Living in Gravity

Posted by: Wendy

I was in our local hospital emergency room the other night.  I was comforting my 10 year old daughter awaiting a surgical repair to her broken and dislocated arm.   All the rooms were full with some degree of trauma and pain.   This is not exceptional, emergency room visits occur over 114 million times a year in the United States alone.  We live in a world with gravity, as my ten year old experienced with her recent bad landing on an unfortunate trampoline bounce.  At some time or another we all miss and fall,  and the force of gravity bears on us all equally,  where we hit the ground-  but we’re not running. 

The other gravity of life takes hold at these moments that often usher in serious injury and grave tragedy.  We are never prepared for the end of anything, even if we are fully aware of the statistics and uncertainty that qualify life.   How could we go about the fullness of life’s activities and challenges expecting tragedy to fall with the even handedness that the universal law of gravity metes out?    In order to keep it all going, we  move forward with the naïve expectation that the difficult and challenging experiences in life only happen to other people, not to us.   Sooner or later, even the luckiest among us joins the ranks of surviving.    

I had just started reading I Will Not Be Broken by Jerry White, the day before I spent the night in the emergency room.   I have suffered illnesses and diseases with my children before, some that seemed like they would define life forever.   I remembered his words about how when people suffer a major loss of any kind, they all carry  a date.  This is the moment when tragedy, loss and surviving transformed their lives.   As I sat in the  ICU waiting room, hearing hushed conversations around me,  I knew that some of that date setting was going on right there.  I felt so grateful that all I had in front of me in the middle of the night is getting a girl through summer without the pool.   

That is another phenomenon of tragedy that happens for most of us.  We often end up comparing our loss to those of others we know or have heard of.   Even in the most dire of circumstances,   survivors find gratitude,  their problem is manageable compared to people they know.   Jerry White, himself was the victim of life changing loss when early in his twenties, he lost his lower leg in a minefield outside of Jerusalem.  His book is an account of the years he has spent founding the Survivors Corp and he shares the gravity and grief of daily life on planet earth along with  remarkable stories of resiliency.  

 Tragedy and loss is not limited to bodily events,  the emotional wreckage that can result from dysfunctional relationships is no less an issue of survivorship than losing a limb as I was recently reminded from one of my readers.   She asked me to write of the loss and trauma of reinventing a life after being left and abandoned in her long term relationship. I hear these kinds of stories everyday,  where the heart can become so bruised that we become unable to feel, unable to risk expressing love,  isolated with our fears and loneliness.   Finding the courage and the heart to rebuild a life that has meaning and brings joy requires the same skills of survivorship which begin by giving up being a victim and choosing life. 

The universal law of gravity is based on the fundamental force of attraction between bodies (objects of mass) which is what gravity in life should teach us.   We are all in this together and reacting to the losses that we sustain with the ability to reach out and give back is the basis on which we not only survive, but thrive.   Often it is not until the world seems to be coming apart that we begin to feel both compassion and connectedness to people, both that we know and that are strangers who have experienced a loss like ours. 

Early stages of recovery from tragedy happen as we lose our sense of being a victim and realize that we belong.  Joining groups of people who share similar experiences is a profoundly healthy response to finding meaning in your own experience.   Settling into a new and different life experience is heightened and more rewarding when we risk offering our help to others just beginning their journey.  

Experiencing our brokenness is where we get a heart that is cracked wide open.   A heart that has the both the strength to grieve,  the courage to forgive,  the tenacity to live in gravity.   

 

 

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Congratulations to Clare & a big Welcome to Theo!

Posted by: Vicky

This is a very happy announcement and I hope you will all join me in congratulating our Green Girl, Clare, on the arrival of her baby, Theo!

Clare, who also runs the fantastic Veg Box Recipes has been one of our longest standing GGG editors, sharing her wealth of knowledge on yummy seasonal veg and scrumptious recipes.

What lovely news eh? I think Theo must be our youngest Green Guy yet!

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Saving the earth- in style

Posted by: Wendy

When I first agreed to review Green Chic by Christie Matheson, I admit I was not prepared to be inspired.  Aside from the fact that the book arrived with another  unrequested book from the same publisher called  “Porn Stars Secrets of Sex”,  (note- bad practice for publicists)  the idea of combining the drive for style with earth friendly tips seemed dubious.    After all, it seems almost the purpose of fashion magazines to make us perpetual consumers. 

