Articles tagged “Kids”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Detox Your Home: Keep it PVC Free By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Dec 27 2007 From shower curtains to sippy cups, products made from polyvinyl chloride, also known as vinyl or PVC, are ubiquitous. Over the decades, dozens of vinyl fabricators have succumbed to the exceedingly rare angiosarcoma of the liver.The dioxin exposure of the average American far exceeds the usual standard for acceptable... + READ MORE

Teach Your Children to Cook By Kelly Rossiter IN Food & Health Dec 26 2007 As the year comes to a close, we tend to ruminate over the months past and begin to form ideas about what we would like to achieve in the new year. If you make cooking fun for your kids, it will be fun for you too and by the time they are teenagers, they'll be pros-and maybe sometimes they'll cook dinner for you. + READ MORE

Things to do on Christmas for Non-Christians By Lloyd Alter IN Work & Connect Dec 24 2007 Not everyone does Christmas-a large percentage of our population celebrates other holidays. In the United Kingdom, over 6500 people volunteered last year to help out with Crisis Open Christmas, noting "If you are homeless or living in hostel accommodation, Christmas can be a lonely and depressing time." + READ MORE

Download, Print Last-Minute Gift Tags By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Dec 20 2007 It's T-minus four days to visions of dancing sugar plums, so if you're still scrounging around for gift tags for your wrapped or bagged presents, here are some places you can download charming designs from, at no cost. + READ MORE

Cook with Cast Iron Instead of Nonstick By Collin Dunn IN Food & Health Dec 20 2007 We've all seen examples or heard stories about Grandma's cast iron cookware that's been in regular use since the Eisenhower administration or before. Don't store your pan with its lid on, as cast iron needs to breathe, and condensing moisture inside of it can counteract all your hard work seasoning the pan. + READ MORE

Save Your Memories with Tiny Buildings By Lloyd Alter IN Home & Garden Dec 20 2007 Some people take pictures to remember; since the 1970s, Sharon and her late husband James made tiny buildings from business cards and packaging.Because the tiny buildings were made from familiar boxes, or restaurant business cards, or other pieces collected as we traveled and lived, they became miniature memoirs of... + READ MORE

Green Delights of Junk Mail Gift Wrap: Go Wild with Ribbons By Team Planet Green IN Home & Garden Dec 19 2007 This is the third of five green tips where we look at ways to transform "useless" junk mail into stylish and free gift wrap.To make the curled ribbon below, rip or cut it into strips, and then curl each strip with a straight edge, like a ruler or scissor edge. + READ MORE

Wrap your Food Gifts Up in a Beautiful Green Way By Kelly Rossiter IN Food & Health Dec 19 2007 The people over at Apartment Therapy's The Kitchn have come up with some ideas for wrapping your Christmas food treats in a beautiful way that doesn't involve lots of shiny paper and metallic ribbons. You put all that work into cooking and baking those goodies for your loved ones.With a little extra bit of effort and... + READ MORE

Green Your Nursery: Choose Eco-Friendly Furnishing (Part 2) By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Dec 18 2007 Now that you know what to look out for while you're decking out your little nipper-to-be's nursery, here's a cheat sheet of some of the companies that are transforming infant digs into the safe, non-toxic-and environmentally savvy-retreats they were always meant to be.Meanwhile, you willn't have to break down the crib... + READ MORE

Trade Your Old Books for New Ones at BookMooch By Collin Dunn IN Work & Connect Dec 18 2007 Illustration credit: Andrice Arp We've all got more books than we need.If you prefer your local library to having books sent to you, take your points and give them to charities BookMooch works with, such as children's hospitals (so a sick kid can get a free book delivered to their bed), African literacy, or to the good... + READ MORE

Give Shortbread Cookies for Christmas By Kelly Rossiter IN Food & Health Dec 13 2007 My mother has been using this shortbread recipe for about 60 years and I've been using it for about 30 years. I volunteer at my local library helping kids do their homework, and I'm taking my cookies there as a treat for the kids and the library staff.Joyce Rossiter's Shortbread Cookies 1 cup butter2 cups flour1/2 cup... + READ MORE

Make a Gift Basket for Someone You Love By Kelly Rossiter IN Food & Health Dec 12 2007 My husband has a great philosophy of life. Your loved one gets tasty treats, you aren't adding any stuff to their home, and you didn't use any wrapping paper that gets instantly thrown away. + READ MORE

Bake Some Dough Christmas Tree Decorations By Kelly Rossiter IN Home & Garden Dec 12 2007 Image credit:http://flickr.com/photos/snowdeal/313564813/When my children were small, our house was Kid Central. So even though it's a hectic time of year, carve out a bit of time to make some dough ornaments with your kids.Baked Dough for Christmas Ornaments FlourSaltVegetable oilWaterAcrylic paint 1. + READ MORE

Treat Backyard Birds with Pinecone Feeders By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Dec 11 2007 Give your neighborhood birds a hearty winter-holiday treat by making pinecone bird feeders. You're also liable to make a mess-the best kind, which kids revel in-so we recommend spreading used newspaper over your kitchen table to protect surfaces from sticky fingers and implements. + READ MORE

Encourage Young Do-Gooders with MarkMakers By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Work & Connect Dec 10 2007 Show your favorite ankle-biters how they can make a difference with MarkMakers, a donation Web site created with young philanthropists in mind. Purchase a gift card from 0 and up, then print or e-mail it to your child, so the budding do-gooder can visit the Web site's virtual store to disburse the money to one of... + READ MORE

Detox Your Home: Detect, Remove Lead Paint By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Dec 10 2007 Sorry, parental units, but discovering traces of lead in your kids' toys is the least of your problems with this neurotoxin. Wash and wipe down surfaces: Meanwhile, wet-mop floors and wipe windows and other contaminated surfaces with trisodium phosphate or another high-phosphate detergent-note, however, that although... + READ MORE

Donate Used Luggage By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Dec 10 2007 If your clutter-busting has uncovered a few dusty pieces of baggage that have outlived their usefulness, don't drag them out onto the curb for the garbage man just yet. Give your local children's protection services division and foster-care agency a ring, as well-children placed in foster care are often forced to haul... + READ MORE

Melt the Ice Nicely By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Dec 7 2007 While nobody wants to go sailing into a lamppost or land awkwardly on their heinie in the wake of a snowstorm, commercial deicers can leave a frolicking dog with dry and cracked paws, not to mention potentially fatal digestive problems if he's an overzealous licker. Salt can also sting kids' eyes and skin, while... + READ MORE

Deck Out a Greener Christmas Tree By Jasmin Malik Chua IN Home & Garden Dec 7 2007 This Christmas, instead of getting a El Fake-o tree most likely made from noxious PVC (and shipped from China), or a questionably harvested, pesticide-ridden cut tree that could haul in glad tidings of chlorpyriforus (a suspected neurotoxin, ho ho ho) and other chemicals into your living room, consider a living... + READ MORE

Get Your Kids to Eat Their Veggies From the Beginning By Kelly Rossiter IN Food & Health Dec 7 2007 Apparently, getting your kids to eat their veggies goes way beyond being a good role model.According to new research from the Monell Chemical Senses Center, if you're breast feeding, eating vegetables will encourage your children to eat them later. So, a baby learns to like a food's taste when the mother eats that food + READ MORE