The Incredible, Sustainable Elmo

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it's... sustainable Elmo?

That’s right! Even Elmo is going green -- and he did it in perfect time to celebrate Earth Day.

Elmo made an appearance on The Today Show on April 3^rd in full green fur to promote his new DVD released on April 7^th: Sesame Street: Being Green.

Where do Elmo and the Sesame Street Gang find time to do it all? Promo appearances, TV, radio, print, movies… Elmo is busier than a one-armed paperhanger, just like Paul Rudd, who lends his talents playing Mr. Earth in the movie. Yes, Paul Rudd, our quick-witted best friend from recent big screen comedies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and I Love You, Man. Kudos and cheers to you, Paul Rudd. Thank you for dedicating your time to the greenducation and greentertainment of our children.

My boys love Elmo, and Daddy loves Elmo too. I am considering renting an Elmo suit to get them to eat, clean up their toys, share, and brush their teeth. We can play Elmo Says: “Elmo says brush your teeth! Elmo says take that toy airplane out of your nose!” You think that might work?

Although my boys are still young, they are eager to feel grown up and help out. For example, we keep a separate trash just for plastics. My eldest, who is going on three, knows that Elmo puts his plastic bottles in the recycle bin. Therefore, Cortez puts Daddy’s water bottles in the plastic recycle bin as well.  And he knows that there are two garbage men: one for the regular trash and the other for the recycling.

It's great to see my sons get positive lessons from the media they consume, which is one of the reasons I totally recommend this movie. The recycling lesson comes across really powerfully, but it's never boring or preachy. The DVD is packed with catchy songs that the kids will love and you'll catch yourself singing at work. I really dig watching the video with my boys and I hope you'll enjoy it with your children as well. 

Let me know what you think of it!

This is the dawning of the age of…verification??

Social networking websites are all the rage. They’re sprouting like wild mushrooms out of the lawn on a damp, humid morning -- and their timing couldn’t be better. With our lives as busy as ever, it’s no wonder sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter are gaining so much popularity. They are giving us just what we need—a way to stay hyper-connected with our family, friends, and neighbors. 

But does danger lurk behind the blue and white fuzz of a status update or the harmonic note of a tweet? According to Illinois legislators, it does. State lawmakers are determined to pass a bill that would require minors to obtain their parents’ consent before they could join a social networking website. The bill would also require anyone joining to provide age-identifying information before creating a profile and grant the minor’s parents full access to same.

The fact is, the Internet has always posed a threat to minors, and sometimes even to experienced adults. The World Wide Web is so vast and ever changing -- it's got to be difficult for governments to police it and create laws that will protect its users.

Do I feel this bill would make it easier to protect our children from online predators? Maybe, but I’m not so sure. I think of the many great laws already in place throughout the United States that are aimed at protecting our children, yet predators still find their way into our children’s midst. This is no doubt every parent’s fear, but I don’t think that this bill or any other law can completely shield our kids from harm. All we can do is pray and educate our kids about predators, be they blatant or sophisticated.

I also believe that as an extra measure of safety, parents should keep the computer in a common area of the house. And it probably wouldn’t hurt to make a joint activity our of our children's time online. What are they doing? What sites are they visiting? What can we do together as a fun parent-kid activity?

How do you approach your child's use of the Internet?

Love miles -- finding connection in a disconnected world

I am a Kiwi mother who has spent a lot of my life in the US. My father, stepmother, three brothers, their wives, my sister, two nephews and one niece live in the United States. Indeed, in my family, only my father (who has lived in the US for something like 40 years), my husband, my children and I are not American citizens.

My eldest child, Rupert, now lives and works in the UK. Every year, Kiwis and Aussies move to the UK after graduation to get a few years work experience before (usually) coming back home to settle down and start families. NZ and Ireland top the world in having the greatest numbers of graduates -- more than 20% each -- living overseas.

I miss Rupe terribly, although I am also proud of him for having made his own way in the world.

My husband’s sister and her husband and children also live in the UK. We wish we could see more of them. I went to university in New Jersey, and the friends from my class are scattered across the US. Even my friends from high school are spread out. I just found three on Facebook -- in San Francisco, Austin and North Carolina. My high school sweetheart is there too.

How to stay in touch in this world when we are trying to reduce our carbon footprint? How to say I love you when life gets tough for them? Or for us?

I have always used email, but now have started ‘getting’ Facebook.

Business seems to be getting better at communicating over the web -- better broadband really does mean better productivity. But can it mean more love?

