Kids Stuff

Tidbits and insights into children

Plastic Free July – the finish line

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HAKUNA+MATATA!

(Source: https://www.futurelandfill.org/share/hakuna-matata)

Plastic is a visual and insidious material and source of pollution. It is something that seems to be uniting young and old to try and take action. In fact while Australia continues to be an embarrassing laggard when it comes to climate action, Scott Morrison and the COAG (Council of Australian Governments) announced a ban on plastic, paper, glass and tyres with a $20 million fund to boost national recycling. This is welcomed especially following recent turnbacks of our waste in Indonesia and Malaysia.
With this in mind, it’s been an interesting time to participate in Plastic Free July. This month long pledge is now officially over. The last week saw us staring at the finish line in anticipation. Would our plastic free life style carry on to August and onward? I’m afraid not so much. We learnt a lot. About how prevalent plastic is in our every day life and how convenience has made it hard to give up. Despite that though, we are determined to continue to try and carry as much of the plastic free ethos beyond July. But in order for us to be able to avoid the use of this material and the environmental impacts of its production in the first place, a broader societal shift needs to occur led by supermarkets.
Are our major supermarkets willing to take this challenge on though? Let’ check out the Coles ‘Sustainability’ page: https://www.coles.com.au/corporate-responsibility/sustainability/environment
We understand the important roles packaging plays in maintaining food safety, supporting product longevity and reducing food waste. At the same time, we are committed to reducing our impact on the environment and have implemented a Sustainable Packaging Policy.
This Policy extends to plastic packaging and plastic bags with a focus on recycling infrastructure to recycle these plastics, rather than try and avoid them. With the recent cases of turnback of plastics, it’s unknown whether this policy is even practical and achieving its stated aim.

Coles little shop

Let’s now take a look at Woolworths which has a lovely ‘sustainability’ page: https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/discover/sustainability
Our plan to tackle the plastic problem is focused on eliminating plastic where possible and to work towards ‘closing the loop’ by encouraging recycling through design, technology and clear communication to our customers.
The Woolworths Policy and its actions are certainly fairly comprehensive and while it isn’t easy to avoid plastic, reducing unnecessary use should be an absolute must.
Therefore it’s with disappointment that both supermarkets, in the month of Plastic Free July, decided that it was a super idea to have silly toy giveaways – both aimed to children and the pester power that they have. This is certainly something that I never buy into, but that doesn’t always stop extended family from doing the same. We now have a number of Lion King Ooshies in our house. This despite all that I tried to teach my children about plastic and ways to avoid it in the last month.
While the ooshies are in our house (not many), I’m pretty sure this will be one of the last time these cheap plastic toys make their way into my home. At least the ooshies are giving me a chance to really drive home the message that unless my kids plan on keeping these toys for life, they are likely to end up in landfill or polluting the ocean and after all we did in July – won’t that be a shame? It is hard though when I must be about the only parent at the school to hold these views, as I see many children with bags and bags of ooshies at pick up time.
So it is with interest that I observe the intersect between environmental issues and science with art because artists will be able to clearly communicate in a creative way, what many scientists have failed to do for so long. In the case of the ooshies, this has been through the Future Landfill initiative which is using cheeky art to make a point about the pointlessness of these cheap promotions.
So if there’s one last tip that I can give – it is that, while it may be hard, it isn’t impossible to significantly reduce our plastic use and it all starts with a simple ‘no’. No, to taking a ‘free’ ooshie or other cheap toy giveaway, no to plastic waste, no to takeaway cups, cutlery and containers and no to plastic water bottles. Our world really does depend on it.

Citizen Science

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Source: https://www.naturespath.com/en-us/blog/what-are-forest-schools/

Life is taking me on quite the busy journey at the moment. Raising three kids and work keeps me all too busy. I have however had this topic on my mind for quite some time and finally have decided to sit down and write.  Every day I am reading a terrible statistic and report about the state of our world. Today’s one was about the crazy rate of deforestation. Apparently there is one football field worth of forest lost every second.  With all the football watching going on right now, it should be an easy one to visualise. So let’s repeat that one – slowly. One football field of forest lost. Every second.

