This year we have been working on becoming a little more “green” in our household. We started our own compost bin made from an old plastic tub. It is so rewarding to see our fruit and veggie peels, egg shells, and newspapers start to become dirt! My oldest DD is particularly helpful in keeping up the compost bin. She makes sure that things make it in there–even if it would be easier to just throw them away in the kitchen garbage can. We are at the point where we need to start another bin. That just might be one of the projects the kids do today. Here are some instructions to get started: Decorate Your Own Compost Bin
The other small step we’ve taken is to get our rain barrel set up. I got it at a Garden Fair last year and we finally put it in place this week. It was perfect timing as we had rain! I was excited to see how it worked, so after a night of rain I went to check on the rain barrel. When I looked inside—it was empty and the ground around it was saturated with water. Looking at the bottom of the barrel it was plain to see that someone left the water flow knob on. So when the water came into the barrel, it went right out the hose into the grass. Now everyone knows not to touch Mom’s rain barrel. 🙂
These are just a couple of small steps we have been taking. I’ve purchased a couple of reusable/cloth grocery bags, but I keep forgetting to bring them into the store with me. That’s my next goal–to remember the bags. 🙂 Oh, speaking of bags, don’t forget to stop at Walgreen’s tomorrow to pick one up: Walgreen’s Coupon. I also hope to get my garden going this year! So far we have some herbs growing in our front window. This is all new territory for me–so I’ll probably be asking for lots of tips.
As for official Earth Day activities that my family will be doing tomorrow—we’ll be doing them on the fly (I’m good at that 😉 )
So have a Happy Earth Day! I’d love to hear what you all did.
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Here are some Earth Day resources:
Earth Day Game – early readers from Star Fall
Coloring Page of the Earth from ABC Teach
Earth Day Activities from DLTK Kids
Tons of Earth Day Ideas–from lapbooks to arts and crafts
Like that Earth Day Card?
Yes, I am a green scrapper too 😉 I created it using digital supplies from the following ladies:
www.designerdigitals.com
Have A Heart Vol. 2 by Pattie Knox
Fasten Its No. 2 by Pattie Knox –coming soon!
OuterSpace Page Set by Anna Aspnes — coming soon!
Lifted Wings by Katie Pertiet (butterfly)
MailRoom No. 1 by Katie Pertiet
Meadow Ridge Kit by Katie Pertiet (Leaf)
Botanist Notebook No. 23 by Katie Pertiet (branch)
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Is the rain barrel to breed mosquitoes for the unit study on insects?
Also, how do you keep animals out of the compost bin? We tried that once and the coons kept taking all the good stuff.
LOL! Well since insects will be the next thing we study— 🙂
We have not had any problems w/ coons. I think it is due to our location–they don’t like the suburbs 😉
I think making a compost bin would be a wonderful ongoing activity for a child. I think we'll try this, if not this year, next year for sure. I'd like Henry to be able to keep it up himself. I featured this in a roundup of dirty, muddy ways to play! Thanks for a wonderful idea to do with the kids.