4 Fun Earth-Friendly Projects To Complete With Your Family

It is never too early to start planning in advance for the winter or spring breaks. Schools will be out, and you'll be searching for activities to keep the whole family busy and happy. If your goal is to go green, invest some time into eco-friendly projects that reuse materials you already have. Look for ways to conserve energy around the house too. Check out these green projects you can complete this holiday.

Upcycle Plastic Grocery Bags

Image via Flickr by groundsel

Each time you go grocery shopping, you bring home several plastic bags. Instead of recycling your bags, turn them into something new. Grab a crochet hook to make plastic yarn, known as plarn. Weave or crochet the plarn into hats, handbags or decorative coasters. 

During the holidays, turn plastic bags into festive decorations including wreaths and pom-poms. Flowers made from plastic bags make beautiful accents you can use any time of year.

Start a Green Energy Project

Let the kids pitch in with a summer research project. School-age children can study eco-friendly power sources including solar and geothermal energy. The finished report could be a head start on this year's science fair project. Review the information together as a family to decide if any of these green energy solutions can work in your home. 

One thing you can do now to make your home eco-friendly is to complete an energy audit. Check for drafty windows and doors and use a programmable thermostat to control the home's temperature. Also, ensure that your heating and cooling system is running as efficiently as possible. 

Consistent HVAC maintenance is an essential step in conserving energy at home. Schedule appointments to have a professional technician change your filters and clean your home's air ducts regularly.

Reuse Plastic Bottles

Plastic bottles provide durable craft material that you can use to make cute planters for your home or garden. Simply cut off the tops and paint on a design. Another idea is to take off the bottoms to create hanging lights for the patio or den. 

If you have a few extra wooden spoons and a plastic bottle, help your feathered friends and build a birdfeeder for the backyard. Poke a few small holes in a soda bottle, attach a hose and you have yourself a homemade sprinkler to help the kids cool off during a hot summer day. 

Photo by Parker Burchfield on Unsplash

Give Old T-Shirts a Second Life

Your favorite T-shirt you've worn hundreds of times may have seen better days, but it's still hard to let go and throw it out. Not to worry, that old shirt with a hole in it can still be useful. Cut more holes in it to make a reusable produce bag. 

You can also fashion worn-out cotton shirts into onesies or bibs for infants. If a shirt has stains on the front, salvage the sleeves and turn them into soft baby hats or socks.

Try these green project ideas this summer and see how you can recycle old materials and find ways to save energy. You'll have fun and feel good about going green and protecting the environment all year long.

Trash to Toys: 10 Recycled Educational Toys #earthday

Earth Day is a yearly reminder to consider our role in protecting the
environment.    Parents can make a positive impact by creating fun, educational
toys from everyday items that may initially seem like trash, but can be
repurposed into teaching tools.

"Children are natural learners, and often see educational opportunities that
adults can miss," says Richard Peterson, vice president of education for Kiddie
Academy® Child Care Learning Centers.  "Anyone who’s given a child a new toy and
then found him playing with the box can appreciate a child’s gift for creative
play."

Want to feed your child’s imagination, while helping the environment?  Kiddie
Academy (www.KiddieAcademy.com) offers the following ideas for creating recycled
educational toys:

Computer Keyboard:  An outdated keyboard is a perfect teaching toy, as it
includes the entire alphabet to assist in early literacy exercises.  Challenge
your child to sing the ABC song while locating each letter on the keyboard.

Shoebox to Mailbox:  Children love getting mail.  Reinforce both reading and
writing skills by creating a family mailbox from an old shoebox.  Encourage your
child to write notes to family members, and leave notes for them as well.

Water Bottle Instrument:   Fill a clean, dry plastic water or soda bottle with
rice, bells, beans or coins and shake them to hear a variety of new sounds.
Glue the top on to secure the contents.

Junk Mail:  Instead of immediately sending your unwanted mail to the landfill,
allow your child to play with the envelopes and letters.  She can pretend to be
a postal carrier while getting additional exposure to printed words.

Magazines:  Glossy photos in magazines are perfect for creating collage art that
provides fine motor skill practice with scissors and glue.

TV remote:  Children love pushing buttons.  An unused television remote control
can be used for number and math play.  Simply remove the batteries and ask him
to find the numbers as you call them out.

Clothing:  Dramatic play is an essential teaching tool that allows children to
explore social roles, practice problem solving and language skills.  Add no
longer needed pieces of your own wardrobe to the toy chest to encourage your
child’s imagination.  She can literally “try on” a different role by wearing
your skirt, hat or shoes.

Linens:  Your child can use a worn out sheet or towel as a cape, picnic blanket
or as the roof to a play fort.

Toilet Paper Tube:  Empty TP tubes are a favorite art tool in classrooms.  Save
a box of them, and give them to your child along with a few craft supplies to
see what he can create.  Binoculars, stamps and creatures are popular choices.

Boxes:  While it’s tempting to immediately recycle a box, your child can have
hours of fun using an empty box for creative play.  What seems like trash to you
could become a school bus, secret hideout or magic castle.

Get inspired with Miracle-Gro's The Gro Project

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Miracle-Gro for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
We are in prime gardening season and everyone seems to be getting into it. Miracle-Gro is doing The Gro Project to help you get some fun ideas to make your garden project easy and enjoyable. After all, who want what should be a fun time to feel like a chore? I just love the fun garden projects on the Facebook page. The "toyranium" is something that you can do with your little ones and they will feel a part of growing their very own plants. They can learn how plants are good for the environment and hopefully grow to enjoy gardening for life. Check out the short video below:

With the cost of food constantly rising, it is a smart move to grow your own fruit and veggies. This year, we did a lot of outdoor containers for our fruits and veggies and did an in-ground garden bed with our ornamentals.  We made sure to start with Miracle-Gro Moisture Control Potting Mix for our containers. It is made to keep the right amount of moisture so you prevent over and under-watering.

So far we have strawberries, pickling cucumbers, green beans, hot peppers, Meyer lemons and herbs. We started our planting about 4 weeks ago and it is astonishing how much they have already grown! We have baby green beans rapidly popping up as well as many blooms on our cucumbers and peppers. I really think that I will check out an indoor garden project that my son can help with. He really enjoyed planting the strawberry plant for his daddy as you can see!

The strawberry plant has gotten so big and we can't wait for it to bare actual fruit! 

Be sure to "like" Miracle-Gro on Facebook to join The Gro Project. If you want to share your own creations on Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook, be sure to use the hashtag #MiracleGroProject