We all want to be connected. I think that it is very interesting that social networks are on the rise at the same time as our lives are becoming increasingly isolated and private. Once we shared more as a village… cooking, entertainment, healthcare. Now, I don’t want to have to share an oven, or a tap, and we watch a lot of movies at home. I’d love to have my own pool or beach.

However!

While so many of us are aspiring to owning these things for ourselves… at the same time there has been this rise of the social network, of MySpace and Facebook and Bebo and LinkedIn and all the other ways we feel a need to be on email and texting and connecting to other people all the time.

Children under 13 don’t belong on MySpace or Bebo or Facebook or the others. So what can they do instead? How can we make it easy for children to feel connected?

Well, obviously by taking the time to connect with them, to be with them. But also by making it easy for them to connect with friends, and easy for them to make friends. Like children have always done.

I want to build the first social network parents actually want their children to join…

What do you think? How do you use social networks? How should our children?

Where did my 2-year-old learn to rock out?

Hi there. I’m Alex Valencia, a daddy-blogger on the minimonos blog team. I have a 2.5-year-old boy and a 15-month-old boy. They are two amazing toddlers with a world of imagination and a yearning to learn.   

 

I’m also one of the many US citizens that have been affected by the real estate and financial crisis. Perhaps unusually, I'm grateful for it; I’ve been fortunate enough to become a stay-at-home dad.

 

Yes, it’s true. I am the 21^st century Mr. Mom. I cook for, clean up after, and bathe the kids, while trying to teach them as much as I can.

 

Being home most of the day with two toddlers, it’s hard to find entertaining things to do. We go to the park, eat, and play Cars. We listen to music, go shopping, take trips to the bookstore, and sometimes enjoy a walk on the beach. Recently, though, there’s been a new form of entertainment: I think I taught my sons to ROCK OUT!!!

 

For Christmas my wife bought me the new Kid Rock album, and that’s where it all began. Every time Kid Rock comes on I say, “I love that song!” I lip-sync for them while they eat breakfast. (You do whatever you can to get toddlers to eat.)

 

Sometimes when the stereo is on shuffle, the Kid Rock CD starts playing and my 2.5 year old goes nuts. He now knows it's Kid Rock. He runs for my guitar (that I still have yet to learn how to play) and cowboy hat and he starts jamming. He screams as soon as he hears the drums. “Daddy Kid Rock, Daddy Kid Rock! Down to New Orleans see bout a friend of mine…”

 

Try to picture him for a second. He is three feet tall with a dirty blonde faux-hawk, Cars sunglasses, a black ovation guitar three sizes too big for him, a straw cowboy hat and the facial expressions of a budding rock star!  He is seriously strumming the strings, and the blaring tune coming from the guitar almost makes it sound like he has a clue what he is playing.

 

I am a very lucky man. I have friends who say their kids get into things and are always whining and crying. It’s true we have our days; for the majority of the time, though, my boys are super entertaining.

 

Although I understand that both parents often have to work, I think it’s a true benefit to our children and to our sanity to really pay attention to the little things and really appreciate our offspring. To teach them. To talk to them like the adults they will become. To expose them to books, music, art, and new people, to see by similarities and not by differences. With that said, I thank you once again BIG BANK for laying me off and giving me the best gift ever: being home with my boys.

 

Do you have any thoughts on how to encourage my boys or your own children to continue to be great kids? Do you have any experiences you want to share? I would love to hear them.

A narrow escape for a small stranger

Hi there! I'm Kaila: a passionate part of the minimonos team and an ardent advocate for empowering children to express themselves in all their glory.

It's nice to meet you.

minimonos is more than a gig or a venture for me; it's an opportunity to engender delight in a generation of little ones. I don't have children of my own, and have no plans to -- but that doesn't stop me from being struck dumb when my niece lisps, "I lup yu, On-tie K!" It doesn't stop my heart from getting torn out when my nephew sobs that he doesn't want me to go. It doesn't stop me from caring, deeply, about children everywhere.

This past weekend, my fiance and I took a trip up to the Marlborough Sounds, through what is surely some of the most spectacular terrain to be found anywhere in the world. On Sunday, we rode our bikes to the tip of the land spit, enjoying native bush and pristine blue skies along the way.

As we stood by the wharf waiting for the water taxi to take us back, there was a sudden commotion: a splash and a shout. We dropped our bikes and ran to the edge -- and watched, in slow motion, as a man hurled himself through the air to catch a toddler who had toddled his way off the dock and into the water.

