ADVENTURES IN ECO-PARENTING

LEAH KLEIN MAKES GOING GREEN CHILD’S PLAY

How to Make Fun-For-The-Whole-Family Memories Now

Adventures_FamilyMemories It’s August, the dog days are here and September l
(aka work, school, sports, after-school activities and a
rigid routine) looms near. Now is the perfect time to make
some great family memories. Here are seven summer-ific
ways to capture the season.

PARK IT

You know what deserves a vacation? Your car—so park it in your garage for a while and let it (and our dear Mother Earth) get some much-needed R & R. Change up your routines for a day or a week by doing everything without the car. Shop locally and walk or take the bus to get your groceries. Use the bus, train or bikes to get your kids to lessons and appointments. If you’re headed to work, perhaps the kids will walk you to the bus stop and hang out with you for a while as you wait for it to arrive. Not using your car will change the pace of work and play—for the better, believe it or not. You’ll see things you don’t usually see and have new and likely more intimate moments together.

Park yourselves on a hilltop for dinner. Feel like going to a restaurant? Skip the reservations, pack a quick picnic and head to the playground. You’ll find that you can have more time to relax and reconnect with your friends and significant other while you finish your meal and the kids run off their excess energy running through the playscape. If you really want to have someone else make your meals, then check out Yelp, Chowhound or Urbanspoon to see what restaurants in your area are worth walking to.

CAPTURE IT

Take time to taste summer and preserve it for the year. August is a great month for stocking up on incredibly good fresh treats from the earth. I would love to say that I have all the equipment and that true to Martha Stewart’s monthly calendar, have blocked out a week to pickle, a week to preserve and a day to style, adorn and label my kitchen goodies. In reality, I have the Ball Blue Book of Preserving and I skip right to the section on freezer jams. These jams are quick and easy, and you don’t have to worry about bacteria as much as you do with canning and preserving.

BLOCK IT

Host a block party. Many cities and towns will allow you to close off your street and celebrate the dog days of summer with your neighbors and perhaps the pups on the block. Get to know your new neighbors and reconnect with the old ones. The format of a block party is casual enough to accommodate everyone: singles, couples, families, teens and grandparents. To keep the energy high, serve food and drink for all ages and needs. Let the preteens run activities for the little kids (like face painting—eco-friendly, of course), feature a portrait booth, let the neighborhood garage band (young or old) perform and set an end time.

CHALK IT

On a hot day, there is nothing like a little sidewalk fun. A good time is in the early afternoon, when the kids and parents are perhaps a tad cranky, hot and tired. Give everyone a street-side canvas. If you are worried about proximity to the road, use a garage wall, the side of the house or the driveway blocked at the end by cars. Tell the kids they can be street artists for a while and then you will buy a ticket for their art show. Take a seat in the backyard with a book, play a little music if you like, and after 5, 10, 20, 30, 60 minutes (whatever your children will grant you), go through the motions of purchasing a ticket to the show. After many laudatory remarks and “oohs” and “ahhs,” you can have a refreshing treat (SHAWN, link to thirst quenchers here). As the activity comes to a close, pass out some spray bottles, buckets and sponges—or if you don’t mind a soaking, the hose—and have them clean it all up. For those kids who have a little trouble letting go of their art, be sure to take a picture for posterity.

MAP IT

A playground crawl, the pub crawl for the parent-child crowd, is a great way to round out the summer. Hit everyone’s all-time favorite playgrounds and check out some new ones. You can make this a one-day activity, a series of weekend outings or a weeklong extravaganza.

Resources:

Many towns and cities have online interactive maps of playgrounds.

If your town or city doesn’t, go to www.playspacefinder.com.

You can also get the families in your neighborhood to contribute to your very own Google map of playgrounds, such as this one.

WALK IT

Early bird or night owl? It doesn’t really matter for this activity. Here’s a fun twist on your morning or evening routine that you can only do in summer (at least in the Northeast). Go for a pajama walk. If you are up early with the kids, you can let whoever is still asleep catch a few extra zzz’s and go for a pajama walk around the block or neighborhood. The novelty of being out in PJs never seems to grow old. Where I live, you can even go to Boston’s Tremont 647 for their pajama brunch afterward, where the waitstaff don their jammies and encourage you to come in yours. For a pajama brunch in your neighborhood, just do a search or ask your local breakfast spot to see if they’d be up for hosting one. For the night owls, you can get the kids ready for bed; grab the stroller, wagon or their sandals; and head out for an evening stroll. There will be sweet sounds of a summer’s night. Evening flowers will be in bloom.

Flowers that bloom at night:
Casablanca Lily
Climbing Primrose
Evening Primrose
Four O’Clocks
Gardenia
Night Blooming Jasmine
Mock Orange
Moonflower
Nicotiana
Night Gladiolus
Night Phlox

Don’t see any of these in your ’hood? Plant your own moon garden.

The book Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots by Sharon Lovejoy also has a great section on moon gardens.

DO IT

Make a list, on paper, of one or two things that each family member wants to get done before the end of summer and post it in the kitchen (or other family hub). Make them a priority so you don’t find yourself washing school uniforms, packing lunches and figuring out your carpool days while pining for a few more days of summer.

Leah Klein celebrates her birthday, the end of a fabulous summer with friends and family, and the coming cool, crisp fall days of New England. She and her family can be found in the park with a lot of fresh farmers market foods, surrounded by friends and family playing Frisbee, beach ball volleyball and badminton for the celebration. She is mom to Isabelle, 5, and Henry, 2ｾ, and is the Boston Food Mom Examiner (www.examiner.com/x-1240-Boston-Food-Mom-Examiner).