Ready or not, a new school year is about to start! Maybe you are totally prepared and ready to send your kids to school in green & healthy style, but if you are like most of us, you've still got a few things to figure out...
Whether you are looking for eco-friendly school supplies, healthy lunch ideas or tips for how to green your school, the gals from the Green Moms Carnival will steer you in the right direction, in this 4th annual installment of our popular back-to-school blog carnival!!
Greener Shopping
Back to school is synonymous with shopping and even those of us who strive to buy less almost always have to purchase a thing or two. Here's how to make those purchases greener, cleaner and healthier for everyone involved:
Tiffany at Nature Moms is full of ideas for greener back-to-school shopping from clothes to shoes to lunch gear to school supplies.
Harriet at Climate Mama gives us the scoop on Naked Binder and tells us why she admires the sustainability and educational stand the company is making.
Over at Groovy Green Livin, Lori reminds us what to look for in reusable products and shares her top 6 product picks for eco-friendly lunches.
Betsy at Eco-novice shares her favorite eco-friendly lunch gear including some rockin' waterproof, zippered bags that I purchased immediately after reading her post!
Always full of great ideas, Beth at My Plastic-free Life recommends her favorite, plastic-free lunch containers and bags. (Pssst...she's got a giveaway!)
Not to be left behind, I too have a couple eco-back-to-school-shopping posts: Discover my Top 10 Snack Bags and Sandwich Boxes and try your luck at winning one of 6 reusable lunch totes!
Lisa from Retro Housewife Goes Green lists her fav reusable lunch items - including People Towels - adorable, printed reusable towels that are perfect for a child's lunchbox!
The antibacterial trend is still alive and well and many of us will find hand sanitizers and other antibacterial products on our school supply lists. Sommer from Green & Clean Mom talks about why that's not a good thing and suggests some safer alternatives.
On a similar note, Jennifer from The Smart Mama wonders why antimicrobial Microban has taken over the school supply aisle.
Katie from Non-Toxic Kids shares her eco-friendly shopping tips including a darling, toxin-free nap mat!
Mindful Purchases
As fun as it may be to pick out a brand new lunchbox or set of fancy notebooks, a big part of being green, means BUYING LESS and being more mindful of your purchases:
Lynn from OrganicMania encourages us to follow the 5 R's: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle and provides some great tips for buying durable products that will last year to year.
Do we really need all this stuff? Karen at Best of Mother Earth urges us to stop and think before we run out and buy new shoes and school supplies that we might not really need.
Sommer at Green & Clean Mom reminds us that we don't have to spend a fortune on back-to-school. She's got 5 budget-saving tips including shopping on e-Bay and reusing items from previous years.
Anna from Green Talk recommends shopping for school supplies in your own home before heading to the office supply store.
Better Eating
Our kids may be away from us during the day, but that doesn't mean we can't influence what they eat at school:
Deirdre from Plan It Healthier shares some healthy, lunch box ready recipes including a very intriguing Chocolate Hummus (made with garbanzo beans and cocoa!) and some mouth watering muffins: Apple Cheddar, Blueberry Cornmeal and Avocado Chocolate (yes, you read that correctly!)
This post may be a couple years old, but my tips for healthy lunchbox meals, snacks and sweets will still point you in the right direction for a delicious and nutritious school year!
Deanna at Crunchy Chicken is reminded of the gross school lunches at her kids' school and wishes that Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution staff would pay a visit...pronto!
If you want your child to eat a healthy lunch at school, get them involved in the process. That's some sage advice from Sommer at Green & Clean Mom in her post about better school lunches.
Jennifer Lee at Crunch a Color suggests using the following formula for power lunches: protein + 3 colors + healthy grains. Makes good sense to me!
Greener Schools & Eco-Activism
Want your child's school to be a greener, healthier place? You're probably going to have to roll up your sleeves and do something about it!
Sometimes it takes a food fight to get reusable lunch trays - as we see in this inspiring example from Diane at Big Green Purse.
We may be sending our kids to school with organic, eco-friendly lunches, but what about those smelly old yellow school buses, spewing toxic emissions? Deanna at Crunchy Chicken talks about what you can do to demand change.
Instead of taking the yellow school bus, how about creating a walking school bus? Here's a post I wrote last year about a walking school bus right in my neighborhood!
If you really want to jump-start back-to-school, then take your child to an environmental activism event. Harriet at Climate Mama lists the events she recommends attending, including the Tar Sands Action at the White House where she will be protesting the XL Keystone Pipeline that would carry oil from Alberta, Canada to Texas.
Abbie at Farmer's Daughter talks about the controversy over teaching climate change in schools. She's a teacher in Connecticut and she knows just how controversial it can be.
Amber at Strocel.com rates her own efforts on shopping and commuting in her green back-to-school report card. Not surprisingly, the school supplies are the toughest eco-hurdle to meet. She also rates her school on green efforts and wonders how the rest of us keep our schools green.
Homeschooling
Do you homeschool? Tiffany at Nature Moms has a checklist of activities to help you get prepared for the new school year at home!
What are your favorite green back-to-school tips? Please share!
(Image credits: lpencils from c.a. muller via flickr, lunch from elana's pantry via flickr, walking kids image from Startribune.com)
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Thanks for hosting this month's carnival, I really like how you sectioned off all the options one might have when thinking about green and going back to school.
Posted by: Karen Hanrahan | August 22, 2011 at 10:17 AM
Wow...a great round-up here - it never ceases to amaze me how many new ideas we can find for back-to-school. Thanks for hosting, Micaela!
Posted by: Lynn from OrganicMania.com | August 22, 2011 at 10:43 AM
I don't know how I always miss these carnivals but here are my tips from SafeMama.com
How To Handle Unhealthy Snacks At School:
http://tinyurl.com/3rc3ctd
Safer Lunch Gear Cheat Sheet:
http://tinyurl.com/3dxgreq
Find Safer Backpacks:
http://tinyurl.com/3tu6vr5
Great round up!
Posted by: Kathy | August 25, 2011 at 09:03 AM
Great article. I hope we all are looking for ways to save our planet. Thanks for the info. I will pass it along.
Posted by: Debbie henry | August 25, 2011 at 11:32 AM
Hi Kathy - thanks for the back to school posts!
Our carnival schedule is posted here: http://organicmania.com/green-moms-carnival/- although the September topic is incorrect - check back soon for an update.
Posted by: Micaela | August 25, 2011 at 07:14 PM
Great roundup of Back to school posts! I did a post earlier in the year when kids were going back to school here in Australia: http://tiny.cc/itl6h
I look forward to seeing the updated September topic as I am keen to join in!
Posted by: Flavia from Petit Eco KIDS | August 25, 2011 at 08:03 PM
Hi Flavia - we would love to have you submit a post to one of our Green Moms Carnivals!
Posted by: Micaela | August 26, 2011 at 06:55 AM
Thanks for hosting! It's a great carnival!!
Posted by: Lisa @Retro Housewife Goes Green | August 27, 2011 at 01:50 PM
Wow! You've got a lot of great resources here!
On the topic of healthy lunches, I'm considering implementing something I read about making a list with your children of healthy snacks for lunch and then letting them participate in the lunch making process. This gives them an introduction to choosing a healthier lifestyle with foods they enjoy!
Suzanne
Radically reducing the use of chemicals in personal care and cleaning.
Posted by: Suzanne Holt | September 30, 2011 at 11:21 AM