As with many reports on the environment, it is very easy to feel hopeless and overwhelmed.  While action to reverse is needed urgently, we need to also look at what is possible in our neck of the woods – excuse the pun.  One of the areas I feel strongly about, is the need to re-connect with nature.  There are many benefits to this, from improved mental health and wellbeing to community connections to re-learning lost skills. It goes without saying that this will lead to improved biodiversity outcomes.

One of the ways to re-connect with nature is through Citizen Science. This essentially means that anyone can be a scientist and that we can all work to help document flora and fauna in our local area.  This helps scientists monitor and track information, and gets the community out and about looking closely at what is in their neighbourhoods.

This participatory approach to science is a great way to get people involved in their local community and a wonderful introduction to science for children.

Many many years ago, I worked on a project called the Willoughby Wildlife Watch project which in essence was a citizen science program. It asked residents to report wildlife that they saw. This was then included in a state-wide Atlas, thereby creating a good baseline and allowing monitoring of wildlife, particularly in urban areas.

Over the years, amateur scientists have become involved in science.  In fact amateur astronomers have made many discoveries including finding a scar on Jupiter and even finding Uranus (William Herschel, 1781).  It’s estimated that these volunteer scientists provide in-kind contributions valued at about $2.5 billion a year! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_science).

There are different ways that you can get involved.  You can contact your local Council to see if they have any programs available where you can participate, or you can check out some other organisations like:

While winter might be time where we all want to get indoors – it might also be a really interesting time to be out there checking out plants and animals in your area.

DIY Gifts from the Heart – Christmas 2017

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Another year has flown and what a year! Highs, lows, fun times, not so fun times.  For me, 2017 has been a time where I’ve focussed on my career and family.  My youngest daughter has started pre-school and while she loves it, it’s taken a little one for this spirited one to settle into the new routine of her Montessori pre-school.

2017 was also the year where my middle daughter started ‘big’ school. Going from Montessori to a public primary school was quite easy for her and she’s thrived and done very well.  She’s one of those kids that loves to learn anyway – which is lucky.

For my son, 2017 has been a year of cementing friendships and perfecting the art of lego making!  With his two closest friends moving to another school and overseas, the next year is going to bring lots of changes for him.

For me, I’ve managed to do a few things that have been on my ‘to do’ list for a long time – getting chickens and continuing my gardening around the house.  Work has rewarding with me having completed some great projects and made wonderful friends.  The year ends however with me saying farewell to my previous job and welcoming another one.

As the year ends however, I like to work with my children to give family something home-made, from the heart and special for Christmas.  This year, I decided on home-made granola!  I like it because it’s simple to make and you can be creative with it.  It also went down a treat!

Here is what you need:

  • Jars
  • Nice ribbon
  • 5 cups of rolled oats – this is the base
  • 1 ½ cup puffed corn
  • 1 ½ cup rice bran
  • ½ cups goji berries
  • ¼ cups cacao nibs
  • 1 cup shredded coconut
  • ½ cup sunflower seeds
  • ½ cups pumpkin seeds
  • ½ cups pecan nuts
  • 125 ml Maple syrup
  • ½ cup coconut oil melted
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp nutmeg
  • Pinch of salt

Method:

M pecan

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 160° C
  2. Cover baking tray with non-stick baking paper
  3. Mix all the ingredients except the goji berries and puffed corn.
  4. Add the maple syrup and coconut oil and mix through.
  5. Spread on a baking tray and put in the oven
  6. Once it’s starting to look golden – add the puffed corn (this is so that the puffed corn will be crispy, but not burnt)
  7. Depending on how you like it, you can leave it a little longer (it should take about 20 minutes all up) until it is more toasted
  8. Removed from the oven and mix through the goji berries. Set aside to cool.
  9. Once cool add to jars and decorate as you please.

M mixing

 

Enjoy – nooshejan!

May you have a peaceful, healthy and prosperous 2018 full of love and joy.

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DIY Gifts from the Heart – Christmas Olives

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oilives

2016 has been a whirlwind of a year and life doesn’t seem like it’s going to slow down any time soon.  I guess that is the life of a working mum of three kids. And a mum with a garden too!

