NEW: Blabla Recycled Cards, Journals, Invitations and More

Blabla, an Oppenheim award-winning handmade toy company, recently introduced a new line of eco-friendly paper goods and stationery items made just for kids. The line includes the deliciously adorable Blabla dolls and characters (also featured in their amazing nursery mobiles) and are perfect for eco-minded kid’s celebrations. From birthday party invitations to journals to stickers, the entire new fall collection of paper products are made in the USA and printed on 100% recycled paper.

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iPhones and Cell Phones May Have Potentially Deadly Side Effects for Kids

Many parents are on fence about toddler use of iPhones or cell phones. On one hand, bright and flashy gadgets can be an excellent attention grabber for a bored toddler. On the other hand, do we really know what we’re exposing our tots to when we hand over the iPhone? Are we actually allowing our kids to be guinea pigs for a gadget that may have negative health and psychological side effects? Possibly, according to a new book, “Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family,” by Dr. Devra Davis. In this new book, Davis says that cell phones and other like-minded gadgets may expose our kids to some very dangerous health and developmental risks. Read on to get the facts on the cell phone debate.

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5 New Ways to Experience Your Local Botanic Gardens

A day at your local botanical garden with your child can be much more than just a way to experience beautiful flora. Sure, strolling hand-in-hand through the gorgeous gardens and finishing the day with a lazy picnic among the flowers is lovely, but there are lots of other ways to experience the botanic gardens, too. Start by checking your local botanical garden's event calendar. Many gardens offer programs that the entire family can enjoy together from an evening of stargazing and cider sipping to catching a concert on the green. Here are 5 of my favorite surprising ways to experience your local botanic garden with your family.

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Inhabitots Green Halloween Costume Contest: Have You Entered Yet?

Halloween is this weekend! What kind of Fright Night fun do you have planned? We hope your spooky celebration will include taking photos of your kid all decked out in his homemade or eco-friendly costume and then uploading them to our hauntingly easy-to-enter Inhabitots Green Halloween® Costume Contest site. If our judges deem your scary sweetie’s costume one of the six …

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‘Board Games’ Upcycles Old Skateboards Into Toys & Kid’s Furniture

Are you of the school of thought that skateboards are too dangerous for your child? (I broke my arm in two places during my inaugural skateboard ride as a kid!) You don’t have to let your trailblazer go for a spin on one — after all, even Tony Hawk still takes nasty falls. But Board Games offers the next best thing to a joy ride, sans the wheels, via their children’s furniture and toys made from recycled skateboards. Keep reading to see what tots will be able to spin when it comes to skateboarding…

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Recycled Toy Art: Hideki Kuwajima’s Sculptures

Artist Hideki Kuwajima creates whimsical 3-dimensional collages from found children’s toys. Working mostly with neon plastics, the artist achieves amazing symmetry by working in pairs. A given sculpture may include water guns, flutes, bows, or any other assortment of lost novelty items. The result? Amazing eye-candy featuring every color of the rainbow — a piece of art that any child would want to pick apart, toy by toy. Expanding, Kuwajima has also recently been working in crystal …

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Nursery Notice Eco-Friendly Online Birth Announcements

The birth of your baby is the perfect time to make an eco-statement. After all, your baby needs a healthy planet to grow on. The most eco-friendly baby birth announcements are electronic, but sadly, even though we think it’s time for etiquette to go eco, some consider online birth announcements void of class. However, you don’t have to sacrifice style or usability to go green thanks to a new service we found — Nursery Notice. With plenty of beautiful and modern designs to choose from you won’t feel like you’re sacrificing anything by opting for an electronic announcement — yet you’ll be saving paper and trees, along with time and money.

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miYim Introduces Jane Goodall Wild Animal Toy Collection

We’re positively wild about miYim’s new collaboration with the Jane Goodall Institute. What self-respecting animal lover wouldn’t be? Based on the renowned British primatologist’s ethos that people, animals, and the environment are all connected, the Jane Goodall Wild Animal Collection offers three stately if tragically endangered beasts: a gorilla, a hippo, and a lion. Only plant- and mineral-based …

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Root 4 Kids – Inspire Kids to Dig Real Food

