With Earth day events happening this week and this weekend, it is the perfect time to plug open-ended, imaginative play. For children, the simplest toys are the best toys. Usually, this translates into being good for the environment as well. With just a little imagination, empty yogurt containers become musical instruments, toilet paper rolls become binoculars and an empty cardboard box becomes almost anything. Better still, nature provides an incredible supply of props for play. When I was little, we raked leaves in a way that created the floor plan for our imagined houses – with low walls defining our own precious spaces. Each day, we could recreate and improve on the previous day’s ideas. In the spring, blowing dandelion flowers and curling their stems in water made for great fun. In these instance, we didn’t use “toys” but improvised props from found objects. No money spent, no batteries needed, no plastic for the landfill. For a fact sheet on the commercialism of toys and play, check out this link to Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.
Earlier this month, at the Consuming Kids Summit in Boston, I had the pleasure of meeting Annie Leonard, who you may know from the Internet sensation, The Story of Stuff . If you haven’t seen this powerful film, I urge you to check it out on YouTube. You may want to watch it with your own children (depending on how old they are) and begin a whole family conversation about consumption and our planet. She also has a book version with a title that just about says it all – The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health – and a Vision for Change. (By the way, the United States is at the forefront of this – trashing more than just our own country – check out the film and see just what’s up!)
So, as we celebrate Earth Day (Earth Week? Earth Year? Earth Lifetime?) and as you reduce, reuse and recycle, it is a great time to also re-imagine. What can you and your family do for fun without purchasing products? I bet you can make a whole list!
*I have to give a shout out to a new acquaintance, Julia Chen of The Playstore in Palo Alto, CA. I also met Julia at the Consuming Kids Summit, and she came up with the little saying I used for the title here. Thanks, Julia…I love it!
[...] Reduce, Reuse and Re-imagine! [...]