Hand Made items

Do you ever go into Wal-Mart and wonder why you ever went in there?? Yuck! No help, huge crowds and long lines. What you find there is what you find in all those big box stores. How about try shopping for unique gifts, one of a kind items, custom, made to order!! Go to Etsy and find everything your little hearts desire, from NICE people, where you know your money is going to someone deserving and paid fairly and not someone who lives in a tiny dorm room in China that Walmart pays $3. for a days work. For more info on why you shouldn't buy from Wal-Mart join facebook group

"I promise to protest Wal Mart"

Make Jam!!

What better way to be friendly on the environment and cut down on needless spending than make your own food! Think of how much travel your food has to make to get to your plate. Also imagine the chemicals they spray on your food to make sure they get more crops and more money. Make your own gifts that people will actually like for certain! Here is a pdf file that shows with pictures step by step how to make your own jam! Cost effective, tasty and fun! We bought these berries at a local farm but in the summer when my blackberry bush is bursting I plan on making some from that. All you need is sugar, your favorite fruit and some liquid pectin!! Good luck!

Step by Step Photo directions for Jam

Smart Consuming

A powerpoint presentation regarding the affects of consumption and commercialism on our children and our environment.

Click on 'presentation' to view
presentation

The World's Most Ethical Shoe...

... can be found here. There's even pictures of the factory!

Shop Smart: Stay Away from Sweatshop-Produced Goods

Before conducting this research, my mental image of a sweatshop was of a damp, unsanitary room where dozens of young women and children sat next to sewing machines, making clothing for westerners while being paid a mere few cents every week. Although these types of sweatshops do exist, I've discovered that the very definition of a sweatshop is far-reaching and more inclusive. This sweatshop FAQ contains information about the REAL definition of sweatshops and some startling statistics prior to the year 2000.

Yep, all it takes is a few violations of overtime, safety, and minimum wage rules to be considered a sweatshop. Co-Op America, a not-for-profit organization, created this retailer report card a few years ago.

Here are more recent lists of sweatshop offenders, as well as listings for completely "safe" companies. Although many sweatshops create clothing and footwear, ANY workplace or company can be considered a sweatshop if it violates basic labor rights!

Too Many Toys

Are you tired of too many toys from birthdays?? Of course I want my children to have some toys to play with and to have fun with, but birthdays at our house get way out of control and toys start taking over the house, especially with three spring birthdays! In past years the kids opened their presents, played with them for about a week and after a few months of tripping over them or after I realized the closet was just too full, I'd go to freecycle and give them to other children. This year I thought, what if the kids got something that wasn't a THING and was an activity or people gave to charities in honor of the child. That got me thinking about Matthew first. See, my son Matthew has autism. He definitely has his favorite toys, TRAINS, and also some letter flash cards, which we have plenty of already. At his parties present time is his least favorite time, all the kids gathering around him, laughing loudly, yelling to have him open their present next. Matthew hated the noise, the chaos and the hustle and bustle of kids so close to him. I knew he wouldn't miss the gift time. What if for his birthday he didn't have to go through that tough time and instead received what he really NEEDS? What if each kid that comes to the party donates $10. to autism research in his honor?? That would be a much needed $100.!!! And how good he would feel to go to his walk knowing with his friends' help he would have a generous donation. So this year I made up these post cards to add to his birthday invitations:



I think this idea will work great for my other children and for other kids too! My daughter could collect funds for her sponsor Compassion child , my infant son we can pick a charity for him. Or of course gift cards to go bowling or to the museum would work great too. What is important is not junking up the planet with plastic toys that don't even hold their interest. A much needed lesson about conserving our planet's resources, about how good it is to give to others and the fun of just being together is available!! Help keep our landfills free of useless garbage, don't give junky cheap toys that are made of our planet's resources but rather the gift of giving honor and love!

If you would like to help Matthew with his autism campaign please donate here Matthew autism walk site and THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

The Story of Stuff

This video explores the true nature of consumable products and its affects on people and the environment:

The Story of Stuff

Children and Advertising

In the past, the best way to sell a product was to advertise to Mom or Dad. Now, Children are the ones being marketed to. Check out this clip to see how childhood is become more and more commercialized.

Currently, children are either spending or influencing 500 billion dollars worth of purchases. Research shows that, 8 to 12 year-olds spend $30 billion of their own money each year and influence another $150 billion of their parents' spending including purchases of household items like furniture, electrical appliances and computers, vacations, and even the family car. Companies have found that no matter how harmful it may be, advertising directly to children is a more effective way to sell their products. This YouTube clip, highlights the advertisers’ view of children as mini consumers. It is alarming to hear how they intentionally manipulate children with the purpose of “moving product”, making money, and creating lifelong, loyal consumers.

With children's increasing access to the Internet, television, radio, and magazines, marketing tools have spread into many facets of their lives. The average American child today is exposed to an estimated 40,000 television commercials a year. That is over 100 advertisements a day. Unfortunately children, specifically kids under the age of eight, are unable to critically comprehend televised advertising messages. They are prone to accept advertiser messages as truthful, accurate and unbiased. Research shows that young children's exposure to commercials trains them to value material goods and helps shape their consumer patterns as adults. Even older children are negatively affected by the plethora of advertisement bombarding them every day.

Some of the ways marketing to children harms their well-being are:

• Obesity: Rising levels of childhood obesity track an explosion of junk food ads in recent years.
  
• Emotional well-being: Author and Boston College sociology professor Juliet Schor finds links between immersion in consumer culture and depression, anxiety, low self esteem, and conflicts with parents.
• Self-image and sexual behavior: Wheelock College education professor Diane Levin sees correlations with sexual imagery in children’s ads and increases in eating disorders among girls, adding that as “children struggle to make sense of mature sexual content, they are robbed of valuable time for age-appropriate developmental tasks, and they may begin to engage in precocious sexual behavior.”
  

Check out the websites listed below. They offer many effective strategies you can easily employ to help the young people in your life. We must work together to arm our children with the knowledge and tools necessary to recognize the manipulation and combat the negative affects caused by advertisement.

Helping your child make sense of advertising MVParents

Helping your child think about advertising - Better Business Bureau
What parents can do - YouTube clip from Consuming Kids

Food for thought

Here is a video to make you think about what you eat.

http://snagfilms.com/films/title/the_future_of_food/

Less Garbage, happy neighbors

Do you do spring cleaning and throw all your stuff away?  Do you feel badly for throwing out stuff that works perfectly fine but you just want it out of your house so you throw it out anyway?  Well, don't throw away working junk anymore!  visit http://www.freecycle.org and find your city.  How it works is you become a free member to a message board that has members from your town and maybe surrounding towns.  When you have things that your kids outgrow or don't play with anymore and things that possibly don't even work anymore, you post a message saying what you have.  People then post that they want it, you can email the person your address or agree to meet at a public place and make arrangements to have the items picked up.  What I do is leave my things on the front porch when I am not home for them to pick up.  And there you have it, recycling at its finest!  The nice thing about this is it gives a great feeling to really help people out in your own community.  You also know first hand who you are helping out.  Friendship might even be formed!  It's community friendly, heart friendly and earth friendly!!  So visit http://www.freecycle.org to find your town's freecycle message board and start recycling and decluttering and helping out all at the same time!

Stay Tuned

This blog is about to be filled with lots of info for us the consumers! Our mission is to not to tell you what to do but rather you be educated consumer and the possible effects on our beautiful can be.  Four graduate students will be maintaining this site providing four awesome inputs!  Come back soon!