Camp Weary Parent - Its Easy Being Green

Get the whole family involved in today’s Camp Weary Parent activities! Going along with our nature theme for the week, its all about going green and being eco-friendly today!

Start off by finding out what kind of ecological footprint you are leaving with one of these quizzes:

• How big is your ecological footprint? 
• Younger kids will have fun with Bobbie Bigfoot’s Ecological Footprint quiz.
• EPA’s Individual Emissions Quiz

Then do an audit on your own home - what is your energy use like, where can you cut back, and what can you change? By getting the kids involved in the process, they are more likely to turn off that extra light!

• How energy efficient are you?
• Home Energy Audit
• Do you live in a nest or a burrow? Take the What Kind of Home Quiz.

Talk with the kids about ways to go green. I love this article at iVillage that has age-appropriate ideas and tips for going green with the kids.

And more fun sites, activities and crafts to help make it even easier to go green as a family!

• Going Green: A Kid’s Handbook to Saving the Planet - Geared towards kids in grades 4-8, it is a guide to saving the environment, including explanations of ecological issues and projects.
• A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids: Understanding Climate Change and What You Can Do About It
• Go Green with your Kids - a guide to incorporating green habits for each stage of childhood
• Teaching Kids to Go Green - How about Green Schools? Here’s another one on environmentally friendly schools.
• EarthdayNetwork has a very colorful interactive site for helping kids calculate their ecological footprint with Bobby Bigfoot.
• The EPA has a kids club web site with information and activities on a full range of topics. Visit the EPA Air Now site for kids activities on air quality. Or visit another part of their site to learn about household chemicals.
• The American Museum of Natural History features Ology - a kid friendly trek into biodiversity - way cool!
• EcoKids is another site full of games, activities, homework helpers, and ideas for getting kids involved in their environment.
• Save the oceans with the National Resource Defense Councils Make Waves site - plenty of kid friendly fun.
• The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has a site called EEK - environmental education for kids - another fun, interactive, educational site.
• The Department of Energy has teamed up with Disney and their movie Ratatouille on their kids page about energy conservation.
• The National Wildlife Federation has a variety of eco-friendly magazines for kids of all ages - Ranger Rick and Your Big Back Yard are the most popular.
• NIEHS has coloring pages, games, activities, jokes, and stories for helping kids get the message about the environment.
• How about an Earth Day word search, coloring page, and more Earth Day activities at Printables4Kids?
• Family Fun has crafts, projects, printables, makeables and more on a variety of eco-friendly topics.

Don’t miss any of the fun - stop back in tomorrow or visit the Camp Weary Parent page for a complete listing of all the activities to date.