1. Outside Art projects. Send your kids out to play with a goal in mind, collecting things for an art project. It can be things from nature, or any object they might find out in the yard. When they are done collecting, cut a cardboard square and have them color it, and then paste their finds on the board. Display their artwork on their wall or in the living room each week to show what a great job they did.

2. Kids can do grey water too! Place buckets or watering cans around outside or under drain spouts to collect water, so after it rains, your child can water the garden or house plants with it. This teaches them how to reuse water and conserve starting from a young age.

3. Dishes. Are you tired of doing the dishes? Teach your child how to do the dishes in an environmentally friendly way. Fill one side of sink with soapy water, and the other with clean water. Teach to wash and then dip to rinse before setting in the drying rack. This teaches your child how to conserve on water, and to be responsible by having a chore. Turn on the music and make it a dish party! My son has been doing the dishes since he turned four and he actually takes pride in it!

4. Rather than harping on your kids to conserve, have them harp on you. If you turn the tables on them, it becomes a game, and it is fun. Make sure they know to remind you to use less water when brushing your teeth, or turning the lights off when you are done, or unplugging your cell phone charger or laptop when you’re done. If you make it a game with a reward, like they receive a quarter every time they catch you not conserving, then they will love to conserve. Remember to not conserve deliberately sometimes to keep the game rolling!

5. Food from the Farm. Like I have said before, take your kids to the source! Gather apples or strawberries at your local farm or CSA. Seeing where the food comes from helps kids grasp why it's important to care for the earth. And once again you will be supporting the local farmers and your family’s health. Log on to www.pickyourown.org for u-pick farms near you.

6. Play with trash. Turn a neighborhood cleanup into a scavenger hunt. Create lists with pictures of plastic bottles, soda cans, and paper trash. Have your kids go hunting, and then recycle what they've found. (Just be sure everyone wears gloves!) Whoever finds the most items wins a prize — say, any money you get back when you recycle the bottles and cans.

7. Have a recycle craft time a couple times during the week. One of my favorite recycle crafts is making a paper mosaic out of my old magazines. Being a writer, I am constantly buying magazines and have way too many around the house at all times. So I use my magazines to make paper mosaics with the kids. We cut our small pieces of the magazines and make piles of similar colors. I usually draw or print a picture off the web as a template and then we just go to town gluing the different colors. For other recycle projects refer to the end of this chapter!

8. Organize a kids' clothing swap with other moms! Get the word out to all the moms you know, and tell them to invite there friends too! Haul out outgrown kids clothes as well as your own and set a formal date to have a ’party’. Make it fun by supplying wine and appetizers, and put a nice fun movie on for the kids in the play room. You will clean out your closet and save some money for the up coming school year on clothes you find at the swap. If you want to take this a step further, then organize one through your child's school, for all the parents to be involved. Make it like a ‘free’ garage sale for the parents of your school!

9. Just say NO to power. Choose one day a week to use as little power as possible in your home. No lights just use day light, and at night use candles. Keep the food to easy to prepare snacks that don’t need to be heated, and cereal for breakfast (Organic of course). Play cards, or twister, or play a recycle game, instead of using the television. No computer, no telephones, no electronics. This may sound hard, but if you make a point to do it each week on the same day, it will become easy and fun!

10. Listen to an eco-tune.  At my house we also like to listen to the Curious George soundtrack called 'The 3 R's' for reduce, reuse, and recycle. I put this on when we are sorting our recycles to take them out to the curb.