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….
Preschooler
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
Kindergarten Goes Into the Woods
Meridian Hills Co-op in Indianapolis brings the kindergarten classroom outdoors. There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. This isn’t the official motto of Malkah Bird’s kindergarten class at Meridian Hills Cooperative Nursery School & Kindergarten in Indianapolis, but it very well could be. Every day, the 14 kindergarteners spend a good chunk of…
Roughhousing & Developmental Play
A kitten makes a sideways run to pounce on her unsuspecting sibling. Two puppies growl and nip each other, all the while thumping their tails with glee. Roughhousing comes naturally to young animals (even non-predatory animals), so it should be no surprise our kids have the same instincts. “Play fighting” can actually help kids learn…
Flexible LEGO® Compatible Tape is a Game Changer!
Few things capture the imagination of a child like the classic LEGO® brick. These open-ended toys stand the test of time, and now a new innovation is propelling the already endless options for creativity. Nimuno Loops is a flexible roll of building block “tape” that can be cut to any length and applied to nearly any…
Hiking with Little Kids: How to enjoy hiking without overdoing it
A family hike is a wonderful way to spend time together in nature and get some great exercise. If you’re nervous about hiking with little kids, here’s how to enjoy a great day without overdoing it. Hiking with little kids is the ultimate way to enjoy a free range summer. My niece and nephew are…
The Spring 2017 Issue of Green Child Magazine is Here!
The Spring 2017 issue of Green Child is here! You’ll find natural parenting advice for all ages & stages… from handling baby’s first fever to creating a safe environment for your preschooler’s roughhousing to helping set rules for your teen’s first cell phone. You’ll also find healthy recipes, a peek at our favorite books in…
Why & How to Embrace Minimalist Parenting
Could your family enjoy life more by doing less? Minimalist parenting challenges parents to cut through the clutter of more, and edit your activities and belongings down to what’s truly important. For many years, the parenting climate has been all about more. More expert advice, more gear, more competition, more fears about safety, and more choices to make…
Oak Meadow Full Homeschool Curriculum Package Giveaway
If you’ve been considering homeschool, here’s your chance to try one of our top choices for learning at home. Oak Meadow has been a part of the educational landscape since 1975. Their compassionate, child-centered approach to homeschool encourages critical thinking and intellectual development through hands-on activities, interdisciplinary projects, and thoughtful reading and writing practice. This…
Coping With Colds: The Best Herbs For Cough, Congestion, And Infection
Dealing with a cold is terrible. But having a child come down with a cold? Any parent would happily take on the virus rather than put their kid through the breathless nights of hacking, sneezing, and stuffy noses. No, we can’t take up sneezing on their behalf, but herbs can be the next best thing. Use…
