One of the things I like about blogging around the holidays is getting to do my favorite toy lists.
I did quite a few last year, and see no particular reason to reinvent the wheel, but I am going to include some reviews of various toys and books over the next month.
Here are some great options if you're looking for high quality books this year!
Herb the Vegetarian Dragon
Secret Mountain Books
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While that is true that I would like some green for Christmas…as in the currency kind, I’d also like to see some changes next year.
So, since the Green Moms Carnival hosted by Diane at Big Green Purse this month, I'm going to include my wish. Always a deep thinker, Diane proposed the following topic:
What recommendations would you like to make to the Obama Administration to encourage them to adopt a "prevention agenda?"
Diane has a discussion going on ning which is worth a read and if you’re a mom, you’ll all about prevention, so feel free to graze…there’s lots of things to worry about and lots of work to do to prevent even more.
The choice of topics was easy for me since I received an email from my friend Mary with this update of her recent trip to Greenbuild. She laments the lack of direction. She laments the progress, or lack thereof. She laments the fact that…hmmm…no one really seems to want to step up to the plate and be in charge or agree that someone should be in charge or do anything to get the ball rolling. (O.K., the ball is rolling, but ever so slowly.)
So, I want to talk about standards, Mr. President! (Doesn’t it seem slightly weird to be saying “Mr. President after months of ‘Obama,Obama’?” And yes,I know, it's still "President-elect")
Anyway, I’ve written quite a bit about how buying a simple package of granola bars requires a law degree and/or an “in” with the FDA or USDA or some other agency that regulates labeling and packaging.
So, all I’m asking you to do, Mr. Obama is use your bully pulpit to set a new standard for um…standards. It’s not like it’s just consumers asking for some sort of guidelines…it’s major manufacturers and small entrepreneurs. It’s moms and money managers…it’s well…everyone.
To tell you the truth, I’m not sure if this actually requires a budget increase. I think it just requires someone in authority (that would be you) to stand up and say, “hey, let’s get some clarity around this issue.”
Believe it or not, this really is one of those issues where the free market will make it happen. Major manufacturers will fall all over each other to meet whatever the new standards are…and smaller firms and advocacy groups will one up them to create even better ones. It won’t be perfect but, it will be better than what we have now!
In case you missed it. Check out this ad from Motrin. It created a stir when Blogger Jessica Gottlieb published this post on EcoChild's Play
The power of Crunchy Parents!
I wrote about the marketing impact here that led Motrin to pull their ad.
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Last year I spent a few weeks writing about some of my favorite toys. That is, I wrote about them when I wasn't busy keeping up with all of the recalls!
This year, I'm going to add to the list. Mostly I will be doing that on the FamilyTime blog at PriceGrabber.
I'm also going to be adding some here, but first let me call your attention to the ones I slaved over wrote last year.
Best Toys for The Holidays Part I - Blocks
Best Toys For The Holidays -Part II- Dolls
Best Toys for The Holidays- Part III – Books
Best Toys For The Holidays - Part IV Cars, Trucks and Things that Go
Those of us in the mommy blogsphere heaved a collective sigh of relief around January last year. It seemed that we were constantly scrambling to keep up with the spate of recalls last year. It became a bit of a running joke on emails that we traded back and forth.
"We're changing the names of our blogs,"we joked.
"I really never thought I'd only be writing about recalls," we sighed.
And now a year later, recalls are no longer top of mind. Will parents still be leery of anything made in China? Will they eschew lead toys in favor or wood and natural materials?
Not so fast. I say.
The one hazard that still exists and will always is the choking hazards of small pieces. Once again there have been recalls of small pieces that present a choking hazard to young children.
Unfortunately, the choking hazard...umm, hazard exists in an odd place in the legal wilderness. Toys labeled as for children 3 and under that have pieces smaller than a child's windpipe, are in violation of regulation of the toy industry and must be recalled and brought into compliance. The manufacturer hopes this is before a child is hurt and they face lawsuits.
However, if your two-year-old chokes on a toy intended for an older child...well...you were warned. On the package it clearly says, "Not intended for use by children under 3 or 4 or 5".
Unfortunately, as we careen from metal (oops lead poisoning) to plastic (BPA and phthalates) to natural wooden toys, the choking hazard follows us.
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I fully intended to write a post for this month’s Green Moms Carnival that would detail all of things for which I am grateful. This month’s theme is, of course,” Gratitude”
As I pondered how to structure my post, though what kept running through my head was the phrase:
I’m thankful each day for the blessings I see…
Do you recognize that? I didn’t at first. Had I seen it on a card? Is it a line from a poem I learned long ago? Why does it strike me as something I should remember?
