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6 Great Kid-Friendly Uses for Organic Coconut Oil

August 27, 2014 1

CoconutRemember the father in law in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” who used Windex to cure everything? Well, I’m that way with coconut oil. I’m convinced it does everything that duct tape can’t. But we all know by now that coconut oil is practically a deity when it comes to health, wellness, and being green. I use for everything from conditioning my hair and brightening my smile to soothing chapped lips and rough elbows! You may be wondering how your children can benefit from coconut oil too? I put together a list of my six favorite ways to incorporate coconut oil into your child’s daily routine – you will want to pin or bookmark these, they are pretty amazing!

1. Lotion + Diaper Cream:
Coconut oil is a great diaper cream for those who use cloth diapers, and a great lotion for babies and kids alike, especially those with sensitive skin! It’s also great because a little goes a very long way and it can even be mixed with other lotions or oils to make your own lotion creation!

Coconut oil is a great diaper cream for those who use cloth diapers, and a great lotion too!

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2. Frizzy Hair Tamer:
Coconut oil can conquer the static and frizz putting a wrench in those busy school day mornings with just a quick dab in the hands and a finger comb through the hair.

3. Lice Treatment:
Mix coconut oil with apple cider vinegar, and you have a natural lice remedy. This one is great to have in your arsenal for the younger kids, especially now that school is back in session!

Mix coconut oil with apple cider vinegar, and you have a natural lice remedy.

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4. Chicken Pox Anti-Itch Remedy:
The little ones are bound to get Chicken Pox at some time or another, and why should they suffer through the itching? Rub coconut oil on their spots and they’ll feel some relief and be able to get more rest.

5. Safe for Cooking:
Growing kids will ask for something that’s not good for them, it’s fate! Why not be a little sneaky and use coconut oil to add a healthy twist to their indulgence, and it may even turn the whole meal into a healthy treat! We use coconut oil when making popcorn – it takes a simple treat to a whole new level!

6. Immunity Superhero:
Scrapes and sickness are two things almost guaranteed to happen to your little ones. Coconut oil is great as an antibiotic cream for scratches, and can be taken internally to fight the cold and flu. It’s also perfect in a cup of tea to sooth a sore throat, and naturally heals thrush too.

YOUR TURN: What are your favorite uses for coconut oil?

4 Easy Ways to Help Kids Go Green by Teaching Community Awareness

August 25, 2014 0

Help Kids Go Green by Teaching Community AwarenessFor kids, who may not fully understand what a carbon footprint is or how their green choices today will improve everyone’s quality of life tomorrow, it’s helpful to begin teaching them to be environmentally-friendly by focusing on community awareness. Kids are naturally friendly, curious, social creatures who are constantly studying and interacting with their peers and adults around them. We routinely teach children how their emotions and words affect others, and by keeping the context on community we can easily show them how their environmental decisions affect others. Read on for 4 easy ways for kids to have fun while expanding their community awareness.

It’s easy to teach children to be environmentally-friendly by focusing on community awareness.

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#1: Pen Pals
I remember my first pen pal. She was totally different than me! I lived in Colorado and she lived in Virginia, I lived in a suburban house and she lived in a mobile home on a few acres of beautiful, green land. She had siblings and I didn’t. While we could relate on some aspects of being a kid, my seven-year-old mind really hadn’t conceived of the idea that someone could really live in a different state with a different ecosystem and a different type of house and neighborhood than me. Pen pals, even if your child is simply writing to a cousin or grandmother, help kids build an awareness that there is a vast diversity among how people live and will show them we are all human and all connected at the same time. A feeling of ownership for one’s community is at the root of every good-hearted intention to live green.

#2: Clean Up a Park
Kids are usually too busy playing at the park to notice whether there’s litter or whether facilities are clean. By volunteering to clean up trash at a local park, baseball field, or neighborhood you can teach your kids to respect communal spaces and give them the opportunity to see what these spaces look like before and after they’ve been cared for.