Although I have never  been much on following the latest style trends , having a family and  raising children who need the newest flair  or ever lowering  waistline to their jeans  has made me a consistent if reluctant consumer over and over again.  Green Chic  offers  well researched facts and suggestions  on everything  from home care, to transportation,  and  of course the fashionista staples of clothing, hair and makeup solutions.

What made me want to go back to Green Chic, was that Matheson, admits early on to being  a new environmentalist ,  and  she shares an  authentic journey of  transforming  her own life decisions based on her research.  I appreciated the places where she choose to  give up favorite fashion practices like nail polish as well as some that she couldn’t – deodorant.   Her honest  tone made the book  feel like a conversation I would have with a friend and not a preachy  list of “should do’s”.  

Where her book made a real impact in my own life choices was when I read the chapter about giving up  shopping bags.   From Christie,  I learned that  worldwide,  we use and throw away over a trillion shopping bags- Here in the US  that translates to  an average household disposing of  1000 plastic bags in a year.  Most of these bags end up in landfills where they take hundreds of years to degrade  and  because of their petroleum base they release toxic chemicals into the air, ground and water.  Even worse many bags end up in streams and rivers where they poison hundreds of thousands of animals per year.  The ten billion paper bags we use in this country, requires fourteen million trees to be cut down.  This is a problem where individual choices can go a long way.   And it felt  like a transformation of sorts, the day I decided I wasn’t  going to use another  disposable bag-paper or plastic.  So even when I have to run out to retrieve the bags from the car,  the satisfaction of  making this small but powerful change is liberating.  

Feeling free from any life habit inspires you to try out others and so the slow process of change which sustains itself  also inspires itself.    Christie’s also offers some great research for Bedroom accessories, which although it didn’t include my favorite love products, made a seriously good argument for organic cotton sheets.  Another shift I plan to investigate soon.  So even if you have never thought of yourself as fashion conscious ,  Green Chic is a great resource for  making informed and thoughtful choices on a  path to making your life greener and the world a little healthier.   

See the following link to purchase. www.amazon.com/Green-Chic-Saving-Earth-Style/dp/1402210825 

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A hand-made, eco wedding update

Posted by: Vicky

Well, Jez and I are now back from honeymoon and back to reality and our wedding day, although only two weeks ago, now seems like a distant happy memory. Wow, it flew by so past but that’s probably because we had such a fantastic time!

This post is just going to be brief but after so many good luck wishes from everyone I wanted to give a quick update on how it all went. My original post, ‘Planning a hand-made, eco wedding‘, gives more details about what went into preparing our big day.

I suppose one of the things about planning an ethical wedding is that many people are curious about what it will be like. I think quite a few of our guests were really expecting something unusual but in fact it was traditional in many ways.

It was great for us that people entered into the spirit of the day so happily, some of our older guests said they enjoyed it because it reminded them of the simple, family weddings they used to go to when they were children. One of our friends even recycled part of our invitation to put into her wedding card.

The maypole cake and chocolate cupcakes looked beautiful and went down a treat. Everyone loved the food and organic wine and nothing went to waste!

On the morning of the wedding we picked up the flowers and took the hall keys to the caterer. Our caterer was excited that she’d bought so much local food from the market that morning and the florist made a point of writing down where the flowers had been sourced - “Flowers and foliage from Leiston Suffolk, Spalding Lincolnshire, Penryn Cornwall”.

For our honeymoon we went to Brussels on the Eurostar and then on to Amsterdam on the Thalys train. We hadn’t travelled on the new Eurostar from St Pancras before and I have to say I was impressed that there was organic and fairtrade food and drink on the menu. Their information also says that they are constantly reviewing their environmental performance, reducing waste and increasing the use of biodegradable packaging. OK, so this statement isn’t quantifiable but its a start, right?

It’s strange to think that after so many months of planning, preparation and creating your day is over in a flash. Of course it isn’t really because it’s just the foundation of a new commitment you’ve made to each other for many, many more days to come.

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Planning a hand-made, eco wedding

Posted by: Vicky

As mine and Jez’s big day approaches and most of the preparations in place I thought I would steal a little time to reflect and share my experience in planning our eco and ethical wedding.

