Mother's going GREEN Day 101 - Children's Eco-Craft

For today's craft was inspired by a science experiment that I did way back in high school - making sugar crystals. Taking this a step further we are going to make the crystals on sticks to form a sugar stir stick or rock candy. The picture shown is not the end result of my personal craft today as it will take 2 to 3 weeks to get large crystals.

Sugar Crystal Stir Stick

You will need:

-- 1 cup of granulated sugar (ours sugar is a light caramel colour as it is organic sugar, but regular white granulated sugar will do.)

-- 1/2 a cup of tap water

-- 2 sticks (I used a wood skewer cut into 2)

-- string

-- pot to boil sugar and water

-- container to grow the crystals (I used an old jam jar - choose a container that you can see through so you can monitor the progress of your crystals without disturbing them)

Directions (with an adults help if required):

-- Soak the sticks in tap water remove from water.

-- Cover the lower 2/3 of the stick with a light coating of granulated sugar.

-- Allow to dry (this will help the crystallized sugar to stick better to the stick).

-- In a pot boil your 1/2 cup of water and your cup of sugar, until the sugar is dissolved.

-- Once dissolved pour mixture into your container where you will 'grow' the crystals.

-- Allow the liquid to cool until it reaches room temperature.

-- Suspend the 'sugar coated' sticks into the sugar/water mixture (I tied strings around the top of the sticks and hung them in the water, taping the ends of the string to the side of the jar).

-- It is important that the sticks do not touch the bottom of the container and should be about 1 inch to 2 inches apart (again our liquid is a caramel colour because of the organic sugar being used).

-- Cover the container with a paper towel (we opted to use a cloth napkin).

-- Place the container in a secure place where it will not get disturbed.

-- After 24 hours who will see small crystals start to form and after 2 to 3 weeks you will see the larger crystals appear.

-- Once your crystals have reached the desired size, remove them from the liquid and allow to dry.

You can then loosely wrap them in cellophane wrap with a pretty bow and give it as a gift to someone. They can use it as a sugar stir stick in their coffee.

Better yet just keep it and eat it. Rock Candy.

If you would like to make colour crystals just add food colouring to the warm mixture before it cools. We chose to keep ours natural.

I will post a picture of our "actual results" - once our crystals have formed.

Mother's going GREEN Day 94 - Children's Eco-Craft

Since I have been talking about hemp I figured we could make some hemp jewelry and such. I have chosen to make a bracelet and/or key chain.

Hemp Bracelet and/or Key chain

You will need:

--Stands of Hemp

-- Beads

-- Key ring (if you chose the key chain)

Directions (with an adults help if required):

We will be using the easiest knot in our creation the "Square Knot".

-- You will require 4 stands in total (so get 1 stand of 24" for 'filler' and fold it in half and for your working stands one strand 6' long and fold it in half).

-- With the loops of the folded stands together tie them together with a knot creating a loop. (in ours we used a bead for a fastener so we measured to make sure the bead would fit through the loop snugly when we tied the loop. (if you choose to make a key chain attach the loop to the key ring at this point).

-- The 2 shorter strands are your filler stands and they are to remain in the centre of your work with the 2 working strands on each side.

-- Follow the instructions on this site to tie the "Square Knot". Please note that they are using four strands for their filler instead of the 2 strands that we are using.

-- To add the beads - insert both filler strands through the hole of the bead and tie the knot around them. We chose to make our bracelet with a message - also by doing this we had way less knots to tie.

-- keep tying the knots until the length of knotted hemp is the desired length for your bracelet and then tie them off. In our case we inserted a bead on all 4 strands and tied it off. (this is where it ends for the key chain)

-- the end bead is then inserted into the the loop to create a 'clasp' to close the bracelet.

This craft is probably for the older children although my children had fun selecting the beads and it was great for letter recognition as my son searched for the letters as I asked for them.

If you are struggling to follow my directions there are many directions available on the Internet.

Mother's going GREEN Day 82 - Children's Eco-Craft

Today's craft is rather simple. It will make a Simple Statement. A Green Ribbon, show the world that you support a Green lifestyle. It is so simple that you can make a whole bunch of them and give them to your friends.

