It is almost that time again… back to school. My daughter starts Kindergarten this year and both older kids are attending a new school. All summer I have been vacillating the public versus homeschool choice. Both kids want to attend public schools but it makes me really nervous. Our experiences thus far have not been so great.

To make matters worse my local community is at war over a school levy that just failed. 51% of the community voted it down with the full understanding that if they did, our entire district would lose all sports, band, clubs, and buses. Kids have been coming to my door all month asking for help to get this issue passed. Last week I saw kids with signs on street corners trying to motivate people to vote for Issue 2. The kids in the community worked so hard to get their sports and music programs back and their loss makes me very sad. The papers keep showing pictures of kids crying when they heard the news. :(

Students are transferring out in droves so they can play sports for another school. Lots of coaches and teachers lost their jobs. Real Estate agents are getting hit with tons of new people trying to sell their homes so they can move to another district.

I have mixed feelings about this issue and I was secretly glad that I hadn’t remembered to change my voter’s information and couldn’t vote. Voting no would mean not supporting sports and music in the local schools but voting yes would mean voting to tax my neighbors an extra $250-500 per year for the next 4 years. This is one thing I cannot stand about Ohio. In Arizona we never heard about schools having money issues or hearing they were trying to place a levy our property taxes. In Ohio you can be sure that a couple times a year at least… some educational group or school wants to get their hands in your pocket.

Times are tough and I feel the schools should get back to the basics and concentrate on academics. They should also be forced to live within their budgets. When the community passes a levy they just overspend and need more a couple years later. But will it suck to go to school in a district that has no money for extras… sports, band, chess club, field trips, etc?? But then again isn’t it really a parent’s job to provide these things and not the community’s job? Or are these things integral to a well rounded education?

All of this drama makes homeschooling look pretty darn attractive but we shall see how it goes. In the meantime I have some questions for you…

Do you homeschool or utilize public schools? How and why did you come to that decision?

Children nowadays have a tendency to spend too much time indoors in front of the computer or TV. There is just too much to do inside with all the kids programming and video games available. Some parents are not at all concerned about this. It is just accepted as the way kids ARE now. Yet there is so much to learn from exploring nature and kids who spend all day indoors with electronic entertainment are missing out. 

Kids used to love to climb trees and roam around their environment. They loved to bicycle around the neighborhood and play games with other kids. When play time involves sitting on a couch all day perhaps playing a role playing video game with people they have never met, that should concern us. Now I am not against video games and TV all the time, as we have both in our house, but I would reconsider both of them if my kids spent more than a few hours a week on either endeavor. Experiencing life from the couch is not what I want for family.

The book Nature’s Playground: Activities, Crafts and Games to Encourage Children to Get Outdoors is a book full of activities and ideas to get the children away from those modern trappings and out into the natural world around them. It has many wonderful and adventurous activities, games and crafts that provide hours of fun during the various seasons. From building a den with branches, how to be a nature detective, treasure hunts, sail wooden boats across a pond, bows and arrows, stargazing, mud activities, making bug boxes, collecting and discovering insects as well as safe activity ideas after dark – all of this and more is contained within this book. This is just one of many books you can get to help in this regard.. I love that so many people are on board with getting our kids outside!!

We live in the city and while we have the “outdoors” it is not exactly “nature”. So I spent the last few days with my three kids just adventuring in nature. Sometimes we need to decompress and get out there and do nothing but that.. no TV, no computer, just quality time together and fresh air. We went out to Amish country to walk, see the sites, and buy some fresh grown goodness from local growers. After a couple days I came home so refreshed I am ready to do it again once more before they start school.

In the picture above my daughter is armed with paper and a crayon so she can write down all the stuff we saw on our daily nature walks.

Give your kids the greatest gift of their childhood, let them play in the earth’s biggest playground – Nature. I know I would not be the person I am without all of the nature experiences I had growing up. The benefits of discovering nature are multi-fold. It strengthens their development and growth, but it also makes them aware of nature and how live in harmony with it.

Some of my fave pictures from Amish country this week:

All week we have been eating fresh from the garden. We are overflowing with tomatoes, bell peppers, banana peppers, chilis, cukes, and other deliciousness. The kids just pick and eat too. I swear my 3 year downed a half pound of snow peas before we even got any in the house. A bowl of sugar snap peas lasted about 3 hours before they were devoured. And of course tomatoes can be eaten just like apples, still warm from the sun and juicy sweet.

Fresh picked! We reused our berry basket from the local strawberry farm… those were heavenly too!

We have a couple pumpkins going strong too!

So what are you eating fresh the garden right now?

Giveaway at the bottom of this post!

I blogged about glass bottles and I blogged about safer, BPA Free Plastic Bottles and I thought those were pretty much going to be our only options. Boy was I wrong. I was amazed to find out while back that there are now silicone bottles. It is pretty nifty! The medical grade silicone that nipples and pacifiers are made of is also extended to the body of the bottle. The advantages of silicone over glass is that it won’t break and the advantage of silicone over hard plastic is that is has no BPA. And I LOVE the squishy feel of these bottles too. They are made by one of my new favorite green baby companies… Prince Lionheart.

Honestly, silicone would be my third choice… first is breast and second is glass bottle but hurray for other BPA free options because this issue is important and parents need an array of choices beyond cheap plastic bottles that leach hormone disrupting chemicals. They are BPA, phthalate, PVC latex and lead free.

Another Prince Lionheart product I recently got to check out is the Ultimate Wipes Warmer. I have never used one but I know some other mom who do. Using a warmer would be easier than running to the bathroom to soak cloth wipes in warm water first… which is what I did during the frigid 10 above weather in Ohio. My last baby was born in January after all.

What makes this warmer unique is that it uses cloth wipes! The Prince Lionheart warmies wipes warmer is specially designed for the warmies reusable clothwipes. The wipes warmer’s enhanced 3-part heating unit keeps wipes moist and fresh. It comes with four warmies made with bamboo fabric and additional packs can be purchased separately. The warmies are great for using as family cloth too and we have some of these in rotation with our cloth wipes that we use in lieu of TP. They are sooooo silky soft! You may want to scoop some of them up even you don’t want or need the warmer… trust me they are delicious.

So while there are certainly other companies that have greener products for the uber conscious moms I love the fact that they take conventional products and make them greener and safer but still recognizable and convenient for moms who are new to eco awareness.

Prince Lionheart sent me these products (above) to test out, but I have no baby and therefore no need for them. So I am passing them on to a lucky reader. You will get the warmer and two bottles. Just comment to win and I will choose a winner using a random number generator on August 10th! Good luck!