What are the qualities that we want to support and development in our children? Here is a list of words that we want for our children.  Print this out for your child's elementary school or better yet, volunteer to post this in the library or cafeteria to help inspire all children and adults in your child's school to live their best lives and be their best selves. ​

Click here for the instructions on how to create your own inspirational board.  

Thursday, October 11, 2018 is Children's Environmental Health Day, as sponsored and supported by the Children's Environmental Health Network. Let's celebrate by taking small steps, pasitos, to help lead to a bigger change.

Unfortunately, there are lots more toxins in our surroundings, our environment, today than there were when we were young. And a ton more as compared to when our parents and grandparents were growing up. Sometimes I hear, "Well I turned out just fine, a little bit of XYZ (insert your choice of chemical, pesticide, herbicide, ingredient, etc) didn't hurt me and it won't hurt my child." Truth is we don't know how much of some things are too much and/or if some things are even safe (BPA had to be proven to be unsafe).

So what can you do to help? Try adopting some of these easy lifestyle changes to improve environmental health.

1. Purchase and use non-aerosol, non-toxic sunscreen. The tiny particles of sunscreen become breathable and are held in the air. For your child's lungs and for your lungs. Click here for a complete guide for purchasing preferred sunscreens from the Environmental Working Group.  I use their SkinDeep database to double check ingredients for most of my personal care products, including sunscreens.  

2. Pack a zero-waste lunch and snacks for yourself and for your child, for school days and every day! Or start with once a week. Then slowly increase it. Make it a goal to try for zero-waste lunch for the New Year. A cloth napkin can hold a sandwich, leftover pizza, some fruit, or other small snacks.  I prefer to send my kiddos with stainless steel containers.  I'm not a big fan of plastic.  The combination of glass and kiddos just freaks me out to much.  
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3. Adopt a "No idling policy" for your household and ask the same for family members or caregivers that drive your child. Especially at school. All schools.  Please.  

4. Limit or avoid fragrances in products. Avoid burning candles indoors. So much of our environment is the air we breathe. Typical air fresheners create particulate matter that we breathe. The same goes for candles. Improving air flow and ventilation can help with odd smells as well as a shallow dish with baking soda to absorb smells.

5. Offer your child recycled materials for projects. Pasitos has an imagination station. Full of lots of fun goodies. We often like to stock it with recycled materials. It gives the object another life, another purpose. It also gives us the opportunity to talk with the children about reusing objects. You might even catch us singing the song, "Reduce, reuse, recycle..." Truth: My children like to monitor our recycling at home and take boxes, cartons, jars, etc. in order to use for robots, kitchens, space stations, etc. Making use of lots of household recycling materials, my children get several hours of engaging play and then I get to recycle it when they lose interest, usually within a week.

6. Use green cleaning supplies. For cleaning yourself and cleaning all the stuff around you.  The EWG helps us again in determining toxicity of products and ingredients with their green cleaning guide.  

In a nutshell, these six small steps can lead to big change to protect the health of our children, our health, and the health of our planet, too.  Teach your child that small actions can make a big difference by modeling simple, eco-friendly practices.

A few years ago I attended the ACTFL (American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages) conference in San Diego and was thrilled to listen to a keynote presentation by Rick Steves, the travel guy from PBS.  To a room full of language educators, he talked about some of the whys behind language education.  We know the many benefits of language learning (cognitive, social, emotional, etc).  He also talked about what he believes is the the real reason for learning another language, to communicate with others.  

Once we have taken the time and energy to learn another language ourselves or with our children, we need to go out to the world and use the language in meaningful, real-world exchanges.  The best way to do this, of course, is to get out of the classroom and into the community.  

When we travel, we get to see new places, new structures, new landforms, new people.  We get to experience things that we have previously only heard about or read about.  We also get to reconnect with old friends.  

Maestra Stephanie loves to travel and is currently enjoying some time in Europe visiting different places and some Pasitos families abroad.  Why do you like to travel?  What benefits have you seen for your child? 

Happy summer solstice!

I love camping. I love waking up to sit outside in the quiet morning. I love walking around looking at the different plants and trees while looking for critters and creatures.  When I’m feeling it, I like to get in the car and head toward the Sierras. And then stop when we’re done driving. A few Pasitos families introduced me to Lake Alpine a few years ago. Beautiful.

There are also times when a 3+ hour drive is not going to happen. So then I’ll look for a middle of the week spot at a local campground, if I didn’t already make a reservation earlier in the year. (I like to begin planning out summer camping and try to make a couple reservations in February or March.). There are always cancellations, so weekends are still a possibility.

My favorites
Mt Madonna. It’s close. It’s easy. It’s beautiful.