By volunteering to clean up trash at a park you can teach your kids to respect green spaces!

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#3:  Visit the Local Animal Sanctuary
Animal sanctuary’s often house an animal or two on the endangered species list. Visiting these animals gives parents the opportunity to explain why these animals are endangered and where they used to live. Visiting the animal sanctuary also connects kids with animals and widens their global view by teaching them about the ecosystems where animals once lived.

#4: Visit a National Park
National parks really are America’s treasure! There are so many beautiful national and state parks to visit, and taking a trip to one will allow your family to bond and remember why it’s important to protect natural spaces—especially when kids see how many other families flock to these natural havens to escape and enjoy the wild.

YOUR TURN: What is your favorite way to teach the kiddos about community awareness?

4 Ways to Go Green and Save Money on Back-to-School Wardrobes

August 4, 2014 2

back-to-schoolBack-to-school time is upon us which means most kids will need a new fall and winter wardrobe. Because buying a new wardrobe each season can get expensive and wasteful. I have been working with ECOlunchbox to help your family go green and buy smart, so we’re sharing a few ways to keep the process green and thrifty. Read on for our top 4 ways to save money and go green when purchasing your student’s back-to-school wardrobe.

#1: Buy Second Hand
Thrift stores and garage sales are usually great places to find kids’ clothes because kids tend to only wear their wardrobe for a season before they’ve grown out of it, thus providing you with a selection of used clothes in pretty great condition—at a much lower price! If the thought of thrift stores turns you off, seek out local consignment stores where the selection is likely to be a little newer and higher-end. The one item I don’t usually purchase second hand is kids’ shoes. Properly-fitted, comfortable shoes are so essential—it’s best to buy these new or acquire a used pair from someone you know, perhaps at a clothing swap.

#2: Arrange a Clothing Swap
Finding a hand-me-down buddy, or someone who’s always willing to give you the clothes their slightly older kid has just grown out of, is also great, but with a clothing swap you get to give back while offloading some outgrown clothes! Clothing swaps for kids tend to work best with a group of families with kids in several different age groups so that you’re not just exchanging too-small clothes for new too-small clothes. Families with multiple kids or siblings staggered between your kids will do just fine! Set a date, time, and pick a house and bring gently worn, washed and folded clothing to the swap—oh yeah, and don’t forget to bring your kids! You’ll want to be able to use the old hold up method or let your kids try on the clothes to make sure they’ll fit. Bringing the kids along also gives them a chance to pick out a few pieces themselves.

#3: Go Green & Local When Buying New
If there are clothing items you can’t find used, consider eco-friendly and sustainable companies to purchase new items from. There are tons of brands and smaller businesses selling organic, sustainably made kids’ clothes just a Google away, and some big box stores like H&M even have organic lines for little ones.

#4: Keep Clothes Nice
One of the best ways to preserve clothing so that it can be passed down to younger siblings, donated, or re-sold at consignment to bring some cash back in is to keep it nice enough to be reused. When clothing encounters a stain, treat it with a non-toxic stain remover before throwing it in the wash so that the stain isn’t set forever. Having a few sets of “weekend clothes”, casual, or lounge clothes at home for your kids to change into after school is also a great way to preserve the life of their school clothes—and help them get cozy and settled into homework time!

These ideas are just the tip of the iceberg! What eco-friendly, back-to-school wardrobe tips does your family have?