Then while cleaning out my son’s room, in preparedness for the new deluge of toys, books and clothes that will arrive in boxes and bags during the holiday season, I found it. A book by P.K, Hallinan, appropriately titled: I’m Thankful Each Day.I’ll give you a few more lines here:
I’m thankful each day for the blessings I see
And for the all of the gifts God’s given to me
And counting the stars at the edge of the sea
I can’t help but feel they were put there for me
A small board book intended to be read by parents to their small children, it has become a Thanksgiving favorite at our house. There are over 20 different things for which the main character, a small boy, gives thanks including sunrises, autumn leaves, harvests and snow, family and friends.
The focus on nature and the exultation of nature is unusual in a book written in 1981; it is perhaps a precursor of the ecological movement that has reached prominence in this decade. And so, this little book remains or perhaps regains popularity in family homes.
I know we’ll use it this Thanksgiving, reading and re-reading it as we take time to remember for what we are truly thankful.
Visit this month's Green Moms Carnival for more posts from green moms on gratitude.
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OK- I have a bunch of reviews up today.
I've been pretty busy lately - so take a look.
This is the day when bloggers all over the web discuss a single issue. This year it’s poverty. You can check out a wide variety of takes on this theme at the Blog Action Day site.
As a parent, teaching my, “I want; can I have; please!” child about poverty can be a struggle. Maybe it has always been so for middle class families.
I shy away from the platitudes of my youth. “Eat your food, there are starving children in ….” (The “where” seems to change by the country and the decade in which you were born.)
I carefully gauge his reaction when we, suburbanites, see the rare homeless person on the streets or balefully holding a sign, “Will Work for Food”, at a busy intersection.
I attempt to creep into his brain and watch the neurons ignite when he hears talk at school about charity drives or drops a coin in a plastic box on the grocery checkout stand or helps me lug 10 bags of old toys and clothes to our local Goodwill.
Does he get it? Can he get it? Is it too abstract?
At 21, I had my first real taste of poverty. Though, I certainly had more exposure to poverty by that age than my son does now, I fear it was just as abstract.
I was traveling to
I had just spent several years attending graduate school with, among others, a large percentage of students who had spent their lives as middle and upper middle class residents of developing countries. Their take on poverty, growing up surrounded by it, was necessarily different than mine.
I felt naïve that morning on the train.
And so will my son one day, when he gets his first real glimpse and feels the helplessness that washes over one when confronted by it. This time when he realizes all of the platitudes I’ve taught him; all the little and big things we’ve done; all the warm feelings we’ve enjoyed from these acts of altruism…haven’t really made much of a difference.
Or maybe it will be different by then.
For a few months now I've been part of an informal group of women writing about green topics - a few of whom I've now met and a several who are becoming regular email buddies.
We have a group of well informed women including attorneys, published authors, those working in green marketing and those working with non-profits. It's really an amazing group and the go- to source for green information.
It started out with a few of us emailing on a regular basis and has evolved so far to include a Green Moms Carnival, Thanks Lynn at Organicmania!
You can see out posts on the first Monday of every month. If you'd like to join, please drop me an email at mcmilker (at) gmail (dot) come or better yet submit your post to the Green Moms Carniva lat Blog Carnival.com each month.
But, please check out their sites. They have lots to say every day!
Of course I’m late writing my post for the Green Moms Carnival, hosted this month at Green Bean Dreams. Of course, that means that I’ve had a chance to read just about everyone else’s post – which is good.
This month our topic is the commercialization of Halloween. Since there’s a lot of blog fodder there, everyone has some good ideas!
Since I have received approximately 32 catalogs from Oriental Trading, one from Hearthsong and two from a few other catalogs companies, replete with Halloween décor and crafts…I thought I’d write about greening your Halloween party.
No, I’m not having a Halloween party but my friend Juice is and I’ve been recruited to help. Last year my contribution was a craft for the kids - sticking Halloween foamies on plastic mask. Ummm…I received no awards for “greenness.” This year I’m trying to do better.
So, here is my list of ideas for a greener, less commercial Halloween party.
Bobbing for apples – float apples in a big tub or better yet for cold Halloween nights..hang them from strings and let the kids try to bite.
Make a Halloween maze – use bales of hay outside or clear out a room, hang some sheets and turn out the lights.
Pumpkin carry game- Create teams of two, placing players team on opposite ends of a grassy area, have a relay race carrying a large pumpkin across he area and back.
Play Ring Toss with pumpkins – Use one with a large stem and toss pool rings, hula hoops or any other ring shaped items you have lying around.
This is just a sampling of old fashioned games that I found. There are a few great sites with ideas from old magazines, here and here. You can also find other ideas for Halloween games here and here.
Have fun!
This post is part of the October Green Moms Carnival. You can find more Halloween posts at Green Bean Dreams.
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