Does your kid spend enough time outside? Research shows most kids don’t, but new Root 4 Kids program created by Annie’s organic foods aims to encourage and inspire kids and families to get outside, dig into nature and eat healthier by offering recipes, gardening tips and activities — and we’re happy they’re leading the charge. Be Out There notes that kids spend just half as much time outdoors as they did 20 years ago which makes little sense for green families, since studies show that the best direct route to teaching little ones to care for the environment is to allow them to participate in nature activities before the age of 11. Plus, by the time most U.S. children enter kindergarten, they’ll have spent more than 5,000 hours in front of a television — that’s enough time to earn a college degree! Top this off with staggering childhood obesity rates due to lack of activity and poor eating habits, and well, childhood is starting to look pretty abysmal. After the jump, get more details on the difference the Root 4 Kids program can make.

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mOmma Rocking Bottles and Cups for Baby

mOmma rocking beverage systems for babies and toddlers offer some extra movement and fun over traditional cups. mOmma Baby Feeding Bottles, Sippy Cups and Rocking Cups have cool roly poly bottoms that weeble and wobble, but they won’t fall down, or more importantly spill! This clever design keeps drinks in motion, increases …

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Height Gauge Wardrobe Stores Childrens’ Clothing, Measures Growth Spurts

Kids growing like weeds? Kill two birds with one stone, and store their soon-to-be capri pants in the Height Gauge wardrobe so you can measure your sprout — via the height gauge engraved on the wardrobe’s door — every time you’re in disbelief that their long-sleeves have turned into to 3/4 sleeves. Created by designer Sebastian Bergne, this piece, …

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Link Roundup: Halloween Crafts, Cooking and More

Crafts by Amanda offers step-by-step instructions for transforming an old landfill-bound TV into a spooktacular jack-o-lantern.

MindBodyGreen shares videos of Alice Waters dishing on fixing school lunch.

Try Weelicious‘s healthy Pumpkin Apple Muffin recipe — eat them for breakfast or pack ‘em in your kid’s lunchbox.

The NRDC shares their basic Halloween tips for creating DIY Halloween costumes for kids and includes a rundown on toxic Halloween makeup.

Got your DIY Halloween costume ready? …

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Egba PartyBlock Birth Announcements and Invitations

Have some news or a party to announce? Think outside of the box, and look to, well, a box-like PartyBlock invitation or announcement from Egba Originals — a 3-dimensional, customizable card of sorts that’s much more memorable than its flat-styled cousins in the greeting card aisle. Each made-to-order PartyBlock is fashioned from a block of FSC-certified wood, using post consumer paper products and eco-friendly printing processes. You can bet this block will find a place in a child’s …

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Don’t Forget to Enter Inhabitots Green Halloween Costume Contest!

Halloween is next weekend! Do you have your costumes ready yet? Now is the perfect time to give your handmade creations a trial run, and don’t forget to take some pictures to share on our Green Halloween® contest site. Upload your best shots for a chance to win great prizes including an Oeuf Mask & Tail set, Yummy …

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Hopscotch Kids WaterColors: Non-Toxic Nail Polish for Kids

Most little girls love to paint their nails and Halloween presents another fun excuse to get creative with creepy colors fit for witches, pumpkins and skeletons, oh my! But as a green mama, how can you rationalize stuff like formaldehyde, nitrocellulose, butyl and ethyl acetates, toluene, dibutyl phthalate, acetone, FD&C, coal tar and fake toxic colors, just for getting-pretty fun? You can’t. Conventional nail polish is highly toxic. You don’t want your kids painting this stuff on their nails (and inevitably going outside the lines onto their skin). Luckily, Hopscotch Kids offers a premier line of non-toxic, kid-friendly WaterColors for nails that are the perfect alternative to solvent-based nail polish. Hopscotch Kids’ water-based formula is free of all the normal harsh, smelly chemicals that most nail polishes contain and offers easy use and long-lasting, salon quality vibrant color, so you might even want to share.

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Little Goodall’s Eco Halloween Costume Coats

Whoever decided that Halloween should fall on often-chilly October 31st wasn’t thinking about the challenges of keeping costume clad kids warm, but the mom behind Etsy shop Little Goodall is — the Parsons School of Design grad crafts two beautiful costume-worthy coats for kids. Both her Fantastic Little Fox Coat and the Ferocious Felt Lion Coat are fashioned using eco-felt made from 100% post consumer plastic bottles. Pair these warm hooded coats with pants or …

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