It’s been a couple of weeks since we planted the veggies in our garden and sowed the seeds for the sunflower house. We fertilized everything midweek and with the sunny 80 degree weather everything is growing superbly. We check on the sunflower house every day and it has been a fun project for all of the neighbor girls who are sharing in the fun. At some point during the day our front yard becomes a busy little station of pint size gardeners who have hope for what grows before their eyes. Want to grow your own sunflower house?

We’ve already enjoyed the bounty from our garden and the calendar month is still in May. So far we’ve enjoyed a variety of lettuce and cilantro. A small harvest, but only the beginning. We have decided to continue making the land that we live on even more sustainable. This year we will definitley have to supplement our produce with vegetables from the Farmer’s Market but next year we plan to have more garden space. We will begin prepping the ground this summer for some fall plantings of blueberries and then raspberries. We’ll keep you up-to-date on our easy turn-your-lawn-into-food methods.

How to Teach Your Child to Ride a Bike: 101

The idea of teaching my kids to ride a bike the old-fashioned way with training wheels is just not appealing to me. Maybe it’s just my own reasoning but it doesn’t make sense to put training wheels on a bike to create a false sense of balance and accomplishment. Why not start with the basics and simply learn balance first.

Of course today we have so many conveniences and new ideas are rare, so don’t let me make you think that I’ve come up with a grand technique of how to teach bicycle riding to a child all on my own. I just bought into balance bikes and it was the best thing I’ve done for my children’s outdoor activity while at the house. Balance bikes have been around and are widely available now. Teaching a child how to ride a bike can be streamlined, functional and mostly less stressful with a balance bike.

So really, here is how you teach your toddler to ride a bike:

Get a balance bike (we love the Skuut because it’s wood and holds up amazingly well and it can’t be over-steered like other balance bikes)
Put them on the balance bike
Allow play time often
Get out the elbow/knee pads for when they are going downhill even faster

Move child up to a pedal bike when you can see they are ready which won’t take long

There are two ways to get a balance bike. Buy one that is made specifically as a balance bike or make a balance bike by purchasing a regular kids bike and removing the cranks, chain guard and chain.

If you buy one i can’t tell you how much I love the Skuut. It is heirloom quality and gets lots of compliments. We bought a 10-inch bike for my daughter Jaden and removed the  cranks and chain. It will probably work fine for her in a few months but right now she can’t get her feet flat on the ground which is an important safety factor when on any bike. Jaden isn’t much into riding her bike otherwise we would get her a balance bike for the meantime just because they are pure fun.

Our 2 year old, Nathanael, can’t get his mind off his skuut balance bike. I think he might be riding in his dreams. We had originally wanted to get him the smallest size child bike we could find and remove the cranks, etc. so that we could repurpose it as a balance bike and then add the pedals later when he was ready. Unfortunately the bike was too tall so we opted for the Skuut which after seeing him ride I am glad we ended up with it because it does prevent over steering. Right now when Nathanael gets going fast he needs that guidance to learn how to steer so the skuut works perfect and keeps him up right.

Bottomline: Buying a balance bike is kind of expensive but doesn’t compromise safety for younger toddlers. Making your own balance bike by removing bike parts can be cost effective but can also have more potential mishaps.

Here are a few balance bikes to check out:

Skuut Balance Bike

Red Mini Glider

Smart Gear Smart Balance Bike – Classic Style

LIKEaBIKE Jumper – German Walking Bike

Learn more about the ecosystem around you and get involved in your local National Trail Days 2009. The date is set for June 6, 2009. There are celebrations happening everywhere and people will take part in exhibits, dedications, workshops and even trail maintenance. Search for National Trail Days celebration by state.

Here in Eugene, Oregon REI is sponsoring the free event at Mt. Pisgah on June 6, 2009. Festivities begin at 9 a.m. This gathering will be clearing invasive vegetation as well as enjoying snacks, refreshments and good times. Even the tools and gloves are provided so all you have to do is show up with a reverence for the outdoors after you have registered by reading this contact information.

Found this article On Global Warming / Cooling trends on USA Today.

Numerous websites, blogs and articles in the media have claimed that the climate is no longer warming, and is now cooling since recent years have not been as warm as 1998. A new study by top climate scientists takes a look at these claims.

I think that is obvious that we are in a warming trend when you consider the increased melting of near the polar caps.

No, say two scientists in this week’s issue of Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. The scientists, David Easterling of the National Climatic Data Center and Michael Wehner of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, say that up-and-down temperatures year-to-year don’t undermine the overwhelming evidence for global warming.

To read the entire article:  Is the globe warming or cooling?

Now that the weather is good and you want to keep your young ones enjoying nature….why not give them a natural and organic outdoor playhouse? They will have so much more fun with something that they helped to build and can watch grow than they might with a plastic model. We made our house from Sunflowers and Morning Glory’s.

Ready? Here’s how to get started.

Building a Sunflower House

First you will need a couple of packages of Mammoth Sunflower Seeds or another variety that grows tall (8-10 feet minimum with large 10 inch flowers)

- 1 pack of Morning Glory seeds

- Other low growing, trailing flowers (optional)

- A shovel

- Some compost or planting mix and potting soil

- Children for planting seeds

- Water

To begin making your sunflower house first you need to clear an area in your lawn. You can make it as large as you like but 2 packs of sunflower seeds will cover a 6-7 foot diameter circle while having 2 seeds for every 12-16 inches to allow for thinning. Don’t clear the inside of the circle, just the perimeter.

Once you have dug up the grass, loosen the soil and then pour your compost and potting soil on top of the cleared area so you can give the seeds a good start (we had to do this because our ground is so packed with clay and rocks). Now get the kids to plant the seeds alternating sunflower seeds with morning glory’s. Once our team of kids were done with our seed pattern we also gave them Nasturtium seeds to place where ever they liked. These flowers mound at the base of the house and are edible.

Keep the seeds moist. The Morning Glory vines will grow up the sunflowers. Once the sunflowers have reached a 6 ft. height tie strings between them to create a ‘roof’ support for the vines to climb on. This little playhouse will give your children many days of imaginative fun for around $15 and it provides for a very fun project.

If you want you can add a bale of straw to the inside of the house to make a table or seat. Now that we’ve built this one, maybe next year we will go for a 2-room sunflower house.

See week 2 of the Sunflower House