Right from the start we wanted our wedding to reflect our everyday values and beliefs, how we live and work. Although we didn’t tell anyone until the summer, our plans started last spring, looking for all of the main wedding necessities - a place to have the ceremony, a place to celebrate and someone to provide food.

Ceremonies & Celebrations

Finding a place to have the ceremony was easy, neither of us wanted to get married in church and the cost of using a hotel or other licenced venue ruled that out immediately. So, register office it was to be. We didn’t choose the one in Nottingham city as it isn’t very pretty and would be further for our families to travel so we chose one in a nearby town which has a walled garden and is just as easy to get to via public transport.

Party Venue
Looking for a place to celebrate and a caterer went hand in hand because of course the venue needed the facilities to prepare and serve food and the caterer had to be happy working in the chosen venue. It took me a little while to catch on to the idea of having a celebration in a village hall, I don’t know why but I think I originally got the idea from an Ethical Weddings blog post. I had spend days and days scouring the internet for a suitable place in Nottinghamshire, again hotels were just too expensive and many places wanted to provide their own food but I was determined to find an ethical caterer of our own.

Ethical Caterer
Luckily after the great realisation that a village hall would be just right for us, I narrowed it down to two possibilities, visited them both and chose one immediately, a charity run hall not far from the register office. In-between times I was glued to my computer searching for a suitable caterer and in Nottinghamshire that isn’t easy. I think in total I found 3 caterers that could provide local, organic and fair trade food but when I called Cate from C8TER I need look no further. Right from the start Cate reassured me with her friendly, professional and flexible approach and her attention to detail. She’s knowledgable about sourcing local and organic food and after sampling her cooking I’m really looking forward to the meal on the day!

Dressing Up

Luckily, finding a dress happened quite quickly, although I expected it to be difficult. In fact initially I didn’t see myself with a traditional wedding dress and thought I would buy a pretty organic cotton dress or something similar. However, wedding fever soon took over and I got carried away with the idea of having a bridal gown. At this point I can’t say too much as Jez hasn’t seen the dress and I don’t want to give anything away.

Oxfam Bridal
Once I knew I was going to get a wedding dress I also knew where I wanted to buy it - Oxfam Bridal. So, last July my mum and I excitedly set off to Leicester where the nearest Oxfam Bridal store is. Unfortuntaly I didn’t find the dress for me on that first trip but I was heartened and encouraged by how nicely they had set up that separate part of the shop and the variety of gowns. The next nearest Oxfam Bridal shop is in Bradford and that shopping trip was the ultimate in making the most of public transport - All tied in with a business meeting and a visit to see some friends I managed to get from Bradford train station to the Oxfam store, pick a dress, try it on, buy it and get back on the train all in about 30 minutes! I was so pleased that I’d found something that was just right and was really impressed with the choice and facilities in the Oxfam shop. The staff there were excited and fussy which made it even more special.

I realise that for some people the thought of buying their bridal gown from a charity shop sounds terrible but its probably the single item that I’m most pleased with and I’m so happy that I did manage to find it at Oxfam.

Bouquets and Posies
I had a mixed experience trying to find a suitable florist for my bouquet. Initially I was going plant some tulip bulbs in the garden, ask our families to do the same and make my own bunch of flowers nearer to the time. Then I came to my senses and realised I know absolutely nothing about keeping or arranging flowers once they’ve been plucked from the ground and decided to seek professional advice.

I spoke to a few different florists, some of whom were sympathetic to the idea of having a green and ethical wedding and others who just looked baffled when I asked about locally sourced flowers. I’m not picky, I think all flowers are beautiful and so I wasn’t going to dictate exactly the type of flower I wanted as long as it was grown as nearby as possible and were roughly in the colours I wanted. I chose a florist called The Rose Bower in the end because they were the most helpful and were willing to find out what seasonal, locally grown flowers would be available at this time of year before I’d even decided to use them. I can’t wait to see mine and Beth’s (my bridesmaid, niece & guest GGG editor) tulip bouquets when I go to collect them on the morning and they will have only travelled from the next county, Lincolnshire.

