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By Mom Unplugged, January 4, 2011 6:38 pm

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am back on track with our Monthly Unplugged Projects in 2011!

The theme for January’s Unplugged Project is:

Messages

Anyone can join in the Unplugged Project. Be creative! Any connection to the theme is fine. I try to pick a very general theme each time so that each project and interpretation will be unique.

If you have an interpretation of the theme messages to share, please review the information on how to join us here. You have until February 1st to post your link.

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By Mom Unplugged, January 4, 2011 10:54 am

So here I am. Back from Mars…or the holidays…or somewhere, full of enthusiasm for a fresh new year. I have a few goals to share publicly with the hope that this will help me get them done:

1) Devote more time to Unplug Your Kids. Year three (2010) of UPYK was a lazy one. Year four (2011) I hope will be more energetic.

2) Organize all my many, many years of photos. I make this resolution every year, but this year I really am going to do it!

3) Write some long overdue letters and thank-yous. The guilt I feel from putting these off for so long keeps me awake at night. Why can’t I just get it done?

4) Practice and play my musical instruments more, thus setting a good example for my children and bringing music back into my life.

5) Take more walks (sounds nicer than the word “exercise” doesn’t it?). Every other day seems like a reasonable goal.

Happy New Year to all!

PS. In an effort to get off to a good start with goal #1, I will post January’s Monthly Unplugged Project theme either today or tomorrow. :-)

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By Mom Unplugged, November 20, 2010 12:42 pm

I have been so busy sorting and de-junking my house, that I have had little time to blog and my Monthly Unplugged Project has fallen a bit by the wayside.

Even though we are already halfway through November, here is a theme that we can perhaps do before the end of November since, in the United States, the Thanksgiving Holiday is coming up next week and many of us are already thinking about how to give thanks.

How do you give thanks? Do you have projects, artwork, crafts that fit the theme of giving thanks?

Join in and have fun! If you have never joined us before, please consider it. You can read more about how it works here.

I’ll start it off with a link to a “thankful” project that we invented and enjoyed.

(Please only link to “giving thanks”-related projects. I will have to remove unrelated links, no matter how nice your website.)

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By Mom Unplugged, November 16, 2010 3:08 pm

There are a lot of junky books out there, but every now and then, an unknown gem comes my way and makes me very thankful that I get to review books on occasion! An Environmental Guide from A to Z by Tim Magner (Green Sugar Press 2009) is just such a book.

Typical A-B-C- books are usually geared towards babies and toddlers and often leave older readers and adults cold. This book is a happy exception.

Picture an A-B-C book for older children with each letter representing an environmental or nature-related concept or important person. Each word is fully explained in easy to understand terms and is beautifully illustrated by Aubri Vincent-Barwood. “D is for Darwin,” “F is for Fossil Fuels, “ “I is for the Inuit Eskimos,” “R is for Reduce and Reuse.”

Each letter also has a “Did you know?” section with an interesting fact or two related to the topic. For example, in the “B is for Bees and Insects” section: “A bee’s buzz comes from their wings flapping 200 times per second!”

I even learned a few things: “Q is for Vo Quy,” “L is for Paolo Lugari” (read the book for more information) or “the average ‘piece of food’ travels 1,500 miles before it reaches your mouth….” How about: “with solar panels, Germany has nearly cut their use of coal in half” and “Denmark gets more than 20% of its electrical power from wind farms.” I love it when I find a well-written childrens’ book that actually also teaches me a thing or two.

Perhaps my favorite part of the book is that it doesn’t just limit itself to teaching facts, ideas and concepts, but it also asks questions encouraging children to think about their own lives. Each letter has at least one little oak leaf with questions on it, or sometimes activity ideas. “What’s the biggest tree in your neighborhood? How old is it?” Many of these questions will encourage kids to get outside: “Watching the animals in your neighborhood, can you see how they are built to survive?”

If you are looking for an informative and interesting book that teaches about the environment and “green living” without being preachy, then I encourage you to take a look at An Environmental Guide from A to Z. Many thanks to Tim for sending me a copy. This is a review copy that will remain on our shelf to be enjoyed for a long time to come!

• Publisher’s An Environmental Guide from A to Z page

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By Mom Unplugged, October 18, 2010 7:36 am

Thank you so much to Breathe Magazine for asking me to contribute to their fall issue article entitled “Your Kids Unplugged.”

I really like how they present the middle of the road point of view…REDUCE…don’t eliminate. This is almost always what works best for families and it is so great that someone is actually discussing that! Screen-free time does not have to be all or nothing (as I have tried to emphasize since the start of this blog). Do what works for your family.

If you live in the Mid-Atlantic or Southeastern U.S. you can find out where to pick up a free copy of Breathe by clicking here. If you can’t get a print version, then you can read the full article here.