 

Full Disclosure: This post is part of a sponsored 10 post series with EcoLunchbox – you can find all 10 posts below:

  1. 4 Ways to Go Green and Save Money on Back-to-School Wardrobes
  2. 3 Back-to-School Tips to Help Kids Make Healthy Eating Choices
  3. 3 Tips for Waste-Free Lunches for Back to School
  4. How to Start Phasing Plastics Out of the Kitchen
  5. Waste Free Lunch Gear to Add to Your Lunchbox

Who Knew? A (Very Effective) Natural Food Poisoning Remedy

July 31, 2014 0

honey

It’s summer, and that means more fun, sun, and BBQs! We’ve all encountered that time where you’ve just finished a scrumptious meal, and all of a sudden, you don’t feel very well. Your stomach is rumbling, you’re starting to feel weak, and you know what’s coming next, and it won’t be pretty. We’ve all wished for a natural treatment for nausea and the unmentionable after-effect, but it seems like there’s never anything on hand that ultimately stops what’s happening in its tracks, unless we take a chance on the pink stuff. Who knows what’s even in it! Here’s a great recipe for nausea relief that you’ll almost always have on hand – especially if you love Italian food!

Our bodies are filled with many different strains of bacteria. As we grow, we are exposed to more and more kinds of bacteria, and either our immune system fights them, or we get sick. Getting sick is how we obtain antibodies and can more effectively fight off the bacteria the next time we are exposed to it. The first line of defense against bacteria is our skin. But how do we protect what we consume? That’s where our stomach comes in. Our healthy stomach contains many types of “good” bacteria, like L. Acidophilus, which we can supplement with yogurt and kefir to beef up our stomach’s immunities.

There are times though, when our stomach’s bacteria is outnumbered by the bad bacteria, such as E. Coli, Salmonella, and the most common, Campylobacter. All of these bacteria cause some not-so-nice symptoms, and can be treated with just two food products that you eat on a regular basis to reduce the symptoms, or completely fight the bad bacteria. It is used often in my house, and we often times treat ourselves, and then go on about our day like nothing happened.

So what are these two miracle foods?

Honey

Honey is amazing in all forms. The best kind of honey is raw, which you can pick up just about anywhere these days. It is highly antibacterial, and is the first punch of this knockout formula.

basil

Basil

Basil?! Yes, basil! It is one of the most powerful antibacterial foods out there for food poisoning (alongside garlic) that helps knock out those bad bacteria that make us feel awful. Here’s the recipe:

Honey-Basil Food Poisoning Treatment

All you need to do is juice a bunch of basil, which usually makes a couple tablespoons’ worth. Don’t underestimate the power of this awesome juice – a little goes a very long way! Then just add 1 tablespoon of raw honey, and sip until it’s gone. If you’re still having some bouts of nausea after 15 minutes, or it goes away and then returns, drink another round.

If you don’t have a juicer laying around, you can put torn up basil leaves in 3 tablespoons of yogurt, with a pinch of crushed black pepper, and eat three to four times for the remainder of your day.

Once you feel your stomach is settled enough, sip on some peppermint tea to soothe any stomach cramping you may still be experiencing.

Here’s to hoping you never have to use this secret recipe, but make sure to bookmark it in case you do!

#shopcartons to Save Trees this Month!

July 11, 2014 1

Choose CartonsDuring the month of July, you can help donate a tree just by tweeting! The folks at the blog, Choose Cartons, are partnering with Trees for the Future to donate a tree each time the hashtag #shopcartons is mentioned!

By partnering with Trees for the Future, Choose Cartons, an Evergreen Packaging initiative, aims to help replant as many of the valuable resources they use for their packaging as possible.

In fact, they are donating up to 10,000 trees during the month of July. All you have to do is tweet. Pretty cool, huh?

Learn more about !

Choose Cartons is a blog for eco-conscious parents (particularly moms!) that teaches the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling through DIY projects, up-cycled crafts, and fresh ideas. They also speak to the importance of using renewable resources, and as the name suggests, the positive effects of choosing cartons at the grocery store!

Top 3 Reasons You Should Choose Cartons at the Grocery Store:

  1. They are recyclable & renewable
  2. Cartons keep the contents inside super fresh
  3. Cartons take up less space in your fridge so you can buy even more groceries for the kids!

Discover more about Choose Cartons.

Full Disclosure: I received compensation for this sponsored post which wasn’t written by me.

 

 

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