Books are like passports that open up new worlds for children. There is little debating the fact that, children who are read to at home have a higher success rate at school. Reading to young children promotes language acquisition, literacy development and achievement in reading comprehension, and overall success in school. For young children (ages 3-5), being read aloud to daily by a family member is one of the indicators of success. A recent GOOD article via this Salon article questioned whether just having lots of books in a house makes a difference in children's performance in school. CLICK HERE FOR MORE
Scrap Happy: 6 Ingenious Things to Make From Scraps
Breathe new life into old objects and reduce landfill waste by diverting leftover odds and ends that would be relegated to the dumpster into useful items. Call it repurposing, cheap call it recrafting, viagra order call it creative reuse, or call it trash transformed. No matter what you call it, this concept of “cradle to cradle” is one of the tenets of green living. It means that a product’s lifecycle doesn’t have to end up forever rotting away in a landfill. It can be endlessly reincarnated into useful items. We econesters talk a lot about CLICK HERE FOR MORE
DIY Solar Shower: Al Fresco Bathing
After some serious sea-dreaming about a home near the ocean, drug I realized one of the highlights of time spent at a beach house is basking in the afterglow in an outdoor shower. This important element of the beach experience gets a beachcomber in the mood to chill out and clean off.
Now, ampoule there are outdoor showers, link and then there are outdoor showers. The beach house we stay at has the most alluring outdoor shower — no cobwebs, no dried leaves in the corners, no mold, no flotsam and jetsam, no splinters and no Peeping Tom holes. By day, the vista from above the shower opens up to the sky with a vibrancy that only a home by the sea can reflect. With the windswept foliage and the smell of beach roses wafting in, showering outdoors is pure bliss.
Staying connected to the beach doesn’t have to end when you get home or when beach season ends. You can bring the outdoor shower to your landlocked home. Here’s an inspirational and refreshing array of alfresco showers from Sunset Magazine.
While those images are dreamy, I tend to look for building products that are not just aesthetically delicious (like the ones above). The products must also be thoughtfully designed with minimal damage to the environment. This eco-tip reminds us that taking showers can save double the amount of water than used for a bath. But, did you know that outdoor showers can be heated by the sun, making them one of the most eco-sensitive choices for bathing? Even if you don’t have access to a hot water line, solar showers are an available option.
If you’ve got the DIY ethos, here are green outdoor shower projects of varying degrees of time and difficulty. For ambitious DIYers, who want to design an outdoor shower room, here are some things to consider: ??
Determine Your Needs: Will your shower be used by kids, adults and guests for clean-up after the beach? Or, is this a private refuge? If all you require is a quick rinse after a day at the beach or gardening, your needs will be simple. Creating a blissful bathing retreat will involve some décor planning.
Water Drainage:?The type of ground below your flooring will determine the type of drain you’ll need. Sand drains quickly, but heavy soil requires a more complex drainage system that carries the water underground. For a shower that will need a drain, Zurn makes outdoor fixtures.
Design For The Environment:?If you live near the ocean, use fixtures that will stand up to wear from sand and salt. The floor and walls should be constructed from mildew, splinter-free and rot-resistant woods or eco-friendly materials. Low-flow shower heads save water.
Outdoor Shower Décor:?Determining what shower décor you’ll use is the fun part! You’ll need a place for towels, a bench and places to hold eco-friendly soaps and shampoos, and anything else that will connect your showering experience with its natural environs.
DIY Outdoor Solar Shower:?Check out these DIY plans for creating your own outdoor solar shower from Mother Earth News. This simple kit from Hammacher Schlemmer harnesses the sun’s energy to warm water from a garden hose.
Image NY-based Murdock Young via Remodelista
All Buttoned Up: 10 Fun, Functional, and Funky Vintage Button Projects
Amidst the organic yarn and hand knitted creations at the New England Needlework Association show was a colorful display of vintage buttons. Button Crafts are one of the oldest crafts. Vintage buttons make unique embellishments for lots of DIY projects. The bins of antique buttons at the NENA show were pure eye candy for crafters. CLICK HERE FOR MORE
Honor System Farms: Feast or Famine
Every Sunday before we head out to stock up for the week at our local farmer’s market, cialis we stop at the farm at the end of our road. The farmer sells eggs, viagra 60mg vegetables, and assorted odds and ends. We bring back our empty egg crates and place them in the community basket. We take what we need and write down what groceries we took (so the farmer can keep track of what she needs to restock). The allotted few dollars is deposited in the cash can. If we happen to come at the end of the day, the cash can is brimming with bills. Visitors can clearly figure out the etiquette of the honor system.
The honor system is a philosophically driven way to sell goods that relies solely on the integrity of others. Farm stands use the honor system to keep costs down. Most would agree that honor system driven farms also provide a warm and welcoming feeling to its customers. Generally, if you treat someone with respect and trust, they will return the favor by being honest. Right?
In Vermont’s Addison County the farmers respond enthusiastically to the honor system, “Customers like that they can pull in, grab what they need, and go. When they come home at the end of the day in the summer, they’ll often find most of the vegetables gone and their till full, so they rush out to pick another round of fresh vegetables for the evening crowd.”
When I Googled “honor system farms,” there were many stories recounted like the one above, but there were a few sad stories that headlined like this: “Honor System Thefts Close Such and Such Farm.” One farmer in New Hampshire ran into this trouble. Retired from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, farmer Charlie Ireland planted six acres of vegetables and had been growing corn, tomatoes, beans and “you name it” behind his home and selling it from a stand out in front of his home for four years. But, he had to close his farm stand last summer because of theft. “Anywhere from 50 to a hundred bucks a day — all summer,” Ireland said was stolen from his farm stand, where passersby slipped cash into a box in exchange for his bumper crop.
Is the honor system alive and well in your neck of the woods? Does it work, or is it an easy target for thieves?
Read the original Care2 post with comments here.