Invitations & Decorations

After organising the food and venues the rest of the planning was quite easy. I love making things and wanted something individual, so I decided from the start that I would make the invitations, menus, favours, name places and decorations myself.

Bunting!
The village hall is quite typical in that it really needs a lick of paint and looks quite grubby in daylight but I like a challenge and so last September Jez, his mum, my parents and I went off armed with notepads and tape measures to figure out how we could transform it into a beautiful place to celebrate. From then on I spent months finding large pieces of fabric and sheets to drape around the room, some from charity shops and some from ebay. I also bought some pink, yellow, green and white cotton to make my own bunting. I have metres and metres of the stuff and my friends at our craft group, Stitched Up, found it quite amusing that this cotton bunting never seemed to end!

I love bunting, it always seems to cheer me up. I’ve even had a small piece hanging up in the house for a few weeks.

RSVP
Because the venue is near to a maypole (which I used to run around and around when I was little) we’ve ended up with a maypole theme and the spring colours lemon, pink and green. So, I was very lucky when I asked my graphic designer friend if she could design me a motif for invites, menus etc using that theme. What she came up with was beautiful and I just what I wanted. I bought all of the recycled card, paper and envelopes I needed from Eco Craft who delivered it very quickly.

We asked our guests to RSVP via a website we’d built. The website also provides details of transport, directions, local hotels and so on to save from using up any more paper than necessary.

Tables, Favours & Name Cards
Aside from card for invites and menus I bought some lovely recycled paper which has confetti embedded in it. From this I made little origami boxes (which I talked about in my ‘Origami Genius!’ post) and will put in each of them a bulb from my Dad’s garden - these are our guests’ favours.

The name places are hand made, natural fruit lollipops with no artificial colours or flavours from sweetstall.com and I have added little labels to each one for our guests with a little picture. Jez and I have a house rabbit so our labels have loved-up bunnies on them, ahhhh. The others have butterflies, hearts and flowers.

Also, to decorate the tables we painted some plant pots white and decorated them with our colours and theme and soon I will be planting in them primroses or another spring flower which have been grown by a gardener just a few miles down the road.

The day before the wedding myself, Jez and an army of sisters and nieces and my mum and dad will spend the day putting all of these decorations together, hopefully creating a lovely room for eating, drinking and dancing.

Cake, Wine & Water

One of the nicest things about planning a wedding is that people really want to help and be involved. Jez’s mum is brilliant at making and decorating cakes and there was no question that she would be making ours. We decided to go for a traditional fruit cake (with organic ingredients) as well as Fairtrade chocolate cupcakes. Jez’s mum and I spent a lovely weekend making all of the little white sugar flowers for the main cake and hearts and butterflies for the cupcakes.

Guests will will take home slices of cake in pretty white recycled card boxes from The Tiny Box Company. Rachel at The Tiny Box Company was so obliging, helping me to choose the right size box and keep within my budget - This was the very last thing I bought and so I didn’t want to spend too much. It was a very speedy delivery too so I didn’t need to worry about any last minute hitches.

The bubbly and wine is all organic and Fairtrade and one of the types we have chosen is an English wine from Pennard Organic Vineyard.

I’m also extremely happy that we even managed to find eco friendly bottled water thanks to our Green Guy Gareth’s post ‘Bottled Water: Environmental Disaster?‘ . In that article Gareth mentions Belu Water, a carbon neutral company whose profits go towards clean water projects. So, I contacted Belu who very helpfully found me a local supplier, Lee & Fletcher, who delivered the water to my door in just a couple of days!

I Do!

The rings are the last thing I’m going to talk about although I’m sure I must have forgotten something. I’ll probably give an update afterwards anyway so I can show pictures of the decorated venue and my dress, which won’t be a secret by then.

Looking for rings was quite a strange experience. We wanted to get antique or second hand rings because that is the greenest option available - I always work on that principle and used it throughout the wedding planning. I guess we were a little niaive thinking that we’d be able to pop into one of the many antique shops in Nottinghamshire, pick up two gold wedding bands and be on our way. Apparently this isn’t the case.

After going into a few shops, looking at every other type of antique ring but finding no wedding rings one lady told me that they just don’t sell them because people are too superstitious to buy them. She said that if a wedding band was brought to the shop it just got sent for scrap! What a waste! I was so disappointed. However, the internet is a fantastic thing and after a quick search I not only found John Clive Jewellers but two perfect second hand rings in exactly the right size!

