Four pounds per square inch = four million gallons of gas

While reading through Nick's new site The Big Green Help, I ran across several kids making a difference in helping our environment. All of them have great ideas, but one stood out to me because of the simplicity of the solution. A young Florida girl created a website called Pump 'Em Up, which encourages people to constantly check their vehicles' tires. Her name is Savannah, and she's an Arctic National Wildlife Refuge protector in Florida. Savannah started this website when she realized we waste 4 million gallons of gas per day with under-inflated tires. Yes, I said per day! That's ridiculous.

I'm so impressed by these kids. When I was their age I thought it would be cool if Voltron and Optimus Prime joined forces to beat the Decepticons.

We're fortunate that our children are focused and concerned about the sustainability of our environment, and Pump 'Em Up has a way for your children to participate as well. Right now. Check out their handy-dandy worksheet for a fun math exercise your kids can do; they'll learn exactly how much gas can be saved by keeping tires at the proper pressure.

Kudos to you, Savannah! Below are some tips and tidbits from Pump 'Em Up:

With properly inflated tires...

• Americans could save 4 million gallons of gas each day.
• Americans could save hundreds of dollars each year on gas and extend the life of their tires by 25%.
• Americans could all breathe cleaner air because we’d be burning less gas.
• Americans would be able to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge forever!

How to inflate your tires properly:

• Always use the pressure recommended by the vehicle manufacturer. You can find this information in several places; in your car owner's manual, on the inside of the glove box door or posted on the edge of the driver side door.
• Use a reliable gauge. This is very important!
• For those of you who have radial tires, they are supposed to have a slight bulge in the sidewall at their proper inflation pressure.
• Make sure to check your tire pressure every month and especially before a long trip or pulling a heavy load.
• To get a true tire pressure reading, check the tires when they’re cold -- when your vehicle has been idle for at least three hours.

*Information gathered from the US Dept. of Energy, US Dept. of Transportation, Michelin, Firestone and Goodyear websites.

As always your feedback and comments are encouraged. What have you found to be interesting or not so interesting? I want to hear your thoughts and how you and your family are making a difference.

Spilling My Eco-Secrets

Hi. My name is Andrea, and I'm an eco-hypocrite.

I don't live off the grid. My carbon footprint is larger than it ought to be. And (PLEASE don't tell anyone!) I eat meat. From farting cows. It's mortifying.

At the same time, if we ever want to make a positive difference to our environment, we have to start with a fearless and unflinching assessment of where we are now. Fortunately, Jenn Savedge at The Green Parent is currently holding an eco-confessions carnival, which is providing me with the perfect opportunity to come clean.

Ew. Yuck. Here goes!

• KFC. My worst confession. About once a month. A guilty treat with my 7-year old when Dad goes away. We do recycle the box. We feel sorry for the chickens afterwards. We say we’ll never do it again.
• Lengthy showers. I have long hair and shave just about everything -- that’s my excuse.  My 85-year old grandmother tells me I should wash my hair in the sink. Don’t think I’ll give her details about the shaving.
• Walking to work. I have no excuse. I’m only half an hour from work. Our city is flat. Its pedestrian-friendly and my very good friend walks the same way. No defense. Shame.
• Our wonderfully cozy log-burner. In our city everyone is phasing out their old log burner fires and moving to clean heat. We not only haven’t done this but we have a little dance around the fire and clap our hands every time it's on. Apologies to those in our valley.
• Plastic bags. I’m honestly trying to do better with these; however, my cupboard is now groaning with cloth bags because I keep forgetting to bring them with me and I have to keep buying more.  This is seriously defeating the purpose. Then when I think I can’t possibly buy another cloth bag, I (just this once) use plastic bags.  BUT I can’t throw them out, so I now have to warn my son not to go near the kitchen cupboard for fear of  him being attacked by a cloth-and-plastic-bag avalanche.

The more I learn about the ways I could be looking after our environment, the more I cringe when I see what I’m NOT doing, which is the whole point, I guess. So I’ll keep cringing and making those changes… you know, I did use to have KFC every week…

I have baby dinosaurs marching in my living room!

