Green Babies Review

A few weeks ago I attended a virtual baby trade show online.  I had a blast browsing the booths, chatting with various companies, and finding new products.  I know, kind of nerdy, but its true.  I even chatted with the president of Haba US about their non toxic stains.  (She commented that she has seen one of their engineers eat a spoonful of it; its that safe!)

Green Babies is a company that I had not heard of before.  They sent us some of their products to try out.  (shampoo/wash, lotion, bubble bath, spray detangler, and sunscreen)

The ingredient list looks pretty good on all of these.  They include some food grade preservatives, but nothing terrible.  I did not find this in the EWG Skin Deep database yet.  I'm guessing it would be rated a 1 or maybe 2 for some of the natural oils.

We tested out the shampoo/ body wash and found it to be very mild.  There is a faint scent to it, but its earthy and nice.  None of the girls reacted to it at all.

The lotion is actually pretty thick and had to be rubbed in.  Its not greasy, just thick and nice.  I hate watery lotion.

I need to use coconut oil as detangler in Julia's curly hair, but the Green Babies spray was nice for Lucy and Esther's straight hair.  It helped the tangles out without being too oily.

The girls loved having a bubble bath.  I put in several capfuls, and it did okay.  We got some bubbles, but they weren't super thick.  The girls were thrilled though!

The sunscreen went on nicely.  It is a bit white, like most mineral based sunblocks, but thin enough that it rubbed in well.  I really liked the tangerine scent; it wasn't too strong and smelled fresh.  Another plus is that this is a non-nano sunscreen.

Overall we enjoyed the various products that we used.  I'm thankful that there are more and more healthy safe choices out there for body care products.  Check out Green Babies website if you are interested in learning more about their fun products.  (They also sell some adorable clothing!)  Thanks Green Babies!

Continent Boxes and More!

Note: We are homeschoolers, using My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures this coming school year.  This post mainly has to do with my planning specific to that curriculum, but contains lots of fun links.  :)

In preparing for the fall, I came across "continent boxes", a super neat way to make geography hands on and fun for my little ones!  This blog has some great photos and ideas of what to put it each box.  Here is another blog with details on how to do this.  This person on Pinterest has several boards with ideas pinned for continent boxes.  I'm excited about putting ours together.  (ETA: Here is a forum thread with tons of ideas.)

This blog has ECC specific printables and a link to the MFW Blogroll.

Homeschool Share has some geography related lapbooks.

This is a blog that contains a years worth of weekly posts about ECC.

Paper dolls from around the world will be fun to make.

Here are more coloring pages from around the world in case we need them, and flag coloring pages too.

We purchased the dvd series Planet Earth to use throughout the year.  I'll have to screen it for predator scenes, but there is some gorgeous scenery in it that we will enjoy.  Someone put together this list of countries studied in ECC and related parts on the dvd:

Week 5-6 Mexico: "Deserts" Disc 2 Episode 2
Week9-11 Brazil: "Jungles" Disc 3 Episode 2
Week 12-13 Norway: "Seasonal Forests" Disc 4 Episode 1
Week 14-15 France: "Caves" Disc 2 Episode 1
Week 16-17 Germany: "Fresh Water" Disc 1 Episode 3
Week 18-20 Kenya: "Great Plains" Disc 3 Episode 1
Week 23-24 India: "Mountains" Disc 1 Episode 2
Week 27-28 Japan: "Ocean Deep" Disc 4 Episode 2
Week 29-30 Russia: "Ice Worlds" Disc 2 Episode 3
Week 31-32 Australia: "Shallow Seas" Disc 3 Episode 3
Week 33-34 Antarctica: "From Pole to Pole" Disc 1 Episode 1

My Father's World has a message board with plenty of ideas to go along with ECC, books, websites, CDs, games, and more.  I'm going to start with ECC as is for the most part and then pull in other resources if we need them.

We will also be using the library often and finding books about the countries that we study.

Not really ECC related, but we made a trip to Costco today and I picked up a giant package of glue sticks, a large box of copy paper, and a package of 3 ring binders, all at great prices.  :)  I also just had a new printer delivered to my doorstep the other day.  The girls will be excited to go pick out a few new school supplies soon too.

I joined this yahoo postcard group and haven't looked into it much, but we'll be trading postcards with people later on this year.

I'm looking forward to starting - just a few more weeks of summer!

Compassion Kids

One of the things I'm really excited about for this school year is that my children each got a Compassion kid to sponsor!  Lucy and Julia both had birthdays this summer and as their gift, someone sponsored a child in their name.  We decided to do one for Esther too.  I think this will lend itself perfectly to our "Exploring Countries and Cultures" curriculum.

It was so much fun to show the girls the website and talk with them about these children and what it means for them to be sponsored.  Lucy commented that it was sad to just pick one and have all the rest still waiting.  They both asked questions and were interested.  Although we haven't received our paperwork yet, the girls are already thinking about their sponsored children.

I plan to have them write letters and send small gifts (stickers, etc) throughout the year.  I think it will be a wonderful thing to keep in mind.  Compassion even has a Pinterest board with all kinds of fun ideas on it for sending to the children.

This person sponsors 19 children and blogs about it!

She also keeps a list of Compassion bloggers here that I'm excited to look through a glean ideas from.

Do you sponsor a child?  What fun things have you mailed to your child?

Thoughts

Its been quiet around here lately.  Well, not in my house, but on the blog.  ;)  I've been spending some time reading through our homeschool books for the coming year and freaking out planning.  Lucy will be doing third grade work and Julia will be starting kindergarten.  Julia tagged along quite a bit last year, but this is her first "official" year.  Looking at all of the various subjects and books times two is overwhelming.  I'm sure that once we get started things will find a rhythm.  In fact, the girls are already asking me if they can do schoolwork.  They do well with a structured morning and enjoy it for the most part.

Another reason that I am nervous about this year is just because the content is so important.  We are going to be using My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures.  I know that it really has the potential to open up their little hearts and create a love for other people.  Combine that with the fact that they are growing up so fast this summer: learning to ride their bikes, taking their first swimming lessons, both having birthdays, and I'm ... I don't know, I guess just wanting to use my time with them to the best of my ability.  In the day to day, that's hard though.  I have dishes to wash, babies to care for, a house to clean, and are we missing important lessons as we just get through the day?

Just my thoughts.  I'm feeling the need to pray for them, with them, to ask God for help.  Thats not a bad thing.  I'm working on creating our daily schedule and planning some fun resources for the year.  There are a lot of neat ideas out there that I will be sharing with you soon.
How is your fall planning coming?