My fiance ran around to the jetty. My mind was sludging through mud, desperately wanting to be as immediately and extensively useful as possible. Thoughts came at a snail's pace: "Can't... swim... in... cycling... shoes..." I bent to get my shoes off. It took an hour. The man was chest-deep in the water, holding the child who was crying his head off -- a good sign. The shoes finally came off. "Don't... need... to... jump... in..." My fiance yelled that the man should go the other way, that it was too deep where he was. Through molasses, I climbed down the rocks on the other side towards them. Other people were running and yelling. The man reached the rocks but couldn't get up onto them because he was holding the screaming child -- who reached out to me.

I took him. He was soaked. He gripped me, sobbing. He soaked me. I backed up a foot, two feet, just a little bit higher on the rocks; my shoulders were up to the wharf. The boy saw his mother's feet through the rails; he let go of me and scrambled onto solid ground. The man climbed up past me. In a fog, I made my way back to my shoes, put them on, and went to join my fiance.

I didn't save that child, not by any stretch of the imagination. The man had him safely in his arms before I got the first shoe off. But that feeling, the one that exists in almost all of us, that fierce urgency of protection, that need to be one of the grown-up rocks that give stability to the world of a child: that's why I feel so strongly about minimonos. If there's anything I can do to make the world a better place for children -- while helping them appreciate their own impact on the native bush of the Marlborough Sounds -- I will do it.

We've all had those moments when our world stopped for a child. What was yours?

Top 10 non-fiction titles for kids and grownups

We love the library! My daughter’s library card is one of her most prized possessions.

I wish I remember getting my first one. Elizabeth Knox wrote a beautiful essay about the pride she felt when her father first enrolled her with the library.

Every child deserves the pleasure of not just great books, but knowing they can go back every week and never exhaust the selection. I was blessed as a child by a wonderful librarian at the City Library who slipped me books from the adults section when it was still out of bounds. She made reading a guilty pleasure (exactly what I needed), all about nurturing myself, and expanding my mind.

We went to our local public library today. I raided the Young Adult section (leaving with the 4 books in Phillip Pullman’s Ruby in the Smoke series), while Grace headed for the Documentary section, piling up the DVDs and non-fiction material.

What have we enjoyed the most? David Attenborough deserves a whole category of his own. Our local library has a great selection. We especially loved

• Life of Mammals (1998)
• Life in Cold Blood (2008)
• Life of Mammals (2002)
• Life in the Undergrowth (2005)

Others we've enjoyed:

Travelling Birds
Incredible photography! This movie covers migration of many species and must have taken years to shoot. We cried – parental guidance definitely recommended. A flock gets shot, it is shocking and disturbing, and there is no commentary about what is going on. To balance this out, the rest of the film is a triumph.

If you want a balance, Fly Away Home with a young Anna Paquin is a dramatized story about migratory geese.

Lorenzo’s Oil
OK, this is a based-on-a-true-story movie, but I love that the parents are heroes, and do everything scientifically possible to try to find a cure for their son. It gives children everywhere hope that their parents would do the same for them. The power of love, and the action it takes.

Microcosmos
The beauty of bugs. Gorgeous French close-ups of bugs. Awe-inspiring wonder.

March of the Penguins
The perfect foil to Happy Feet. Nice to see Dads giving it a go while the mothers trek forever to get food.

Earth
Amazing footage, especially of the Polar Bears. I defy you to watch this with your children and not do something, right now, about climate change.

For the older kids, Hoop Dreams (13+ in my opinion). My son, like many boys, wanted to be a pro ball player. It wasn’t his height (6’2”), but mostly he realized that while he loved/loves the game, he lacked the determination and drive that it would take for him to get there. He had other dreams, and basketball just didn’t win out. For these kids, basketball is more, much, much more. Good starting point for a number of conversations.

It seems a very small list!! Why is it there are so many great fiction films for kids and so few non-fiction ones? Our boys especially tend to prefer the non-fiction books – is it the same for movies? What is there for them?

What have you enjoyed with your children? What have they loved, and watched over and over?

Cultivating Green Kids

Hi! I'm Yvette, part of the minimonos blog team.

As a parent, I think of the environmental problems my kids will inherit and need to solve if they wish to live long, happy lives on this earth. But, how can I make “going green” a lifestyle for our family? This is a question I ask myself every day.

How can the choices my husband and I make today help the environment, and help prepare our children’s minds for the solutions they must think of tomorrow?