Ok, I don’t really. But my 2.5-year-old and my 18-month-old seem to think they're prehistoric. “We are the dinosaurs, marching, marching…” The lyrics bounce off my acoustically friendly walls, thanks to the brilliant and creative Laurie Berkner Band.  My two sons dance and sing along to the folksy, simple lyrics written and performed by Laurie and her band.

I love this band, and, more importantly, so do Cortez and Cruz. Her songs are simple enough for children and perfectly enjoyable for adults. I find myself singing along when we're in the car with the kids. And -- don’t let this out -- I've been caught on video performing some of the songs with my kids in our living room. Yeah, yeah! If you have the DVD, I'm sure you're guilty of dancing, singing and running around the house to I’m Gonna Catch You as well.

If I only had the talent to sing and strum a guitar, I'd try my hand at my own band. I can picture it now. The stage is dark, the curtains are down, and I'm just offstage, holding my guitar and waiting for my introduction. The hype man sets me up. And now, ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, stand up and put your hands together for my friend, my idol and the worlds all time best guitarist…Alex and the Chipmunks! I would rock!

Just think: I'd be the coolest dad ever -- until my kids got embarrassed by me. Which would probably be sooner than I think. 

OK, enough of my musician dreams. Back to Laurie Berkner.

People Magazine said, “The queen of kids' music is back with her first CD in six years, and with Susie Lampert and Adam Bernstein hitching along, it's a fun ride. Somewhere Frank Sinatra is tapping his toes to her version of 'Fly Me to the Moon.'"

Laurie is Lucy's mommy, and is also cool enough to be featured on Ziggy Marley’s new CD Family Time. She has performances throughout the country; from what I hear, they're tons of fun. If you haven’t already grabbed your family a copy of the CD, I suggest you check it out.

Laurie's a guest on Noggin, the cable television network for kids. (I love Noggin because it's commercial free -- no marketing schemes to reach out to our kids.) NYC natives looking for Saturday morning activities with your children can also join Laurie at Downtown Adventures.

Downtown Adventures provides kids ages 1-10 with high-quality, interactive, and enriching classes taught by local artists, designed to reflect the vibrancy of the downtown NYC neighborhoods. Art, dance, performance, crafts and creative endeavors of all kinds promote new skills in a safe and fun environment.

If you're interested in learning more about Laurie and her bandmates, you can visit her website. I enjoy hearing your feedback and about  the adventures you enjoy with your children. Please feel free to contact me and share your experiences!  

Kids, core values and consumerism

Here at MiniMonos, we have been working on our business model, thanks in part to being at the amazing XMediaLab. We were lucky enough to be mentored by some of the world’s best at this stimulating event.

We have always had a plan to provide free content and sell subscriptions for premium access. This is the only business model we all felt comfortable with. We didn’t want to be in business of selling stuffed toys, plastic USB drives and crap people don’t need.

Interestingly, the market researchers are telling us that mothers prefer to buy junk in order to get access to websites (because then if the website sucks, the kid still has the toy). We just don’t buy it. We know we don’t want any more plush toys!

As a mom, I am happy to pay for a subscription when I know that means my child is safe, and not exposed to advertising. I am hugely inspired by the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, and have thought hard about how we run a sustainable business with children’s interests at heart.

I've previously blogged about how the virtual worlds industry is one that usually solves a problem for marketers (how to sell more stuff to kids), rather than one that thinks about how to serve the children themselves. For MiniMonos, we rejected the advertising model -- because we don’t want to be part of a machine that tells kids they have to buy stuff to be happy.

But are there any advertisers selling good things to parents, consistent with our values, consistent with who we are? Thanks to the stimulating and challenging discussions we have had recently, we've been asking ourselves that question.

Not all stuff is created equal, so I began a quest to see what's out there. As of now, I'm slightly amazed by how difficult it is to find good quality products for children. I Googled organic kids, eco kids, kids and gardening, ethical gifts, fair trade gifts, fair trade kids gifts.

