One of the best parts of homeschooling is the fact that your child can have a tailor-made learning experience that can be altogether lacking in a public school setting. Whether a child needs to be better challenged, would benefit from a non-traditional setting, or finds classwork or the daily routine to be a struggle, homeschooling…
Gradeschooler
The Summer 2018 Issue of Green Child Magazine
If you live for the whimsical, warm days of summer, you’ll love our new issue! In our Summer 2018 issue, you’ll find healthy recipes, gentle parenting advice, tips for maintaining your holistic health routines while you travel, fun ideas for getting your family outside to enjoy nature, plus our 8th annual Eco Baby Gear Guide….
How to Create a Wildlife Garden
National Wildlife Federation resident naturalist, David Mizejewski, and his pal, Ranger Rick raccoon, believe that one of the best things a parent can cultivate this Spring is a new wildlife gardener. Today, they’re sharing their top kid-friendly tips for making your own wildlife garden. If you’re looking for fun ideas for celebrating Earth Day with…
Creating a Healthy Sleep Environment for Your School Age Child
School age kids function best when they get adequate rest. Creating a healthy sleep environment can help your child fall asleep more quickly and get better rest throughout the night. We all know that sleep tends to be a huge deal when our children are babies. It’s understandable, though. Sleep is such an important part…
Fun Outdoor Winter Activities for the Whole Family
Editor’s note: We’re delighted to welcome back Naturalist David Mizejewski from the National Wildlife Federation and Ranger Rick. Today, he’s sharing outdoor winter activities for the family. If you have young animal lovers, be sure to check out his previous article on observing wildlife safely. It’s no secret that today’s kids are staying indoors more as…
Music to Their Ears: Music Therapy for Children
You know the feeling you get when you listen to one of your favorite songs? Your mood lifts, your body relaxes, and you easily recall happy memories. When you think of it this way, the idea of music therapy makes perfect sense. It turns out, music can do much more for your health – especially when it…
Fewer Toys, More Fun: Why Kids Benefit from Having Fewer Toys
As grown ups, we’re often overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices we have to make in a day. Life is really no different for our children, on their own scale. Kids benefit from having fewer toys, and you can benefit from creating intentional (and minimal) play options for your child. Is it crazy that…
7 Mindful Exercises to Help Tweens Sleep
“If you can cultivate wholesome, mental states prior to sleep and allow them to continue right into sleep without getting distracted, then sleep itself becomes wholesome.” ~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying Children who maintain a regular pattern of quality sleep are generally better able to cope with life’s challenges. They…
Green Child Talks with Torie Griffin, Founder of Rising Moon Tribe
When an older friend came over the day she started her period, ten-year-old Torie Griffin decided it was something to celebrate. She began talking with her family about rituals honoring womanhood, and Rising Moon Tribe was born. We’re thrilled to talk with Torie in her premiere interview about the company she created, what it’s like…
Ignore vs. Intervene: Allowing Your Child to Experience Natural Consequences
In the realm of gentle discipline, allowing your child to experience natural consequences can be an effective strategy for shaping behavior and teaching cause and effect. Natural vs. logical consequences for kids Natural consequences and logical consequences are very similar. A natural consequence is the natural or inevitable result of a person’s action. Your child…
The Fall 2017 Issue of Green Child Magazine
If you’re looking forward to all the family fun autumn brings, you’ll love our Fall issue! Filled with ways to enjoy this vibrant time of year, we’ve got your seasonal activities covered sustainably. One of our favorite annual features – the Back to School Lunch & Gear Guide will help you get back into the…
Teach Your Kids How to Save Energy with a Simple Checklist
Life is full of teachable moments. From planting a garden to doing laundry, parents use everyday tasks to teach kids how and why things are done. When a concept “clicks” and a child takes an interest, everyone benefits; the child gains experience and the parent gets to lighten his or her load. This summer, consider…
Guided Relaxation: The Thankful Turtle
This issue’s guided imagery meditation is all about gratitude. Read this script in a relaxed voice, with joyful emphasis when needed. The more you use these scripts, the more easily your child will relax and be able to concentrate. These peaceful guided relaxation scripts are written by Mellisa Dormoy of ShambalaKids. Her guided relaxation audios help…
Stargazing with Kids
Stargazing with kids is a fun way to enjoy the night sky, plus it may encourage their love for science. Orion. Andromeda. Pegasus. Ursa Minor. The night sky is full of stories, adventures, and curiosities. Not only is gazing into the sky one of many ways to encourage your child’s natural love of learning, it’s…
5 Solar Eclipse Activities for Kids
If you haven’t heard, a total eclipse will take place on August 21st. And it’s kind of a big deal. There have been lunar eclipses in America throughout the last century, but the last eclipse to cross America from coast to coast was back in 1918. That’s just shy of a hundred years! If there’s…
8 Awesome Facts About Renewable Energy
Green energy is a simple concept. It’s using renewable energy sources like wind, solar, water, or geothermal to generate electricity instead of traditional sources. Some of the most beneficial facts about renewable energy are that it produces fewer pollutants, runs cheaper, and can also create jobs. The only downside of green energy is that it…
The Backyard Biologist
This summer, you can help your kids sharpen their science skills by encouraging them to go outside and do what they do naturally. It’s an age-old parenting conundrum that takes center stage when summer rolls around each year: How do you keep your kids both educated and entertained? Here’s an inexpensive and easy idea: Head…
How Healthy Gut Bacteria Can Help Prevent Asthma and Allergies
More and more research is showing a very strong link between the “good bacteria” that live in your child’s gut and the development of allergies and asthma. So, what is the research on gut bacteria showing? “Good” gut bacteria play a key role not only in developing a healthy immune system in infants, but also…
Give Your Kids an Academic Leg Up with Exercise
It’s no secret that many students in every grade level at schools across the country are struggling with their studies. But what if the answer for helping them blossom isn’t necessarily more time in the classroom or more teachers? To the contrary, could the answer be spending less time in the classroom and more time being outdoors…
Outdoor Activity: Backyard Bug Count
When it comes to kids and bugs, there’s a natural magnetic attraction. While a backyard bug count may give you the chills, your child will probably only be noticing the mesmerizing curling and uncurling of a pill bug, or the never ending charm of a lady bug. Want to take advantage of these simple thrills…
Healthy Microbiome for Kids: How to Boost Your Child’s Gut Health
When you boost your child’s gut health, you’re setting her up for a lifetime of wellness – plus fewer colds, less severe stomach bugs, and many more benefits we’re learning as more research shows the many benefits of a healthy microbiome. Some kids seem to get sick with every season change. Add in seasonal allergies,…
Is Your Child Ready for a Pet?
Every parent has heard the familiar request at one point or another: “Can we get a puppy? Or a kitty?” You smile, because puppies and kittens are cute, but you also groan at the thought of taking on another responsibility. While no one is going to claim that pets aren’t worth it, we all know…
Green Child Talks With Oak Meadow Homeschoolers: The Doughty Family
Like many parents, I never planned to homeschool my kids. But an out-of-state move showed us just how irreplaceable our former Montessori school (on 6 acres of land with horses, chickens, sheep, and an outstanding staff and group of families) was. After much trial and even more error, we decided to homeschool. I quickly discovered that doing the…
Good Sports: Encouraging Healthy Competition & Learning Life Lessons
It’s no fun to lose. When your child tries really hard and doesn’t get the results she intended, you can help her see it as an opportunity to succeed. Or if she does well, instead of bragging on herself, you can show her how to respectfully celebrate her achievement. One study revealed 70% of U.S….