The Green Ribbon.

You will need:

-- Green Ribbon

-- A Safety Pin

-- Needle and Thread (Ideally the same colour thread as the ribbon - but just use whatever colour thread you have on hand - no point going to buy a matching thread. The only green thread I had was a dark green colour.)

Instructions (with an adults help if required):

-- Cut a length of your green ribbon (mine is approximately 8 inches long)

-- Approximately a third from the bottom sew on your safety pin (see pictures to right)

-- The fold the ribbon to create a loop (ensure the cross over piece of ribbon covers your stitches of sewing the pin on)

-- Stitch the cross over piece of ribbon in place.

You're done. Wear your ribbon with 'Green' pride - make a few more and share....

Mother's going GREEN Day 60 - Children's Eco-Craft

Today's craft will add some sparkle to our summer nights on the deck.

Tin Decorative Candle Holders

You will need:

-- Tin Cans

-- Hammer

-- Nail

-- Tea Light Candle

-- Safety Glasses

Instructions (with an adults help if required):

-- It is best that you fill the cans with water and then freeze them - it just makes it easier.

-- Draw a design on the cans (after the water has frozen)

-- With a hammer and a nail punch out the design (this is when you may need the safety glasses)

-- Allow ice to melt. (I stuck mine in the garden where the sun melted the ice quickly and the water then went into the garden - rather than wasting it)

-- Insert the tea light candle

-- You may need to flatten out the bottom of the can especially if it pop out with the ice being in it.

And there you have it - A nice decorative candle holder.

Mother's going GREEN Day 53 - Children's Eco-Craft

When Fridays come along, I usually head to the recycling can and try figure out what we can create this week because we have an abundance of milk jugs I decided to put them to use. We also needed some sort of plant markers for our rooftop vegetable garden which is growing so well - so the idea of Vegetable Plant Markers came to mind.

Vegetable Plant Markers

You will need:

-- Empty Plastic Milk Jugs

-- Pictures of Vegetables

-- Glue Stick

Instruction (with adults help if required):

-- Cut long 'rain drop' shape from recycled milk jug (2 per marker)

-- Glue picture on the top of 'rain drop' shape cut out (I used printed pictures on the back side of an already used paper, but you can either draw your own or cut some from a magazine)

-- Glue on second 'rain drop' shape to cover picture - this will provide some waterproofing so our pictures do not get damaged.

-- Place markers in garden to identify your vegetable plants.

Mother's going GREEN Day 32 - Childrens Eco-Craft

Finally the sun came out in our part of the world....Yippee!! We crafted something simple outside in order to enjoy the sun.

Pet Rocks (a classic)

You will need:

• Nice smooth rock
• Paint
• Google Eyes (if you have any – not required)

Instructions:

• Paint rock in pet of choice (we did a Lady Bug – but you could do a bee or a regular bug whatever your creative heart desires).
• Stick on Google eyes
• We placed our 'Lady Bug' in our garden for a little bit of colour.

Mother's going GREEN Day 25 - Children's Eco-Craft

Today we had a wonderfully warm day and the birds were out singing in the trees which inspired today's craft.

Pine Cone Bird Feeders

• You will need:
  Large pine cone (open – which means it has opened up and released it seeds – see picture to right)
• Peanut Butter
• Bird Seed
• Wire or String

Instructions (with an adults help if required):

• Spread Peanut butter over the pine cone and in between the crevices
• Cover with birdseed (we just stuck the whole cone in a dish of birdseed and it sticks to the peanut butter)
• Tie the wire or string onto the base of the pine cone
• Hang is a suitable spot (we hung ours off our back deck)
• Watch as the birds visit and enjoy a tasty treat.

Mother's going GREEN Day 23 - Books and Litter

Well you may be asking what books and litter have in common - not much really except for today.

My son is to start kindergarten in the fall and they had sort of an open house this afternoon. The school is fairly close so we walked as when he does start school we will be walking. It is a route we seldom walk now and the sidewalk is unfortunately strewn with litter. I made a mental note to take along a bag to collect the litter in the future (my son always wants to pick it up to examine it anyway - so we might as well pick it up and get rid of it properly.)

