Green Your Kid’s Toy Box: Part 2

Last week, we shared with you that we’ve decided it’s time to take care of the ridiculous amount of plastic toys our children own. This realization, that our kids’ toys just weren’t very eco-friendly, isn’t a new one. It’s part of the reason why we decided to create Color Me House‘s line of cardboard playhouses and rockets. We know that children’s imaginations extend far beyond the confines of conventional, multi-colored toys. But we digress. :^)

This week, we’re ready to share a few more ideas on how we’re begun to “green the toy box.”

Our "new" reused play structure

A Previously Loved Play Structure

A few weeks ago, our neighbor who has two older boys asked us if we’d like to have the wooden play structure that he built years ago for his boys. Since they have outgrown it and our little ones love slides and ladders and climbing, we thought it was a great offer!

Here’s how it stacks up in the eco-friendly sense: It’s a perfect example of reusing. All that wood and the plastic slide did not go into a landfill. Not to mention it was great exercise for us taking it down and reassembling it!

Get outside and play!

Go Outside!

Another “green idea” for summertime is simply turning off the TV, video games and computer and going outside to play. Electronics take a lot of electricity so when the weather is nice, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t go outside to play. Running through sprinklers, going for a bike ride, or playing in one of our Color Me House playhouses makes for an eco-friendly and healthy day.

Lion exhibit at the Oregon Zoo

Activity Gifts

We know it’s still warm outside, but in the back of our minds we know that the holidays will be here in the blink of an eye. Our mother-in-law already asked what the kids might like for Christmas. She’s a planner, she is.

This got us to thinking, wouldn’t it be a great idea to ask the kids what kinds of activities they’d like to do and have the grandparents give them a gift of swim lessons, ballet or art classes, or something really special like a private tour of the zoo. $50 for a week of art classes will surely last in a child’s memory a lot longer than a tube full of plastic animals.

So there you go. Three more way we are “greening the toy box.” What are your green ideas?

Green Your Kids’ Toy Box

Looking around our kids’ playrooms and seeing all the plastic, multi-colored playthings has started driving us nuts. Imagine all the plastic that goes into the landfill each year – all the discarded toys and packaging. There’s only so much we feel like we can pass on to Goodwill or hand down to friends with little ones. Who really wants the junk we get from Chuck E. Cheese or from the county fair?

Messy Playroom via Real Simple

So in the spirit of our eco-friendly Color Me House playhouses and rockets, we’ve decided to take action and green up our children’s toy boxes. It would be counterintuitive to throw out all the plastic toys they already have since we’d just be adding to the landfill so eco-friendly begins with their acquisitions from here forward.

First off, we’d like to propose that the greenest act of all would be to reduce the number of toys our children have. Let’s consider repurposing what we have. For example, one of our boys has eight million Lego pieces from about 1,000 kits – OK, that’s bit of an exaggeration, but it sure feels like there are that many when they’re spread all over his bedroom floor.

One of our boy's Lego creations

How about this idea: Take one of the Lego instruction booklets that we saved, dig through the bin of Lego pieces and rebuild that project. We suspect it would take our boy a couple hours just to find all the pieces!

Another area we have green issues with are batteries. We don’t know about your household, but we go through a lot of batteries every year. And even though we’ve become upstanding battery recyclers and haven’t thrown a battery in the garbage in a couple years, it still seems a little ridiculous that our kids’ toys use so many of these little things. Do the toy manufacturers purposely make their products suck the life out of batteries ten times faster than other household objects? Or perhaps it’s that our kids are lax about turning off the toys. Maybe a little of both.

So to green the toy box, we propose to teach our kids to switch the button to off when they are done playing. Toys that can be enjoyed sans batteries will be enjoyed sans batteries. Our kids make funny enough noises by themselves – who needs electronics to make the caterpillar talk? We don’t really need Dora to sing while playing with the play kitchen. Adios, batteries!

So there are the first two steps we’re taking to green up our toy boxes. We certainly don’t have all the answers so we’d love to hear from you! What are some of your green toy box ideas?

Playing Elf in NW Portland

We were in doing a little holiday shopping this afternoon in Northwest Portland and popped into Child’s Play, a cute little neighborhood toy store, and what should we see right inside the front door…a Color Me Rocket! It’s so fun to see the rockets and playhouses when we’re out and about. It was cool because they let the kids color on the Rocket while moms and dads are shopping. It was great to see the little ones go in and out of the Rocket. One cute little girl even said she was going to ask Santa for a Rocket. Hmmm. Maybe we can talk to the big man at the North Pole about a quantity discount!

Child's Play in Northwest Portland

If you live in the Portland area, you should check out Child’s Play. It’s not a huge place, but it has a great selection of quality toys. We picked up a few things for the kiddies on our lists! Plus, NW 23rd is a fabulous area for other things like chocolate – we took our friends to Moonstruck Chocolate for a little after shopping treat!

If you have other favorite toy shops, we’d love to hear about them!

Green Giving…You Bet!

It’s no secret that here at Color Me House we are all about inspiring kids to be creative while being eco-friendly. And since it’s that time of year, we thought we’d share with you a few of the environmentally-friendly, kid-friendly gifts we’ve run across recently.

Our criteria for the list is simple: fun for kids, eco-friendly and made in the USA (let’s do our part to keep the economy going, right!). There are certainly thousands of children’s items out there that fit this criteria, but here are a few of our favorites. If you have ideas that you’d like to share, please let us know.

Hope these help make your holiday shopping just a little easier!

 

The Green Toys Dish Set

The Green Toys Dish Set ($40) is made from 100% recycled plastic milk containers that save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The set includes everything you need to serve a dinner for four, and even though it’s a play set, it’s dishwasher safe and meets FDA food contact standards. And it comes in cute colors that girls will love!

 

Little Sapling Toys

This game is called Skittles ($35) – it’s a 10 pin retro wooden bowling developmental set. The 10 pins are made from maple and the two balls from hardwood. They are sanded satin smooth and a light local beeswax and organic jojoba oil finish enhances the natural beauty of the wood. All Little Sapling Toys are 100% recycled (80% post consumer) and recyclable.

 

Chase Dreams Building Block Crayons

This set of Building Block Crayons ($3) will be a hit for any child who loves Legos. They are made from recycled non-toxic crayons. Each set includes a red, orange, yellow, green, and blue.

 

 

 

 

Bebeloosh Mini Snack Bags

Forget about the plastic baggies. we don’t know any kid who wouldn’t love to open their backpack and find these great Reusable Organic Sandwich/Snack Bags ($25 for 4). The bags are made from 55% recycled hemp and 45% unbleached cotton cotton – giving them great durability and wearability. The eco-friendly sack has a velcro closure that keeps all the crumbs inside.

 

Mama K's Aromatic Play Clay

Mold and shape away with Mama K’s Play Clay ($22). This 100% natural modeling clay made from certified GF flours and organic essential oils. There are no synthetics or artificial dyes. Comes in a tube of five 4-oz. tubs in aromas like lavender, lemongrass and other wonderful smelling scents. The tubs are reusable and the tube is recyclable.