Despite all the mayhem, there has been many fun days too. My children are growing and coming into their own.  But as we got to the end of the year, we still managed our Christmas DIY Gifts from the Heart. This year, we decided to make Herb infused olives for our family.  As usual, I spend the year saving jars and then decide what to do with them.  Here is what to do in case you’d like to make your own:

What you need:

  • Old jar, cleaned and boiled to sterilise
  • Olives – we used plain olives and a mix of black and green
  • Olive oil
  • Herbs – we used the following from our garden:
    • Chillies
    • Thyme
    • Lemon myrtle
    • Sage
    • Rosemary
  • Decorations/ wrapping
  • Some helpers 🙂

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What to do:

Add everything together. I filled half the jar, added some of the herbs and pressed a few against the glass to make it look pretty.  The jar was filled, I added the olive oil and decorated the jars.

herbs

The idea of the gift is also that once the olives have been eaten, the herb infused oil can be used to make salad dressing – just add lemons/ lime juice or balsamic vinegar.  This gift is so easy to make and looks special too.  Nooshejan

How to survive a museum trip with kids!

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Earlier this year, I went to Italy. Yep – a big overseas trip with three children! Not sure what I was thinking, but I really wanted to go and I try to be one of those ‘My kids are going to stop me’ kind of mums. So we saved and saved, got the time off work and booked the trip. Everyone was excited. It was our first big trip after the birth of my third child.

Everything started well.  We had a stop in Abu Dhabi which still feels like home to me. We caught up with friends and enjoyed going to some of our old haunts and checking out some new ones.  Abu Dhabi really is so easy and fun for kids. Parks and beaches galore!

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Saadiyat Beach with the Lourve Abu Dhabi under construction in the background

We first flew to Venice. Beautiful yes, but we were a little bit of a walk from the main sights, so lots of walking and not so much fun with a pram. Up and down bridges and steps!  The kids had fun though, but after about 5 days of not being able to really let them get loose in a park (a crowded plaza really is not the same), we moved on.  We were even brave enough to hire a car and so our Italian road trip began.

We travelled to:

  • Bellagio via Verona;
  • La Spezia (for Cinque Terre) via Genoa;
  • Florence via Pisa;
  • Orvieto via Siena; and
  • Rome

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How was travelling with three kids in Italy? A LOT of work. We managed to remain sane for most of the stops. We stayed in apartments and tried to incorporate children friendly activities and days throughout, but by the time we arrived in Rome everyone was tired.  We could only get them so excited about museums and after many tense experiences (the Vatican was the most intense and stressful experiences of the whole trip – so so many people) at various sites, we decided in Rome to try our hands at making the experience of going to museums more fun for them.

One of our tricks was a treasure hunt. Through this we hoped that the older two would actually even look at some of the art works. It worked a treat – but my kids take treasure hunts VERY seriously, so we really had to research to make sure that the things we put on their list, they were able to be find.

While they enjoyed the trip and the copious amounts of gelato and pizza they got to eat, the whole trip was so draining that I swore to never do a big trip with them again. Yes we’ll see how long that lasts.

Once we got back to Sydney life continued at a breakneck speed. But in all the insanity we did manage a trip to the Art Gallery of NSW to see the Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibition.  I had been meaning to go for a long time and finally got the time to do it.  But with some of the pain of our Italy museum experiences fresh in my mind, I decided to re-visit my survival toolbox and out came the Frida Kahlo activity sheet!

No, the art gallery did not in fact have anything for kids, so I did some research the night before and put together an activity sheet. Did it work? Yes – for the older two it did.  While they were busy with their activity pack, I did get to wonder through the exhibition and I have to say I was a little underwhelmed.  The art works were great, but there really wasn’t too many of them. Much of the exhibition was a celebration of the artists, rather than the art. We photos and video footage being the centre of attention.  So from that regard, I was a little disappointed. Also the exhibition was VERY crowded. The way we experienced it was to be in a big conga line and just walk single file past the art works. There was no place to sit and linger, which made doing one of the activities I had (to sit in a quiet area and draw one of their favourite paintings) nearly impossible.