At the school they were giving away some older library books so of course we grabbed a few. My kids love to read stories and hey why not pick up some books and reuse them. There was one book in particular that was just left behind after the other parents collected the books and I figure I would grab it since no-one else seemed to want it. It is titled "The Wartville Wizard" by Don Madden.

When we got home it was the first book that my children wanted to read, strangely enough the book is all about litter and how one man (the wizard) tries to clean it all up and eventually discovers he has magical powers over the trash and can send the trash back to the person who discarded it - it then sticks to the person. Some of the characters have shower curtains, bed linen, cigarette butts all stuck to them. The story ends when the people of the town decide not to litter anymore and throw their garbage in garbage cans where it belongs. If only 'real life' could be like that.

It does send children a message about not littering, also about one mans struggle to care for the environment and how in the end he won. I enjoyed the book and I am glad we picked it up. Great for kids and great to reinforce our family's ideal of going green.

Moral of the story: Pick up litter. It is what you can do to live greener.

Mother's going GREEN Day 18 - Childrens Eco-Craft

Today (Friday) is Mother's going Green craft day and today's official craft is "Watering Cans" but as it turns out there was a surprise second craft "One-of-a-Kind Gift Wrap" - I was in need of some wrapping paper for our Fathers Day gifts.

Watering Cans

You will need:

- Empty Milk Jug (saved from the recycling bin)

- Sharp instrument to make holes (I used one of the handy dandy tools on my Swiss Army Knife)

- Paint

- Paint Brushes

- Sheet of paper or Newspaper

Instructions (with adult help if required – you probably will need it for using the sharp instrument):

- Lay down the newspaper or craft paper on your work area.

- Set the empty clean milk jug down and make some holes on the top side of the milk jug opposite the handle (see picture).

- Make anther hole on top of the handle which will allow for air to go into the bottle as water comes out.

- Paint the jug (be as creative as you can be – anything goes) – allow the jug to dry.

Once dried fill with water screw the lid back on and you have a one of a kind watering can. (I found having the lid on was great for my younger kids as with a normal watering can they tend to pour all the water out from the top – with the lid this stops all of that and the water comes out in a nice ‘sprinkle’

Enjoy watering your flowers and plants.

One-of-a-Kind Gift Wrap

Take the paper that you painted your jug on and use it to clean your brushes by brushing off the excess paint – allow to dry – you have instant gift wrap.

In fact you can use this idea with any painting craft you do. Instead of throwing away or recycling your “drop” paper just turn it into gift wrap. The excess paint will add some colour to newspaper and a truly unique piece of gift wrap.

A little 'reusing' history on our "drop paper":

We received it in a package, the items were protectively wrapped in it. Then it became our 'drop paper' for our craft project, acted as our 'paint brush cleaner' and finally our gift wrap. Talk about reusing!!!

Mother's Going GREEN - Day 17 - Involving the Children

Going green for our family was partly inspired by my children. What kind of world are we going to leave them? Whatever world it is I want my children to look back and know that I tried to do something for the world and for them. I also want to teach them the value of the earth and how important it is to our lively hood.

Our family's journey of going green most certainly involves them. The small ways that they help out is:

• cutting newspaper for the worms (our worm compost) each time we feed them we give them a little fresh newspaper.
  
• feeding the worms.


• taking care of the vegetable garden.


• ensuring lights are turned off in the rooms and are not turned on during the day. (my son noticed one deary grey evening, that I turned on the light for dinner and he questioned it as it was not quite dark enough for lights. Way to go son!)


• helping out with the recycling (sorting out the glass from the plastic and the corrugated cardboard from the paper)

I am seeing after only 17 days that my behaviour toward reducing, reusing and recycling is rubbing off on them. "Monkey see, monkey do."

Thank goodness for little children, thank goodness we have the opportunity to do right for the world for them.

