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When we were designing our kitchen, we tried to come up with functional features for our family and our habits. One of the must-haves on our wishlist was a pull-out garbage and recycle bin drawer just next to the sink. There are two garbage cans inside this pull-out drawer; one for garbage and one for recyclables. Recycling is very important to our family and we make a concerted effort to pitch in and save the environment in any way that we can.
Our son Jake is very into the solar system and planets. He enjoys telling us so many facts about each planet. He also enjoys learning about the planets, especially Earth! We often talk about ways that we can help maintain our planet, like recycling and reusing, not littering, and not being wasteful. Jake likes to tell me when it’s recycling day and helps me drag the bin to the bottom of the driveway for pickup.
This month’s Kid Night In Box (KNI) was all about Earth Day! The box came with a cute book about recycling, a recycled bubble maker with bubbles in a cute pouch, a paint set with glue, tape and scissors and paper to create artwork, and an organic granola bar.
It’s been hectic in our house, to say the least. We normally like to do our KNI box on weekends when it’s more relaxed and we have ample time to examine the contents and be fully present for all of its activities. However, this month we’ve all been traveling, playing sports, gearing up for the end of school, and doing some extra unanticipated things, like going to the doctor. So this month, we did our box on the fly!
We all know that when you go to the doctor, they put you in the examination room and it’s the ultimate physical challenge for parents to wrangle their kids and keep them entertained while waiting for the doctor to come in. We had ample time to read this month’s book, Don’t Throw That Away, and answer all of the thought-provoking questions provided in the newsletter, as well as do the fun recycling sheet to identify which items can be recycled and which items cannot. The back of the sheet included fun facts about recycling that we were able to read, with time to spare!
After reading Don’t Throw That Away, Jake suggested that the next time we go to the beach we should bring a garbage bag with us to pick up any trash we see so that it doesn’t end up in the ocean and harming the habitats of the wildlife and sea life-great idea! Since we live in Florida, we will be putting his suggestion into play very soon!
After leaving the doctor’s office, we had a hot second before soccer practice, so we headed to our neighborhood basketball court to enjoy a beautiful day and try out our upcycled bubble blower. This makeshift cardboard toilet paper roll and mesh bag served as a great bubble blower and the kids were amazed at how many bubbles this made! Lilah blew bubbles that looked like a huge bunch of grapes.
When we got home, Lilah found some empty Amazon boxes and proclaimed that she was going to reuse them to make a car, just like the character did in Don’t Throw That Away! She is now hyper-aware of reusing materials and goes around the house pointing out what items we can reuse and what can be recycled. She’s taking her pledge to be eco-friendly very seriously!
This month’s box contained a good number of lessons and activities. I always love when the boxes include exercises that address fine and gross motor skills, as well as moral and ethical values. There was an astonishing fact included on the recycling sheet that indicated that by 2050, there will be more plastic in our oceans than there are fish. 2050 is really not that far away. We all need to take measures to protect our earth and make it a healthier and safer place for us as well as the animals that live on this beautiful planet.
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Tamar Blazer is an attorney-turned-twin mom, with a passion for her family, friends, writing, good food, home decor and laughing. When she’s not lamenting on her lack of sleep, you can find her doing one of the too many projects she likes to take on, usually with a twin on either side.