In the end I was glad to go because if I hadn’t I would have wondered about what could have been, but the most fun we had was going to the Sydney Botanical Gardens. My daughter had just attended a school excursion there so was full of excitement to show me her favourite parts.  The whole day was helped by the glorious show of weather Sydney had for us and with the promise of a gelato at the end of the day, the kids enjoyed the rest of the day.  So my tips for a cultural day out – bribery with gelato and an activity pack that includes a treasure hunt!  I’ve included my Frida Kahlo one. I hope you find it useful.

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Pokemon STOP!

PowerfulOwl1 Comment
pokemon-Go-....
Source: sussexcountypost.com

My household along with a lot of other households with children is going through a Pokemon craze.  It started with the cards last year, then the cartoons. It’s so bad that even my 2 year old is obsessed. It’s all about Pokemon and Pikachu!  Showing my age now – but honestly what is this show about??

Recently though, a Pokemon App is taking the world by storm – Pokemon Go. Some people are saying how great it is to have children play this game because it encourages kids to get out – even if it is in an alternative reality of catching Pikachu. At least they’re not inside.

My son, like many boys his age wants to play this, but I have to say a clear ‘sorry’ to my son. I am not one of those mums that will allow their young child to play this game. I’m afraid my dear son, I am never going to be a ‘cool’ mum. You my son will likely miss out on being ‘cool’ like your friends for years to come, because after Pokemon Go, there will be many more silly fads which will come and add nothing to your development intellectually, emotionally or physically. You’ll likely ‘hate’ me and ridicule me to your friends and roll your eyes at me (he’s already started doing this!), but I’m willing to wear that.

My husband says that I have to ‘ease up’ and that I can’t keep him away from these sorts of games and devices forever. To that, I say maybe not, but he’s 8 years old and I would rather have him read, draw, ride a bike, than walk around staring at a phone trying to catch Pikachu.

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Source: http://www.imore.com

While this App may help to get kids out, I find it sad to see young kids out, mobiles in hand staring at their screens.  While there are many brains working right now on how to harness Pokemon Go for the greater good of protecting nature, I think having a love of nature yourself is the best way to create these values in your children.  Get out yourself and get into nature. Talk about it and feel connected to it.  Even if you don’t live near bushland or a beach – find a pocket of trees, grass, a communal area, plaza – whatever it is, get out there and have fun with it yourself, despite the limited time you might have.

The connection to nature is disappearing. With more people living in cities and cities becoming denser and nature being taken out of cities – it is harder to get to nature and hard to feel connected to it. With the earth facing the next mass extinction episode, we need to get back to nature.  Nature provides everything to us – water, air, materials. Even the ones that fuel our lights, the materials that go into our devices, the materials that we wear and build with – it originates from the earth.

I am often saying to my husband to get out into the garden and potter around, because if he does, my son eventually leaves his room and follows.  It is their personal preference to be inside with toys, but getting both boys in my life outside is my mission and I hope not to rely on Pikachu to do that!

Bellagio

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Am I being too tough?

My own verge garden

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Last year, I wrote a blog piece about verge gardens and whether it’s safe to have food growing so close to a road.  My piece showed that if you take certain precautions, that it should be okay.

So after my research, I decided to strike out and make my own verge garden.  I have a corner block and thankfully the long side is on a quiet street.  Last year, I decided to move a few things around my backyard. Rather than get rid of my timber planter boxes, I decided to move them onto my nature strip.

I excitedly and busily moved all the soil with the help of some kiddies. I added some compost and planned to extend my vegetable garden.

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I then had an idea to get the neighbours involved also. To start a ‘gardening club’ of sorts with my neighbours. There are many families with children around me, so I thought it would be a great chance to get to know neighbours and for my children to meet some children that live close to us.

So I planned two weekends of neighbourhood activity.  One week to plant the seeds and the following week to paint the planter boxes.  I put together a flyer and went door knocking.

The response: a bit underwhelming!

In the meantime my children were very excited about the ‘Gardening Club’ we were starting in our neighbourhood. On the agreed day, at the agreed time we all started to plant our new garden. Unfortunately with the exception of one of my immediate neighbours, no other neighbours came to help us plant our new vegetables. My children were a little disappointed, but we got together and planted some lovely things: carrots, flowers, chillies, zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, lemongrass, parsley, sage and so on.