Mother's going GREEN Day 11 - Children's Eco Craft

Friday’s Craft Corner: Individually Wrapped Chocolate Drops (especially for dad in preparation for Fathers Day)

You will need:

A jar (recycled – an old jam jar works well)
Foil wrap (preferably recycled – perhaps from chocolate or candy bars – I collected ours from chocolate bars – that is before we stopped eating them – but more on that in tomorrows blog)
Chocolate (preferably fair trade chocolate we used Coco Camino http://www.cocoacamino.com/)
Piece of old material
Wax paper

Instructions: (with an adults help if required)

Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave (microwaves take up less power than the stove)

On the wax paper and with a spoon drop the melted chocolate – see picture (it is a good idea to out the wax paper on a cookie sheet if you intend to put it in the fridge to set)

Allow the chocolate to set ( you can put it in the fridge to speed up the process)

Once the chocolate has set you can individually wrap them (see picture) and then place them in the jam jar

Cut a circle in the fabric large enough to cover and overlap the jar lid and tie it on the lid with a piece of ribbon or string.

Voila, you have Individually wrapped chocolate drops you’re your favourite dad for Fathers day and remember to reuse or recycle the wax paper.

I hope your dad enjoys these tasty treats. For added individuality you can place a nut on each drop of chocolate before it sets.

Enjoy.

See the chocolate all over the t-shirt; you can eat the left over chocolate in the bowl.

Next weeks craft will be a 'watering can' for your garden.

Mother's going GREEN Day 9 - Green Birthday Gifts

Yesterday my 5 year old son received and invitation to a birthday party for tomorrow (not allowing me much time to shop). Trying to think of a 'green' gift in our small town provided to be a challenge. It certainly did get my creative juices going though. The first idea that came to mind was a seedling that could be planted by the recipient. However I am not sure how that would go over at a 5 year old birthday party and yes, I did want my son to get invited to other parties, says a lot for what the world is coming to... Lets face it kids birthdays are all about the toys.

I took this opportunity to start to talk to my children that, toys are not what makes a birthday, it is a celebration of life, a milestone, another year gone by. So with this in mind we headed to the store to try and find a 'green' gift. My son headed straight for the action heroes and said we had to get one of these for his friend. I, on the other hand opted instead for a bug container with magnifying glass and a book titled "Monster Bugs". If I could not get a totally green gift it had to be at least educational and allow for some outdoor fun and getting closer to nature. Books have no packaging and the bug container had very little so on that part it was environmentally good.

Purchasing children's gift can be a challenge when you want to keep the environment in mind. Had, I had some more time I would have explored my options on the Internet there are some great sites that offer 'green' toys. I still do like my tree sapling idea - but I think I need to work on the "packaging" so to speak, so that it would appeal to a 5 year old. (I will keep you posted on how that progresses.)

Things to consider when purchasing a 'green' gift:

• Organic (such as cotton or hemp)


• Fair Trade


• Local


• Educational


• Minimal packaging, preferably none.


• Perhaps even a donation to the persons favorite charity (for children this could be receiving an adoption kit for endangered species through the World Wildlife Fund.)

Some sites to look at for further green gift ideas:

• http://www.planetfriendly.net/gifts.html


• http://www.tenthousandvillages.org/


• http://www.greenfeet.com/

Be sure wrap your gifts in either recycled paper ( perhaps a gift bag you have received can be re-given). Someone once mentioned the Sunday Comics ( if you receive a paper) now wouldn't that be fun.

Mother's going GREEN Day 4 - Children's "Green" Craft Corner

Fridays will be devoted to an environmentally friendly craft, especially for our young children. They too can be inspired to live green and crafting is a way for them to connect with the environment around them.

Today is how to make "Grass Potato Heads" an old well known craft.

You will need:

• Large Potato
• Potting soil
• Grass seed
• Water
• Markers for adding a face

How to make it (with an adults help if required):

Carve out the centre of the potato to create a well of about and inch deep.

Decorate the potato with a fun face using the markers

Fill the hole with some potting soil (or any other soil you may have available)

Sprinkle the grass seeds on top (in ours we were quite generous with the seeds)

Water and place in a sunny spot. Water daily and wait for the grass to grow. Ours pictured above took about a week to sprout. Once grass is long, you can have some fun giving your potato a hair cut.

I found that this craft taught my children of how plants grow and and what is needed in order for them to flourish: water and sunlight and special care which is what we have to give our planet earth.

Next weeks craft will be something for dad in preparation for Fathers Day.