Looking for a way to teach your family about the importance of conserving resources and recycling, while still putting a little extra cash in your pocket?  Why not attend a Gold Rush Party?  If you are thinking along the lines of a Tupperware or Pampered Chef party you are on the right track, only instead of spending money you will be making money?  Now how many parties can boast about putting you ahead financially? 

Since you are going to be getting rid of the jewelry and coins that are no longer worth more than anything but their cash value to you, the first thing you are going to want to do is to gather up all of your old, gold, silver, and precious stone jewelry that you no longer desire.  Its condition matters not, as the buyers will be melting it down so bring on the broken broaches!

 Want to teach your children how to be environmentally friendly? Then throw them on the school bus!  Well, okay, don't throw them, but you can sure as heck have them ride it to and from school instead of being driven by their personal chauffeur, uh, I mean parents, by their parents [wink, wink.]

Older kids who can drive to school, and absolutely positively cannot be caught dead riding on a [gasp] bus, can help out the environment by setting up their own carpool and giving rides to several of their friends in the mornings and afternoons.  This will not only help to teach them to be responsible, as they must be on time or everyone depending on them will be late, but it will also help cut down on the amount of car exhaust being let into the air on a daily basis. 

But, is car exhaust really that bad?  The answer my friends is yes, yes it is.  Let’s use the great state of California as an example, and take a look at this snip-it of information about car exhaust, carpooling, and the environment shall we?

Air Pollution (True Books: Environment) author: Rhonda Lucas Donald asin: 0516259989

Here’s something that you may remember from your own childhood, making an egg carton garden.  It may seem a little silly starting a garden in the fall, but it is actually a fun activity that gives your kids something to do while being cooped up in the house during those long, cold winter days.  Not only that but seeds are pretty cheap this time of year back in the garden department, and just about everyone has an egg carton sitting in their refrigerator.  Add a little bit of potting soil and you have yourself an egg carton garden.

Want to get your kids outside in the fresh autumn air, but aren’t quite sure how to coax them away from the lure of computers, video games and DVD’s? How about having a nature scavenger hunt with them? Kids love finding things, they love games, they love hunting as well as collecting so getting them involved with nature will be a breeze once you make it a mission for them to complete!

Save your egg cartons to use for the hunt, either one per child, or one per team. Then select twelve different items that your children should go out and look for, these can be specific items like a stone, or a twig, or you can get a little more creative by giving your child(ren) categories instead of specific items, like something soft, red, old, delicate, and so forth.

When most of us think of recycling we think of plastic bottles, and soda cans, but don’t forget that most of your old electronics can be recycled instead of tossed away in the trash, and there is more than one way to recycle an older electronic item. What’s the big deal you might ask? The big deal is that most electronics contain materials that are hazardous to our soil and water, like mercury, and lead. Electronics thrown away in land fills can leak these dangerous materials and contaminate the local environment.

Don’t forget about the magic of donating! Not everyone can afford to keep up with the demands of the latest and greatest technologies, and are happy to have electronics that are a little behind the times. Older TV’s, VCR’s, and video tapes are items that usually go quickly at garage sales, or are readily accepted by second hand stores.

This is something that is not only really fun to do, but is really cheap if you use the natural resources around you instead of going to the craft store and buying the necessary materials for the project. Gathering the sand from various locations can give you and your child a chance to spend time together in nature allowing you ample time to teach your child about how important it is to preserve our natural resources.

Things you will need:

• *Paper
• Sand
• *Glue

This craft is fun for children of all ages because of how simple it is.

• Have your child draw whatever picture he or she so desires on the paper, with the glue.

• Make sure that the child understands that he or she must ‘fill in’ spaces with glue if they wish to have more than just an outline.

• You and your your child may have to go back and even out any large globs of glue so that the coverage is fairly even.

There really isn’t a symbol more suiting to the word ‘hippie’ than tie dyed clothing, now is there? Regardless of having hippie ideals, or simply wishing for something fun and environmental to do with your children for the afternoon, tie dying a shirt is a great way to have fun with your children. Using natural resources for colors instead of artificial dyes are a great way to help our planet and teach our children about being environmentally friendly.

What you Need:

• Shirt
• Rubber bands
• Natural dye sources
• Containers for dyes
• Rubber gloves

Organic Crafts: 75 Earth-Friendly Art Activities author: Kimberly Monaghan asin: 1556526407

Time for this week’s environmentally friendly activity and it is…(drum roll please) making a Pocket Purse! This one really is more for the mom’s and dad’s of little girls out there, so I promise to keep my eye out for a little something just for the boys in the coming weeks; although I am not too sure how many little girls would get into the Toad Abode!

What You Will Need:

• Old pair of corduroy pants or jeans
• Scissors
• Needle and thread
• Ribbon or braided rope
• Iron on transfers, paints, patches, or other embellishments
• Velcro strips or snaps

If you haven’t yet stopped in to see what the Hump Day Hippie is all about, then wait no longer. Because your children are already learning about the changes that need to happen to save our environment, and it’s high time that you play a little catch up.

If you have young children, and most likely even if your children are not so young, there’s a better chance than not, that you know of the television channel nickelodeon. There is little doubt that you have not at some point, been driven crazy by the incessant sound of Spongebob’s joyful laugh, and inevitably succumb to the silliness and let out a snort, at the very least.

So many parents know about Spongebob, and the million other cartoon characters that they have on that channel, because parents know that it is a channel that they can trust. They know that their children are not going to see advertisements for anyone or anything that has gone wild, and that the programming is family friendly.

Parents trust the information the channel is feeding into their children’s brains. With The Big Green Help, nick.com is teaching children about the dangers that we are facing if we do not change our ways, in a nonthreatening interactive way. Which of course has their favorite Nickelodeon actors and characters, as well as LaBron James.

It would seem as though these days that there is a new high tech way to do just about everything, and that includes learning about the environment as well. Today I stumbled across an article, which was reviewing a video game meant to teach children about ecosystems and the delicate balance of nature. I looked up the website for the game’s manufacturer, Pocketwatch.com; and sure enough they had a free demo (and for the Mac no less) of their game, Wildlife tycoon, Adventure Africa.

Intrigued by the idea of a video game for kids that teaches the basics of balancing an ecosystem, and not willing of course to let all of you down by reviewing a product I had yet to try, I downloaded the demo and began to play. I will admit that for reasons unknown to me, the first two times that I tried to load the game it crashed before I could get the first level loaded, which was pretty annoying. However after shutting down some other programs that were running needlessly in the background, just in case that had anything to do with the crash, we were up and running…off on our African adventure!