Posted By: emmaspirit on

Sunday, June 29th, 2008, 2:59 pm

Last weekend I brought a Panda, a Gorilla and a Penguin to my brother’s house for a visit with his family. Seems kids’ marketers frequently name their kid targeted products after animals so kids will love them more, and it seems to work. I was just happy knowing that my gifts were healthy, organic and starting them on their path to green.

The Panda was actually an Ecogear blue organic cotton backpack for Jake, my four year old nephew. The azure blue dye is non-toxic, and it closes with easy to close sustainable wood fasteners. All very cool but his Dad knew that the ultimate stamp of approval was mentioning that Peter Parker (Spiderman) had a backpack just like it. Then Jake knew that the Panda would be perfect for his first trip to day camp next week. You can see in this photo how much he likes it.

Lily, my seven year old niece and god-daughter, got the Gorilla, a pretty pink Ecogear mini-messenger bag. Also great for day camp, I thought this organic cotton bag would work nicely as a hip purse, a beach bag and a school bag. She seemed to think it would be quite perfect too. Then as I was explaining that her new flamingo pink bag was “green”, she was a bit perplexed. So I switched vernacular and spoke about how it was organic. “What does that really mean?” she asked. My brother’s eyes rolled as he waited to hear my children’s definition of the eco-friendly, sustainable environmental movement. I stuck with how organic cotton isn’t sprayed with nasty chemicals so it is better for your body and better for the planet. That seemed to do the trick.

Then Jake, Lily and their older sister, Sarah saw the Penguin. Yes, a box of Nature’s Path EnviroKidz Penguin Puffs – a healthy, organic, low sugar, low fat, low sodium whole grain (kamut, quinoa and corn) cereal. They all gave this rice and corn cereal a big thumbs up because it still tasted sweet in milk and they loved the big crunch. Good to know that there are companies making a healthy, kid approved, kids cereal. Plus good to know that 1% of EnviroKidz sales are donated annually to endangered species, habitat conservation and environmental education for kids.

It seems that we have a lot of green things to learn from the Panda, Gorilla and the Penguin. And I’m pleased that these endangered species got a little help too.

Mary Beth Gonzalez

iVillage.com

Tags: kids, green gifts, cereal

Posted By: emmaspirit on

Sunday, June 29th, 2008, 2:55 pm

Last weekend I brought a Panda, a Gorilla and a Penguin to my brother’s house for a visit with his family. Seems kids’ marketers frequently name their kid targeted products after animals so kids will love them more, and it seems to work. I was just happy knowing that my gifts were healthy, organic and starting them on their path to green.

The Panda was actually an Ecogear blue organic cotton backpack for Jake, my four year old nephew. The azure blue dye is non-toxic, and it closes with easy to close sustainable wood fasteners. All very cool but his Dad knew that the ultimate stamp of approval was mentioning that Peter Parker (Spiderman) had a backpack just like it. Then Jake knew that the Panda would be perfect for his first trip to day camp next week. You can see in this photo how much he likes it.

Lily, my seven year old niece and god-daughter, got the Gorilla, a pretty pink Ecogear mini-messenger bag. Also great for day camp, I thought this organic cotton bag would work nicely as a hip purse, a beach bag and a school bag. She seemed to think it would be quite perfect too. Then as I was explaining that her new flamingo pink bag was “green”, she was a bit perplexed. So I switched vernacular and spoke about how it was organic. “What does that really mean?” she asked. My brother’s eyes rolled as he waited to hear my children’s definition of the eco-friendly, sustainable environmental movement. I stuck with how organic cotton isn’t sprayed with nasty chemicals so it is better for your body and better for the planet. That seemed to do the trick.

Then Jake, Lily and their older sister, Sarah saw the Penguin. Yes, a box of Nature’s Path EnviroKidz Penguin Puffs – a healthy, organic, low sugar, low fat, low sodium whole grain (kamut, quinoa and corn) cereal. They all gave this rice and corn cereal a big thumbs up because it still tasted sweet in milk and they loved the big crunch. Good to know that there are companies making a healthy, kid approved, kids cereal. Plus good to know that 1% of EnviroKidz sales are donated annually to endangered species, habitat conservation and environmental education for kids.

It seems that we have a lot of green things to learn from the Panda, Gorilla and the Penguin. And I’m pleased that these endangered species got a little help too.

Mary Beth Gonzalez

iVillage.com

Tags: kids, green gifts, cereal