!

Find It Here: Print*Paper*Pattern

Bonus: Mention The Green Mom Review and receive 20% off your next purchase!

One of the perks of writing for The Green Mom Review is getting to drool over the awesome products we feature here. I’ve spent many an evening ogling web sites submitted for review, and last night was no exception. I spent a good amount of time over at the Wooly Baby web site, and am officially in LURVE with their slippers - not to mention the concept behind them.

In a stroke of recycling genius, Josie Marsh takes old sweaters and leather jackets and turns them in to the cutest, most practical little slippers I have ever seen. After she couldn’t find slippers for her baby that covered the ankle, Josie took matters in to her own hands. Her high-ankle slippers are made with felted wool, ensuring the slippers are dense, sturdy and warm. All-natural soap is used on the wool during the felting process, and the slippers’ bottoms are made from suede leather, resulting in a soft, non-skid sole.

Personally, I think Josie’s ankle-high creations are brilliant – I hail from Canada, a.k.a. The Great White North, where it’s cold. A lot. I’ve never seen high-top slippers that are handmade, cute and recycled to boot! Low-top slippers are also available for warmer climates, and Wooly Baby products are available in sizes ranging from six months to six years.

Find It Here: Wooly Baby

Got little ones? Trying to raise them green? Then you might consider adding Sesame Street’s new DVD, Being Green to your eco-teaching arsenal. Being Green stars ultra-cute actor Paul Rudd as Mr. Earth, who teaches Elmo and Abby Cadabby how to be environmentally conscious by recycling, re-using, and conserving water and energy.  In her desire to help Elmo to be more “green,” Abby accidentally turns Elmo the color GREEN and can’t remember how to change him back!  Fun and hilarity ensue and Abby eventually turns Elmo red again and Cookie Monster, Rosita, and Telly Monster pitch in, pledging to be eco-friendly because they LOVE the earth! As a special bonus feature, Being Green also contains 16 pages of downloadable activities and story sheets to extend the learning at home. In addition, Being Green is printed on 100% post-consumer recycled cardstock and is printed with soy-based ink and uses reduced-plastic as compared to other DVD cases. Once your kids have watched it eleventeen thousand times and have the being green thing down pat, pass it on to some other kids and keep the message going. We’re going to help five lucky readers get started by giving away five copies of Sesame Street’s Going Green. See details below!

Find It Here: Being Green

Win It: We’re giving away five copies of Going Green. Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter GG6 as the giveaway name and provide the answer to this question: As Mr. Earth, what does Paul Rudd wear in Being Green? Enter by 6/6/09. $16 value. Open to residents of US. Winner will be notified by email. Contest closed. Congrats to our five winners!