There’s a new kind of enrichment program in town—a green one! We love the eco-friendly activity program Rug Bug, founded by Ofrit Peres, an NYC mom and music teacher who incorporates eco-friendly messages and activities into super-fun classes in music, art, play and movement. Little ones take part in everything from constructing green toys and instruments to joining in an environmentally-themed sing-along. Rug Bug also hosts charitable events and offers eco-friendly products. To learn more, visit rugbugny.com. —
Rug Bug’s
Five Fun Eco-Activities To Try At Home:
%uFFFD Making a Sock Puppet
Find a sock that lost its pair and an old t-shirt. Cut out a mouth, ears,
eyebrows and other facial features. Use fabric glue to put these together. You
can create a puppet theatre, or have fun dancing around the house with your
puppets.
Recycled Drum Jam
Gather a large box of oatmeal, formula containers and coffee cans. Using your
hands or wooden spoons as mallets, start making music with your child, pointing
out the different sounds each of them makes. Listen to crisp, sharp and deep
sounds, and go faster, slower, louder and softer.
%uFFFD Sensory play
Fill some bins, bowels or boxes with bird seed, kosher salt, shredded paper or
packing peanuts; whatever you have around the house. Get down on the floor
with your tot and dig in! For some fun outdoors, you can fill large bins with
water and use plastic bottles in all shapes and sizes for play.
%uFFFD Box play
Paint together on a
cardboard box, and then use it for imaginative play. Children love to hide
inside the box or pretend that it is a car, an airplane, a drum or a bed to nap
in.
%uFFFD Eco bath time play
Use yogurt
containers big and small as a “fill and spill” toy. You can poke holes on the
bottom of the containers to use as strainers. They can also be used as stacking
cups. Then, add measuring cups or bowels because kids love to copy what they
saw you doing in the kitchen!