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In the immediate time after the planting, I did get a few ‘looks’ from passers by. A verge garden is not a common sight in my part of Sydney, but I think most have gotten used to it. I’ve even managed to share some of the produce with a few neighbours, which they’ve loved.

So, some tips for a verge garden:

  • Dial before you dig  http://www.1100.com.au/: you should call this free service to make sure there are no utilities or any issues where you decide to make your garden;
  • Have raised beds;
  • Talk to neigbbours before planting and see whether they’d like to be part of the planning.  Even though I provided all free plants, seeds and compost, my neighbours weren’t engaged, but your might be;
  • Plant some flowers too to make it pretty and attractive and attract pollinators like bees; and
  • Enjoy.

Waste Free Birthday party?

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recycle sign

Children’s birthday parties can create so much waste. The party itself is usually a very intense 2 hours of pure mania. So usually being super eco-minded is tricky. Also, my life is very busy and party planning ends up happening fairly last minute.

This year though I’m going to try and have a low-waste party for my daughter. Can I do it?

Well we’ll find out tomorrow. I will share my experiences with you – my failures and successes.

 

DIY Gifts from the Heart – Christmas Terrarium

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It’s that time of year again. Time has flown and it’s Christmas gift time.  As usual, I am going with the theme of my children making gifts for family.  This teaches them to look beyond the commercialisation of this time of year, and to express their love for family by transforming regular household items into items of beauty that I’m sure their family will treasure.

The last few years we’ve made edible goods. This year I decided to do something different. One day when I was looking at old jars, I decided to start collecting them to upcycle them by reusing them rather than recycling them.  This started my plan many months ago to make terrariums for family members using old jars.

A terrarium is essentially a jar with a plant growing inside it. It can either have a lid and be sealed, or it could be open.  Those with lids create a mini ecosystem in that evaporation forms condensation which ends up watering the plant.  Many plants can be planted in a terrarium, from decorative plants, to succulents.

As I was using reused glass jars, I decided to have an open terrarium and use existing succulents I had around my garden.

So how to get started and what do you need?

  • Old jars, cleaned
  • Large pebbles
  • Cloth
  • Soil – preferably one for bonsai or cacti as they have good draining qualities
  • Horticultural / activated charcoal

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Method

Place the pebbles at the bottom of the jar to about 2 cm. This helps with drainage and to keep your plants healthy.

I added some extra coloured pebbles and going with the Christmas theme, I had green, red and silver.

I cut a small bit of cloth (I used an old reusable cloth bag) and put over the pebbles before adding the soil layer because I didn’t want the layers to mix much.

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I added some activated charcoal then the soil. The activated charcoal acts to keep your terrarium fresh and stops any bad odours. Pat the soil down to prevent air bubbles.

I then added my plants. As my jars were small, I only used 1 to 2 plants per jar.  I added some more decorative pebbles on top and viola – done!

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The terrarium needs to be lightly watered through a sprayer about once a week, so it should be low maintenance.

My children were involved in all aspects of this activity, from choosing the colours and order of the layers, to selecting the plants to the actual plants. I know that they’re going to be so proud to give this to their family.

There are a lot of videos on how to make these and I share a few with you below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy5btxZHaEw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3WuoU5-Rjs

It’s not too late to start your own DIY gifts from the heart project this Christmas. So what are you waiting for? Continue reading →

The paste test

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For World Environment Day this year, I went along to an event at my old university: Macquarie University.  In fact, the event was held at the Lighthouse Theatre which brought back many memories of student plays, late night boogies and flirtations. This is where I met many of my dearest friends and where I also met my husband.

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Facilitating my trip down memory lane was Costa Georgiades. I really enjoyed his enthusiasm and passion and one thing that he talked about was toothpaste – yes toothpaste. He was talking about how to engage with your family and friends and suggested sticking a tube of toothpaste in the middle of the dinner table during a dinner party and talking about toothpaste – the good and the bad. This has also recently come to light as many of the mothers in my mother’s group are trying to encourage good dental care in their children and are wondering if they should add toothpaste to encourage their toddlers to brush.