I found a lot of Fair Trade stuff that I wouldn’t buy and that didn’t appear to be very sustainably produced. I found a Fair Trade wholesaler selling what I thought looked like junk at really low prices. I struggled to find Fair Trade and organic at the same time -- and for kids? Forget it.

I also struggled to find organic clothing for big kids. There was a lot in the organic baby section… but for children older than two it was pretty hard.

Even more surprising to me was that most of what I found was based in the UK! Even a number of the .com sites were based in the UK. Australia had the next biggest set. The US came way third. I'm now going to start searching in French, Spanish and German to see what turns up.

I figured MiniMonos could help people find gifts and things we need that are in line with our values:

1. Sustainable. The companies which make them care deeply about the environment and communities they live in. They take a long-term view, are probably organic producers, and possibly carry some kind of carbon certification.
2. Generous. They pay a fair wage, treat suppliers and customers with respect, and treat the earth and animals well.
3. Delightful. Their products or services add joy to the world.

If you are one of these suppliers let me know!

These are some of the things I went looking for:

• Gardening sets for kids: quality tools meant to be used for years and handed on
• Funky composting systems with kids in mind (size of buckets/bins, quality of materials)
• Books: sustainably produced, with uplifting themes
• Organic kids clothing sizes 2T to 12
• Cool lunch sets (I did find some of these – calico lunch bags and steel drink bottles)
• Non toxic (in every way) toys that rock for bigger kids 8-12

What do you think? Got any great sustainable, generous, delightful companies you love?

The absolute best kids' fiction movies ever, according to me

What’s entertaining?

Sitting on the couch watching a movie with my 8-year-old, I find myself reflecting on what I’ve seen over the years with my children that I have found truly delightful.

And I want to share that delight. So here are my top children’s fiction movies in English. I've seen each of these more than 10 times -- now that’s good value! My children and I know the full scripts to most of these, and can do many of the voices.

Presenting, in no particular order...

The Princess Bride
Why you should watch this film:
Pirates, a princess, a giant, sword fighting. Billy Crystal and snappy dialogue.

Ever After
Why you should watch this film:
The interesting, brainy, socially responsible girl gets the prince. She also climbs trees, works hard and has compassion.

The Neverending Story
Why you should watch this film:
Boy heroes who really do good are rare. Challenges, quests, conquering terrible fear… and saving the world.

Finding Nemo
Why you should watch this film:
Beauty. Friendship. Good dad… oh, and the reef!

Kiki’s Delivery Service
Why you should watch this film:
Delightful Hayao Miyasaki movie about a little witch learning to make her own way in the world. A story about preparing for adolescence and the joy of being oneself -- and being responsible.

Help I’m a Fish
Why you should watch this film:
Siblings cooperating to save each other -- underwater!

Monsters Inc
Why you should watch this film:
Scary looking guys befriend and save the little girl. Night frights are gone, and the good guys win.

Toy Story
Why you should watch this film:
Friendship, love and loyalty hold the characters together. Don’t we all need some more love in our lives?

Pom Poko
Why you should watch this film:
Another gem, this time with Hayao Miyazaki as Executive Producer. Raccoons are threatened by humans moving into their habitat, so learn to transform themselves into humans to survive.

The following ones might be coming onto the list, but too soon to tell….

Arthur and the Invisibles
Why you should watch this film:
Boy as hero, has great relationship with grandparents. Makes good choices, and a great adventure!

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Why you should watch this film:
Hayao Miyazaki is a genius. A girl and a boy save the world by preventing war. Beautiful animation, great values.  Inspiring -- I want to be like her!

Bolt
Why you should watch this film:
Cute story, co-operation wins. Good fun, good values without being preachy… the and 3-D animation rocks.

The Tale of Despereaux
Why you should watch this film:
Use the movie to get your kid to read this book with you. You will delight in the language and at the child in the story -- mighty mouse, sad princess and it all works out well.

What are your favorite movies? I'd love to watch them with my children!