5 Raise green kids
Ecofriendly activities to celebrate Earth Day Celebrate Earth Day and your children’s creativity by cooking up a few family-friendly snacks in the kitchen. Kim Leistner, founder and president of Springfield Moms, offers dirt pudding as an easy, fun recipe that also gives parents a chance to explain the importance of recycling.
Combine two cups of cold milk and one 4-ounce package of instant chocolate pudding in a bowl and mix for two minutes. Let it sit for five minutes, and then stir in one 8-ounce tub of thawed whipped topping and half of a 16-ounce bag of crushed, chocolate sandwich cookies. Fill plastic biodegradable cups with the pudding mixture, and then top with remaining cookie crumbles and gummy worms or insects. Voilà — dirt pudding.
“It’s important to do age-appropriate things with them, and it doesn’t have to be anything fancy,” Leistner says. “That’s what’s so great about it.”
She recommends do-it-yourself trail mix if you’re planning to take your kids on a nature hike in nearby
Washington Park or Lincoln Memorial Garden. It’s healthy, she says, and
lets kids pick their own ingredients.
Set out bags of pretzels, raisins, peanuts, Cheerios
and M&M’s — or any other handy snack. Encourage your kids to
decorate and then fill their own brown paper bags with their special
Earth Day concoction.
Trail mix also makes for a great take-along snack, Leistner says,
when she walks with her two daughters through their neighborhood to
pick up trash.
Whether
it’s for Earth Day or any day, they just put on gloves, grab an extra
grocery bag and go.
“Walking
around the neighborhood and filling up bags with trash opens their eyes
to the little things they can do to help,” she says. –Amanda Robert
For more ideas on
getting your kids involved in Earth Day, visit the Springfield Moms’
Green Living section at www.springfieldmoms.org.
6 Energize your home
Save money with a home energy audit
While green building has become more and more popular, most of us live in homes built before energy efficiency was a priority. An energy audit is a great way to determine how best to save on utility bills in your home. The auditor will inspect your home from basement to attic, checking your insulation, caulk, weatherstripping, doors, windows and lighting and other appliances. They will also do an air-blowing test (using a fan they attach to an exterior door) to find out if you have any drafts, and if so, where they are coming from. At the end of the audit, the expert will give you a list of energy-efficient providers or products, depending on your needs.
Here are some local places to get an energy audit:
City Water, Light and Power does home energy audits for $25. If you make any of the suggested improvements within a year of the audit, you can get the original fee back in a rebate. 217-789-2070, www.cwlp.com, [email protected].
Home Energy Solutions is a privately owned local company that offers audits for varying prices, depending on the size of the home. 217- 528-3739, www.energysolutionsnow.com, [email protected].
Springfield Electric also does home energy audits. 217-788-2100, springfieldelectric.com, [email protected].
The Green Center at Lincoln Land Community College has information on how to get an energy audit if you can’t afford one. There’s a U.S. Department of Energy service that offers weatherization services to low-income families. If you think you might qualify, or want to learn more, check it out here: http://llcc.edu/greencenter.
If you’re the do-it-yourself type, you can perform your own energy audit using the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s checklist at www.preservationnation.org.
The Home Energy Saver is a Web-based tool that allows you to calculate your current energy use and potential savings, available at http://hes.lbl.gov/. —Diane Ivey