I know that every little bit counts, but sometimes I wonder if what we are doing is enough.

Going Green at the Grocery Store

Back to basics

When I learned I was pregnant with my first son, I became passionate about eating organic foods. I had a rudimentary knowledge of what this meant -- to eat organic -- and the health benefits I could gain by doing so. I was surprised however, to learn that I would also be contributing to the greater good of our planet.

From what started as a mission to protect my fetus (now 2 1/2 year old toddler) from pesticides, has now expanded to supporting small, local farmers and eco-friendly merchants.

Up until a few years ago, buying organic meant that you had to shop at a grocery store that catered to organically produced products, but now, in my state of Florida, you can easily find organic sections at any supermarket, pharmacy, quick mart, or gas station.

It just feels good -- and right -- to eat all natural.

Paper or plastic?

Until recently, I had thought of paper bags as awkward and inconvenient. Plastic just always seemed like the way to go; you could string 4 or 5 bags on each arm and bring all your groceries in the house in one trip. Now, as a way to reduce waste, we say, “Paper please.”

A paper bag offers many good uses. Beyond its ability to contain twice as many fruits, veggies, and meats than a plastic bag would, a paper bag can present your kids with the best kind of fun: the kind that uses their imagination.

The next time you empty a paper bag, don’t recycle it in the traditional sense, try recycling it in one of these ways:

• Drawing or construction paper -- use an 8.5 x 11 measurement to get 4 to 6 pieces
  

• A mask -- cut out two eyes and a mouth and decorate to your child’s heart’s content

Eco-friendly designers

It is a fashion designer’s job to stay ahead of the trend; thus, it behooves them to join the green movement. It’s not hard to find organic clothing -- and toys -- for kids these days. The number of online stores is enormous, but if you’re someone who prefers to get out and shop, even mega retailers like Target and Wal-Mart stock their kids’ sections with eco-friendly fashions.

Gone are the days when organic clothing meant you had to wear boring or scratchy fabric. Today’s organic clothing is soft, lightweight, and best of all edgy. One of my favorite eco-designers for kids is Quicksilver.

With options like these, my boys stay fashionably sustainable. 

These are just a few small investments we make in our great earth today for big returns in the future. What kinds of green things do you and your family do?

 

 

How to buy a biodegradable tea bag

I love the ritual of a cup of tea. Tea leaves, tea bags… I don’t care. I like taking the time to boil the water, make the tea, and wait for it to steep. I especially like to take a few quiet minutes for myself.

This week in the supermarket, I broke out of habit and bought myself a new variety: Dilmah’s Masala Chai. This isn’t an ad for them, but I did like the tea!

Unfortunately, something was not quite right, so I wrote them this email:

Hello

I have been a long-term consumer of yours, and thought I would buy this (Masala Chai) tea... so I had something as a bit of a change from my usual tea. I was partly swayed by the "landcare partner" logo on the box.

I was so dismayed when I opened the pack to find that the tea is encapsulated in what appears to be polyester tea bags. I am a keen gardener and always have composted my tea leaves and bags in the past. There is nothing on the box that would lead me to know that this was not a sustainable product, made of natural materials.

I sincerely hope you will rethink your packaging in this instance. The tea is clearly a quality product -- please package it in a sustainable way, which means I will be able to enjoy it in the future. Unless this packaging changes, I will not buy it again.

I hope you will reconsider your choice here -- I don't want the remnants of my 15 minute cuppa to remain on the earth as waste for very long at all.

All credit to them, in less than 12 hours they sent me this reply… complete with pictures of composting tea bags!

Dear Melissa,

With regard to your concerns please note that the new triangular teabag machines are made in Japan and use ultrasonic sealing due to the shape of the bag. This type of sealing was initially possible only with nylon mesh bags which are what we started with. The nylon mesh has been widely used in Japan for over a decade and is of food grade. However it is not biodegradable.

However we recently switched to a newly available biodegradable material from Japan called SOILON which looks similar to the original nylon but is made from corn starch. All Dilmah production of triangular bags are now biodegradable – the paper, string and tag. Full details are attached and I hope this answers your concerns.

I hope this helps.

With kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
Anita Antonipillai.
Customer Care Division

 

What if we all made our purchasing decisions based on what was good for the earth? What if we lived as if it all mattered -- right down to the tea bags we choose? Why would we buy products that affect the Earth for a lifetime… when all I wanted was 15 minutes of quiet time?