Back to school...

Well I'm off on a late summer holiday at the end of this week, to see my brother in law get married in Cyprus. And while it does push the old carbon foot print up a bit, but it is a one off and is really a once in a lifetime event that we can't miss. The Shugmiester will get to spend time with both sets of grandparents and after a hard summer of teething, everyone in the household is in need of a break. It means that there'll be a lull in posting for the time being, but thought I'd finish off with a piece on various ways in which to maintain a eco friendly approach to the start of the new school year; whether it's your kids going off to nursery, school or even university, there is plenty you can do to ensure that good green habits go with them.

Environmental Science Degrees.net/ have a comprehensive guide to keeping a low carbon dorm, from things like keeping your own plants, to opting for organic bedding, low energy light bulbs and using an in room recycling box. Certainly I remember when I first left home for uni, things like this were probably the last thing on my mind, but they certainly became important to me later and I wish that I'd had someone reminding about it earlier on. The whole article can be viewed at
http://www.environmentalsciencedegrees.net/blog/2010/eco-friendly-dorm-room-tips/. I would also add, that it's never to early to get involved with Green Politics or campaigning and that college is one of the best places to do this.


Ever reliable Treehugger also has some useful tips for back to school accessories and packed lunches on parent site Planet Green. For those particularly interested in the food element, it might also be worth while checking out a recent article on Stuffed Crustie discussing the latest craze to hit offices, the Graze snack boxes. There is no reason why kids can't benefit from these too.

One thing that it always worth remembering if you have young children, is that September is a great time to start collecting all kind of 'rubbish' in preparation for Christmas. Scraps of paper, old boxes and cartons, material, old paints and nail varnishes - all these will come in useful either for school pageants and art projects, or even to keep your own kids busy as the nights get darker and colder.

When I return I'll be starting to prepare all kinds of crafts for Halloween and Christmas, which due to lack of internet access I wasn't able to share properly this time last year. So keep an eye out and I'll be back blogging at the end of the month.

Reb x


picture credit: http://www.environmentalsciencedegrees.net