Daisy Meeting -- Teach Kids to Sew

My 2nd year daisies are working on their firefly patch. It's a kind of strange patch system, but the basic idea is that a firefly lights the way -- so the girls learn how to do something new. Ideally, they help each other learn something new. We are working on that.

I thought that sewing would be a nice way to start working on this patch. The girls in my troop are 6 -- most have very little sewing experience, but they are starting to have the fine motor skills necessary to sew. Plus, sewing is a lifelong skill and it's something that is best learned from another person.

So, for our meeting we made beanbag turkeys. I cut brown felt into two large circles, cut out some feathers out of more felt and a little triangle felt beak. The girls started by sewing on the beak. Then we carefully placed the feathers -- explaining to the girls that you have to put the feathers on the inside so that they will be on the outside when you turn the turkey right-side out. The girls sewed the turkeys together, filled them with beans, placed googly eyes, and the adult helpers stitched them up (this was a little too difficult for a 6 year old).

The girls were SOOOO proud and busy for the whole time. I was happy to see that everyone finished and was able to bring home a complete bean bag turkey.

So -- can you teach a six year old to sew? Yep.

A four year old? It hasn't worked so well in my house, but if your child rocks a lacing card, it could work.

Should you? Definitely. Kids like to know how to do something useful -- and sewing is a skill that everyone should have.

With real needles? Yep! I told the girls "These needles are real. They are sharp. If you poke yourself, you will bleed, so be careful." And they were. If you are going to teach a real skill, the child needs to use the real tools (to a reasonable extent of course -- don't give a 6 yo a chainsaw to go cut firewood!)

And they like it? For sure! It's kept my kids busy all week :) My son has actually had more fun sewing little bean bag creations than playing video games.

Green Daisy Scouts

Yesterday was our first Daisy Scout meeting of the year. Last year I struggled with the bottled water issue. This year, my co-leader and I just decided to be up-front about it and tell the snack moms what we wanted.

So, I sent out an e-mail saying something like this:
....in an effort to reduce our impact on the earth, we would like to eliminate the use of disposable plastic bottles at meetings. The troop will be providing cups for each girl and the person in charge of snack can send a pitcher of something to drink (such as juice) or the girls can drink water from the fountain.

Maybe some of the moms rolled their eyes. Who knows. But yesterday, the snack was grapes and apple slices with caramel sauce. The troop provided cups for each girl (I brought a selection of 8 from home) and the girls drank water. There was no trash created from the drinks. Yeah!

Bottled Water is Bad

Need some ammo to convince the hold-outs on the bottled water issue? Here's some nice sources:

The Sierra Club -- this page has some great facts and links to a brochure that you could print out (double sided of course) and post at the office or other offending location.

Lighter Footstep gives a nice succinct 5 reasons not to drink bottled water.

You can encourage your friends to take the Take Back the Tap Pledge.

Finally, lead by example. When it is your turn to be snack mom, don't bring bottled water. Bring a pitcher and some cups. When you have a party, do the same. Use a thermos or canteen to carry water. Drink from the water fountain.

This is a very frustrating issue for me because since I moved I feel like I have stepped back in time and everybody around me seems to be gleefully slurping from bottles and THROWING THEM IN THE TRASH (we have curbside recycling... what gives?) I try to lead by example and I don't want to be some sort of environmental pain in the neck, but I am strongly tempted to do an Earth Day Daisy Scout meeting dedicated to vanquishing the bottled water. My main fear is that I would offend the many well-meaning moms who brought bottled water for snack. What to do?

Trends in my Neighborhood

Here's what I see:

More people are using cloth bags at the grocery store. Not everybody, but a lot more people. I also notice that people often say that they forgot their bags if they are getting plastic. At least they have bags somewhere. Often it takes a while to get into the habit.

People love bottled water. I just don't get it. It's so wasteful, but it is the #1 most popular drink at my kids' elementary school. They have water fountains! It's killing me. The "green team" supposedly worked to green the school carnival, but they sold bottled water at the carnival.

Apparently, bottled water is a big source of income at these school events. Why can't they just sell paper cups of water or sell lemonade or.... ACH! just about anything else?!

On the topic of bottled water, will I come across as a nut if I tell my daughter that she is not allowed to drink bottled water? For example, she goes to a kickball game -- everybody's having bottled water, but I send her with a bottle of tap water from home. That's normal, right? And an after school meeting? All the other girl scouts drinking their bottled water and I'll just tell her to say, "no thanks. I have my own bottle."

It's funny how this seemed so bizarre, but when I write it out it seems bizarre even to worry about it. I'm suffering from bottled water peer pressure. Crazy.

More Scouting News

This week the Daisy scouts in my troop are going to earn the "Use Resources Wisely" petal. We are following up on a hike that we took at a nature preserve. Our guide told us that every 4 months Austin sends enough trash to the landfill to fill the Erwin Center (for you non-Austinites, the Erwin Center is where we have big concerts. It's really big.)

So, we are going to have a kindergarten level discussion of the 3 R's, with an emphasis on "Reduce". I am bringing a big box of trash (I wonder how this will go over. Hopefully okay. The trash is clean.) that we are going to look at and sort. We will also talk about what other choices we could make to reduce the amount of trash. I will make every effort to be cool and not preachy :)

I've been looking around for cool things to tell the girls. About 50% of carpet is made of recycled plastic. Interesting. So is fleece and the filling of sleeping bags. But the tip I'm happiest about is from No Impact Man -- wrap your sandwiches in the liner of cereal boxes. Why did I never think of that?