Empowered by Play » The Story of Stuff

Playing without plastic

Geralyn — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 15:28:32 +0000

I am always a fan of “unplugged” play, so on Sunday when I saw that a local historical site was offering a free event for children – featuring games and toys from the Revolutionary War era, I packed up my boys and a couple of their cousins to check it out. It was a beautiful day – and a perfect afternoon for romping on the lawn.

The event was great for a few reasons. First, because it was offered at no cost to the public. Gotta love that! Second, the event offered children and families an afternoon away from the hectic, plugged-in world. Many parents got into the act and played along with the kids, folks (for the most part) kept cell phones tucked away, and fun was had by young and old alike. Finally, all the games and toys were made with natural materials. Swings made of cotton rope; tops, paddles, and hoops made of wood; balls made of leather. You get the idea. Nothing was plastic. Nothing was emblazoned with Disney Princesses, Spiderman or Sponge Bob. Simple, beautiful and good for the earth. I couldn’t help imagining if all our modern day toys and games were still made this way, as Annie Leonard’s words from The Story of Stuff swirled in my head.

So there we were, playing Cat and Mouse, Ring on a String and more. These were new to us, but are very old games. Spinning wooden tops, catching a leather ball, trying to walk on wooden stilts – and most of all joining lots of other children and families in outdoor, unplugged, screen-free entertainment. Nice.

On a related note…if you are looking for some unplugged and free entertainment that is good for the earth and will connect your own family with people and communities around the world, why not celebrate International Mud Day on June 29th?!

The following is from the World Forum Website: “What began as an exchange between the children of Nepal and Australia, organized by Bishnu Bhatta and Gillian McAuliffe, is an idea shared throughout the world. Organize your own activities, invite children and families to participate, take photos and write your story, share resources on mud play and outdoor experiences. But most of all we invite you to go outdoors with a playful spirit and muck about with children.”

Does that sound great, or what? Empowered by Play encourages you to join in celebrating International Mud Day and to spread the word!

Celebrating Peace

Geralyn — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 11:36:21 +0000

How will you celebrate today’s United Nations International Day of Peace?

Share what you have?

Help others to be heard?

Be open minded?

Teach peace?

I started celebrating a little early – on Sunday at our local Roots & Shoots meeting. Roots & Shoots is youth-driven international organization founded by Dr. Jane Goodall. The movement is about promoting positive change for people, animals and our environment, and we met on Sunday to celebrate the United Nations International Day of Peace. ( The actual United Nations International Day of Peace is today, September 21st. ) All the families joined for a peaceful game of soccer – a game that is played internationally. Then we made peace doves – decorated with ideas about spreading peace. I wrote a bunch of ideas, and my favorite was, “Live more simply so all can simply live”.

The idea of living simply has been on my mind ever since I heard Annie Leonard speak at the Consuming Kids Summit in Boston last April. Annie Leonard is the author of The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing Our Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health – and a Vision for Change . She helped me realize how much of the world’s resources the United States is using. Way more than our share, that’s for sure. So now, when I read my copy of Real Simple magazine, I take a step back and look hard at what I am reading. Are PVC beverage coasters really necessary? They certainly aren’t real simple. So now I’ve been forming new ideas (for me) about what living simply means.

Yesterday my son proudly made homemade bubble-blowing liquid from dish detergent. He bent a big paper clip into a homemade bubble wand. “I didn’t even have to buy it. I just made it,” he declared as his bubbles floated into the afternoon sky. Nice – and simple. (Simple can be fascinating, too. How does a round bubble come out of an odd shaped blower?)

Peace comes in many shapes and forms. Today, Dr. Jane Goodall hopes we all dream big. For me, dreaming big means using less and re-using more – and helping my family do the same. Happy United Nations International Day of Peace! How will you spread peace?

A Message from Jane for the 2010 Day of Peace from The Jane Goodall Institute on Vimeo.

A Real Toy Story

Geralyn — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:40:22 +0000

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that the best toys are not toys at all. Fuzzy blankets and empty boxes rule when you are inside; wild flowers, sticks and rocks for when you are outside. A blanket becomes a cape or a tent and a box becomes just about anything. This is the stuff that makes for rich imaginative play. It is the season of garage sales where I live, and I’ve been checking them out lately. Holy cow, there is a whole lot of plastic junk out there. At least folks who have a garage sale (or who shop there) are trying to reuse these toys and extend their use a bit still… yikes!

I’ve also been reading the Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession With Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health – and a Vision For Change by Annie Leonard. It is a real wake-up call. I try to be environmentally conscious – but by reading this book I’ve realized there is so much more we as a country can – and should – be doing. Leonard reveals, “We have a problem with Stuff. With just 5 percent of the world’s population, we’re consuming 30 percent of the world’s resources and creating 30 percent of the world’s waste. If everyone consumed at U.S. rates, we would need three to five planets!” My only hope is that this horrifying oil disaster will be the rude awakening our country needs.

(It’s not a spill, by the way. A spill is what my son does with his glass of orange juice. It’s a pain to clean up the spill, but we can do it in a few minutes. What is happening in the Gulf of Mexico is a man-made disaster. Definitely not a spill.)

Do the world a favor and forgo all the thousands of Toy Story 3 plastic junk, and all the other aggressively marketed single-purpose toys, and opt for good old fashioned imagination-inducing fabric scraps, empty containers of any type, art supplies, pebbles and the like. Its not easy to break the habit of consumption – believe me, the LEGO situation in my own house is admittedly out of control. We are working on it, though, and my husband has finally agreed that there is such a thing as “too many LEGOs”. Check out this fantastic article Children, Commercialism, and Environmental Sustainability by Tim Kasser, Tom Crompton, and Susan Linn.

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Reduce, Reuse, Re-imagine!*

Geralyn — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:10:41 +0000

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!