When I look back I’m proud of what we’ve achieved. Not everything is 100% green, we’re having a fancy car to take us to the register office and a disco in the evening but all-in-all I think we’ve done really well.

I’ll be in touch again at the end of April to let you know how it all went!

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Book review: Big Green Purse by Diane MacEachern

Posted by: Vicky

From the age of 12 when I decided to become a vegetarian I understood and felt very strongly about the power of the consumer. Back then it was more about boycotting things (well asking my mum not to put meat in my dinner) rather than using my pocket money to protest because, really, how much weight can you throw around with a few pounds a week?

Nevertheless, now that I’m grown up with a proper bank account rather than a piggy bank those values are still important and this is why the Big Green Purse instantly appealed to me.

The aim of this book is to highlight to women the power of their spending and how they can use it in a way that is positive for the environment and for their health.

Although most of the facts and figures relate to American laws and culture the points in this book will still ring true in other countries as it tackles the issues of every day life.

The beginning of the book starts with some inspiring stories of how consumers have already effected change in the manufacture of products such as cars, nail polish and tea. Diane then asks her readers to pledge to shift $1,000 of their annual spending to green products. That’s roughly £500 right now for us in the UK and I think entirely ‘do-able’ especially when you think of all of the areas of spending covered in your life and this book:

• Cosmetics and personal care products
• Cars
• Food and drink
• Cleaning products
• Gardening
• Kid’s stuff
• Electricals
• Home decoration and furnishings

There is a strong theme on personal health as well as environmental health and as this book is aimed at women this includes issues around pregnancy and babies too. Although shocking I think it was necessary to include some of the findings on how the chemicals we’re exposed to can pass on to our unborn children. Even more shocking is the fact that we’re allowed to be exposed to these chemicals but this is very motivating too. It encourages you to read on and find out what we can do about it.

The Big Green Purse shows us how we can shop smarter, how to look out for greenwash, how to understand jargon and acronyms and what the multitude of badges and labels really mean. Throughout the book Diane provides suggestions on good brands to look out for but doesn’t shy away from telling us which companies might need a nudge in the green direction too.

I personally like the checklists which give you the opportunity to think about your own day to day activies and spending such as “How much do you drive?” and “How much [cleaner] do you use?”. This is a great way to get that particular chapter’s subject matter into context for you right at the start.

Diane realistically recognises that greener options such as organic can be more expensive which means sometimes this isn’t a option but her first principle is always to buy less and consume less and I think we would all agree with that. She provides money saving tips and ideas too.

This is a lengthy and detailed book and its clear that Diane has researched it thoroughly but she breaks it down in a digestible way using prompts and symbols which means it could read just as well from cover to cover or as a reference.

What I’d like to see next is a similar book for men. Although Diane’s target audience is women because they “spend $.85 of every dollar in the marketplace” men are still the big earners and its important for everyone to understand the valuable lessons here.

Check out the website at www.biggreenpurse.com

Filed under Gardening, Pollution, Families, Sustainability, Shopping, Power & Energy, Food | Comments (3)

Playing fair

Posted by: Wendy

Raising my boys on healthy doses of competitive sports over the years, I have had many opportunities to talk about what it means to have a game feel fair, regardless of win or loss. Teaching young players a healthy respect for their teammates, their opponents and the opportunity to do their best is what most of us parents really want our kids to get out of their sports experience. Now there is a company FairTradeSports.com that has taken the idea of respect and not only made it their ball’s trademark design, but brought the idea of building respect into the games of life to a new level of social entrepreneurship.

This company is a model of what good business can do and bring to our global community. By aligning themselves as a Fairtrade Labeling Organization they are committing to paying their partners in production a living wage for themselves and their families. If adults can pay for shelter, food, clothing, medical needs, emergencies, and expenses for education, then children no longer have to contribute to family income.

In addition the company also pays a 20% premium, which is used for improving the lives of the workers, their families and their communities. Programs which have been instituted include community clinics and healthcare insurance - a first in this industry - as well as micro-credit loans and more. These are major improvements for the some 44,000 people in Pakistan who are involved in making 70% of the world’s soccer balls at wages far below any standard of living.