Following the event, I did start a conversation with some friends around toothpaste over lunch – but now I’m going one step further and writing this blog with the hope of sharing some of my research.

The use of toothpaste goes back millennia.  It has been used to maintain good oral hygiene and different things have been used to achieve this.  Usually toothpaste has been used to help in the mechanical motion of brushing. In fact most teeth are cleaned very well with a simple brush without anything, however over time fluoride has been added into the mix.  Toothpaste usually includes different ingredients to provide an abrasive surface, thereby allowing the brushing action to be more effective.

Micro-beads

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Some toothpastes even contain plastic.  Micro-beads are tiny plastic particles added to things like toothpastes and exfoliating scrubs for abrasion.  In toothpaste they seem to be added only for the ‘pretty’ factor.

These micro-beads are made of polyethylene and polypropylene. These plastics don’t break down and are increasingly being found in oceans and waterways.  Various states in the US have already banned products with micro-beads, but other places such as Europe and Australia are lagging.  There are different players in the cosmetic industry however that are starting to move away from the use of micro-beads in their products. For more on micro-beads, please check out the following links:

Company commitments and Products with and without micro-beads.

The use of micro-beads in toothpastes such as Crest are well known.  These pieces of plastic do not breakdown and find their way wedged in small crevices in our mouth. So one of the first things to do in moving towards healthier toothpastes is to not use any toothpaste that has coloured specks in the gel and stay away from any that list polyethylene as an ingredient.

The use of some chemicals in toothpaste and their health impacts is debatable, however I will list some along with a balancing point of view and leave it to you to decide.

Flouride

Soudium flouride has been added to toothpaste for many years with the intent of avoiding tooth decay.  However this is also seen to be a carcinogenic ingredient that when ingested in large quantities can cause paralysis, convulsions and cardiac arrest.  Thankfully though, you would have to eat a lot of toothpaste for that to happen though.

Having said that however, it is a major issues, as fluoride is also added to drinking water (LINK) and overuse of fluoride can have the opposite effect of improving dental hygiene by causing dental fluorosis. In the US, this condition was found in 40% of teenagers.  For more information on fluoride, please go to: Flouride information

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I am now purchasing toothpaste free of fluoride and if you wanted to prevent over-exposure, as stated on the box don’t swallow toothpaste and keep away from children under 6 years of age.

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate

This product comes from palm oil and is added to toothpaste to create the lovely foamy mouth that you get – giving you that getting clean feeling.

SLS is a corrosive agent that is found in lots of cleaning products and degreasers, so yes, it cuts through plaque, but probably harmful to other parts of your body too and despite best efforts not to swallow toothpaste I’m sure much sneaks in.

SLS

Triclosan

This chemical is added to toothpaste for its antibacterial qualities. Triclosan is said to be very toxic to humans and cause cancer and be a skin irritant.  In animal tests it’s been shown to impact hormonal regulation.

Other studies that have analysed its use in toothpaste however have stated that it is beneficial to prevent gingivitis. Now could gingivitis be treated another way that isn’t so harmful? Maybe. In fact, the US Food and Drug Administration is reviewing the use of triclosam in all products which includes clothing, kitchenware, furniture, and toys, antibacterial soaps and body washes.

Hydrated silica

This is added to toothpaste to provide an abrasive surface to take off enamel and stop enamel on your tooth re-minerilising.  As you can imagine of course, over-use can take off enamel from your teeth leading to tooth-decay.

If you’d like to read from the other side of the debate – essentially stating that none of these claims are true, please go to: Toothpaste Safety implications and toothpaste and cancer myths.

Conclusion

Overall, I think it’s important to take a balanced view.  You can maintain good dental hygiene without toothpaste by using bicarb soda, coconut oil and plain water. The main thing is to brush properly – try this toothbrush jam and groove yourself to better brushing technique.

I’ve already moved my kiddies away from the major brand toothpastes and my toddler doesn’t use toothpaste at all. I probably will continue to use toothpaste – too used to the feeling, but will use ones without these nasties and also will go for a palm oil alternative such as: Riddles Creek Organic toothpaste or Miessence (http://www.miessence.com/shop/en/category/3/body-oral-care), Pure & Green toothpaste

Group Of Young Friends Together