Somehow, when I consider the number of balls my boys have gone through in their soccer years, it seems like I should have known some of this, but like most of what we buy, their source and the labor that went into it is disturbingly not part of the marketing package. In addition with all the good that you can do buying one of these fair trade balls, the pricing is remarkably competitive to what you would pay in any store.

So its a win-win all they way around. We get to throw our purchasing power into some truly respectable projects supporting the people in the world who make our games possible, and with every toss or kick, we teach our children through words and actions, that the real goal is in playing fair. For more information or to get one of these great balls for your kids upcoming season go to www.FairTradeSports.com

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Earth Dinner on Earth Day

Posted by: Arcadia

Having friends over to celebrate Earth Day and don’t know what to serve?  Let Earth Dinner help you plan your meal for your family or your community.

This event was started three years ago by America’s largerst collective of organic farmers: Organic Valley, to honor Earth Day with it’s own special meal.  This is akin to what we Americans do at Thanksgiving.  It has now grown and is taking root all over the nation.

“Many Americans are detached from what they eat and the tremendous impact of their food choices,” says Theresa Martinez, Earth Dinner Founder.

Go to their website, Earth Dinner to see which public events and fundraisers are taking place near you, or for recipe ideas for your own dinner.

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Guest Editor: April Capil - The Connection between Creative Thinking and Corporate Culture

Posted by: Guest Editor

The other day, I was watching my 5-year old niece, Chloe, at work, and one of my coworkers asked me why I started Fridge Box. I turned to my niece and asked, “Chloe, what color is a mermaid’s hair?” To which she answered, “Red!”

Red. The only mermaid Chloe has ever been exposed to is Disney’s Ariel: a trademarked character designed to fit within a stable of characters that a multinational corporation owns. In Chloe’s mind, there is only one mermaid, and she looks a certain way, and comes with certain friends and accessories (an orange crab, a blue and green fish, a white dress with a gold crown). But most importantly, Ariel the mermaid has red hair. Why does she have red hair? Because at the time, Disney already had a raven-haired character (Snow White), two blondes (Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella), and a brunette in the works (Belle from Beauty and the Beast). Ironically, their logic was probably, “Children like variety.”

Ask any child the name of an orange and white fish. 99% of them will answer, “Nemo!”

I’m not knocking Disney. I grew up on Mickey Mouse and Cinderella, and if you asked me, when I was 5, what an elephant’s name was, I would have said Dumbo. But, when I was 5, global media conglomerates didn’t control almost every story I heard as a child. I read a lot of books without pictures or movie tie-ins, so the pirates in my imagination weren’t advertisements for a whole division of merchandise made in China. I could make a pirate sword and hat from newspaper without feeling inadequate because my parents didn’t buy me the Jack Sparrow Deluxe Pirate Kit from the Disney Store. Most importantly, I had an imagination that was strong enough to see a Deluxe Pirate Kit where grown-ups could only see the Sunday Times. It’s a great thing, the imagination.

I hear a lot that technology will save us from global warming. What no one asks is, “Who will own that technology?” Because whoever owns it, will control the world, literally and figuratively. Disney owns Ariel, and it controls, in a very subversive way, what our children think about mermaids. And what will happen to those children, who have inadvertently sacrificed their imaginations in exchange for packaged solutions? They will be running the planet in 40 years - right around the time the last of the petroleum is circling the drain. If they are not already in the habit of imagining creative solutions to everyday dilemmas (like boredom), if they have been spoon-fed alternatives to resourcefulness and critical thinking their whole lives, how will they overcome the economic and ecological challenges coming down the pipeline at them? They won’t. They will be lost, and they will turn, once again, to those multinational corporations that solved their problems as children, because they never cultivated resourcefulness and creativity as essential survival skills. The scariest part is, I don’t know what’s worse: Disney not being aware of the long-term ramifications of controlling mermaids and pirates, or being totally aware of it and controlling them anyway.

People tell me all the time, “You know, as soon as Fridge Box takes off, someone’s going to copy it. You should get a patent on it.” Patent the cardboard box. That’s what we’ve come to. It’s all kids have left, the cardboard box! I hope every multinational corporation starts selling their own cardboard boxes. Because if 5 year olds around the world are turning cardboard boxes into pirate ships instead of buying Jack Sparrow Deluxe Pirate Kits from the Disney Store, we might still have a chance.

When Chloe said, “Red!” my coworker smiled and nodded. “I get it.” I shook my head a little. “Kids have no imagination anymore, you know?” I said, “It worries me, because that’s what’s going to save us from global warming. Not technology or multinational corporations. Resourcefulness and creative thinking. These will be the survival skills of the future, and they have to learn them now, so by the time they really need them, they’re prepared.”

April Capil is Director for Fridge Box, Inc. (www.fridgeboxworld.com)

Photographs by Rachel Capil

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Guest Editor: April Capil - Ten Tips for Encouraging Resourcefulness and Creativity in Your Children

Posted by: Guest Editor

If you’re ready to encourage resourcefulness and creativity in your children, here are Ten Tips to get started:

1. Read to your child. Read, read, read to your kids!! It requires so much more thinking, listening, and comprehension skills than watching a movie or TV show filled with commercials for toys. Reading gives you connection time and encourages children to cultivate a love of reading and storytelling, which are essential to creative thinking.

2. Choose books without movie or product tie-ins. Whenever possible, pick books with original characters. We all like the Cat in the Hat and Curious George, but supplement these corporate-owned “classics” with original stories from lesser-known authors, or classic stories (like Strega Nona and Stone Soup) that haven’t been merchandised as much.

3. Beat Disney to the punch. The original Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie, was one of my favorite stories of all time, and I was lucky enough to read it before I saw a movie version. I was horrified to watch Disney’s animated Peter Pan and see Hook plant a bomb in the Lost Boys tree! If you want to introduce your child to a classic that’s already been appropriated, start with the original text.

4. Kick it old school. You don’t have to abandon TV and movies altogether; for many parents, TV is an integral part of family life. Think about content, though, and some of the older books and movies you grew up on that might not have had corporate-produced merchandise tie ins, but still carry the same messages you want your children to hear. Many are even available on DVD for the first time (Little House on the Prairie was always my sister’s favorite).

5. Play storytelling games. Ask your child to start a story with one sentence, like, “Once upon a time, there was a duck named Fred…” Take turns telling the story with your child, two or three sentences at a time. If the story starts to veer towards a movie or book you’ve read before (”Fred met a mouse named Mickey…”), re-direct it.

6. Don’t buy Halloween costumes. I was appalled that I only saw one original Halloween costume last year! When I was a child, all my Halloween costumes were homemade (with the exception of one year, when I was allowed a plastic Wonder Woman mask to go with a homemade outfit). This year, force your kid to use their imagination, and make time to help them make their own costume.

7. Get close to Mother Nature. You don’t need to go to a corporation-owned theme park to have fun. Take a local class in wilderness awareness (REI sponsors several Outdoor School classes), and look for ones that allow you to bring your children. It’s not as hard as you think to get to know the outdoors, and with the Internet, National Park Recreation Areas are easier to find than ever. Whether you’re at a lake, in the mountains, or on the beach, the outdoors can be a more amazing playground than any theme park.

8. Build something with your child. Start with a fort in the living room using blankets and sofa cushions, and graduate to a treehouse in the backyard. Instead of buying a plastic Barbie cottage from Toys ‘R Us, take a weekend and help your child build her own. Architecture and design involve all those critical thinking skills that are important to cultivate in future leaders.

9. Make room for inquisitiveness. I know, I know - questions, the bane of every parent’s existence! But they’re important! When your child asks, “Mommy, why is the sky blue? How do planes fly? Where do eggs come from?” instead of giving pat answers, make room for your child’s questions. Set aside a time once a week and call it “Three (or Four, or Ten) Questions.” Allow your child to come up with a certain number of specific questions each week, and write them on a white board or piece of paper on the fridge. On your set day, go to the library (or your in-home encyclopedia, or Google, if you feel comfortable) with your child and find out the answer to the questions together.

10. Pay attention. Diane Sawyer once said, “There is no substitute for paying attention,” and I have to say, I wholeheartedly agree. When you hear your child start to refer to all lions as “Simbas,” recognize the writing on the wall. It’s time for a trip to the local zoo to broaden their experience.

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