9 Responses to “Earth-friendly toys”

1. elakea:
   August 11th, 2010 at 6:09 am

   Thanks for sharing, Diane! I loved reading about the Schultute! What a lovely tradition! It would also be cool to give directions on how to make one at home in your next blog! Or maybe our Hawaii families could use a reusable bag for packaging instead, like one of those aloha print thermal bags, or the reusable grocery bags, or any reusable container, dolled up in some way appropriate to the child.

   As a seasoned mom, I also think that the amount of stuff in the gorgeous online Schultute is a bit over the top in these austere times. No dis intended to your Schultute, which I LOVE.

   In my opinion, kids just do not need that much stuff. Just a few things as useful gifts to celebrate the great occasion would have been enjoyed and appreciated as much by my little girl. For instance, she might have loved a Sanrio pencil box with Sanrio pencils of her choice and a little sharpener, plus a Sanrio notebook, and one of the adorable erasers that look like food--she was a foodie even as a little tyke, and maybe a book or two. She would have liked any cutesie version of the non-book items almost as much, if the brand item is unaffordable. We would have shopped for the items together, then would have put a ribbon on the whole thing, and curled the curling ribbon, and done a presentation of the gift, and had gleeful opening to get at the new treasures. Even one Sanrio pencil would have been enough. The reason to expand the Schultute beyond the one pencil has to do with the parents' objectives, not the child's need or perception of celebration.

   While I noted that the gift pack could have included a book or two, after a while, we started to drown in books. So, unless it was a book that would be read over and over again, we simply read it someplace else, like the library. The library was our toy store.

   Once Olivia starts pre-school, you will start receiving the scholastic and other book catalogs, and can order books very cheaply. But, the same rule of thumb is applicable. Try to get books that have some useful aspect beyond the story, which story will also be beloved. We loved the geometry book series which told stories. The books featured Sir Cumference, Lady Diameter, and their son Radius, who lived in Angleland. We loved Wind in the Willows. The Pooh books are supposed to help language development because of complex sentence structure. The Mother Goose Treasury was something that we read in its entirety every day, and it paid dividends in language development. The rhymes and rhythm are apparently very helpful. Dr. Seuss books come under a similar category, but are available very cheaply thru the school book catalogs. We also loved Beatrix Potter. The "Frog and Toad" books are cute, cover friendship, and promote acquisition of reading skills for some reason that I can no longer remember.

   Oh my gosh, I almost forgot--I highly recommend Roald Dahl books !! Those were some of my child's favorites for years. All the rest were flashes in the pan compared to the Roald Dahl mother (or father) lode of childhood literature. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was written by Roald Dahl.

   Sorry to veer off into the literary highway! I also liked your green toys!



2. Ken Conklin:
   August 11th, 2010 at 6:32 am

   Terms like "earth-friendly" or "eco-friendly" are really misnomers. They are terms that merely identify the personal preferences of the people who use them. In some ways it's arrogant for humans to claim that the kind of environment we prefer is the same as what the Earth would prefer. People who say "earth-friendly" are actually using that label to name their own preferences for how they think Earth should be, and then invoking the name of the Earth as a propaganda tool for browbeating other people into going along with those preferences.

   The best way to grasp this point is to remember that once upon a time there were no humans on the Earth; yet somehow the Earth managed to be quite happy with the eco-system then prevailing. If global warming is real, and if it eventually results in the destruction of the human species and all the animals we know today, the Earth will still exist, and will have a new eco-system which presumably makes it happy. What we call "pollution" today might very well be "earth-friendly" to the emerging Earth of the future.

   Take a trip to Hawai'i Island and visit the volcano. Poisonous sulfur fumes. Ground blackened from fire. Molten lava flowing until it slows and hardens making ugly-looking black rocks where plants and animals feel very unwelcome. All that is natural. Ecological. The way the entire Earth used to be millions of years ago. Ah, the "good old days" before humans came along and messed everything up with our notions of what's "earth-friendly." The volcano is clearly earth-friendly -- we know it is earth-friendly because it was made by Earth itself and continues to be produced.

   There's certainly nothing wrong with expressing a preference for certain kinds of products and paying extra for them because they are "earth-friendly." But the concept is extraordinarily vague. I guess there are a lot of really nice people with a certain level of wealth, who take it as a matter of personal pride to imagine that their personal preferences are somehow consonant with that the Earth really wants.



3. Sam Urai:
   August 11th, 2010 at 8:19 am

   Amen, Prof.Conklin



4. Popoman:
   August 11th, 2010 at 9:02 am

   Nice article Diane.

   Not to take away from your blog Diane but Ken Conklin, have you ever considered blogging?



5. M:
   August 11th, 2010 at 10:10 am

   Hello Diane!

   Very interesting, eco friendly toys.



6. Ken Conklin:
   August 11th, 2010 at 3:15 pm

   Aloha Popoman #4

   Thank you for the suggestion. I've thought about blogging, but decided not to try it. It would be very hard work, requiring a new topic every day or two and short, easy-to-read essays written in a way that most people would find interesting. I have tremendous respect and appreciation for Di, Cat, and other folks who can do that kind of writing consistently, and are willing to share very personal stories from their "ordinary" activities.

   I do have a very large website on the topic of Hawaiian sovereignty, where I have written hundreds of essays, often including a lot of detailed argumentation and references. But that's the trouble -- the writing tends to be "academic" and lengthy and boring. And I usually produce only one or two or three new items per month. Take a look if you wish:
   "Hawaiian Sovereignty: Thinking Carefully About It"
   http://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty
   There are also 27 copies of my book at various branches of the Hawaii Public Library.
   "Hawaiian Apartheid: Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State"
   The entire Chapter 1, and the detailed table of contents, are at
   http://www.angelfire.com/planet/bigfiles40/BookPromo.html



7. Popoman:
   August 12th, 2010 at 12:22 pm

   Please excuse us Dianne.

   Mahalo Ken, I will read your will website. History has always been an enjoyable subject for me.

   Please overlook my "interference" in your blog. I read ALL of your stories. Entertaining, funny and straight from the heart!



8. Diane Ako:
   August 12th, 2010 at 8:55 pm

   Popoman, Please don't apologize. I'm happy to be the catalyst for side conversations. Blogs are interactive and if I've encouraged my readers to organically divert in another direction, wonderful! I don't expect it to be all about me. Thank you for being so super conscientious!



9. Amy:
   March 24th, 2011 at 6:46 pm

   Living in CA, we use the sand play set alot. I love that it is eco-friendly and durable.

Leave a Reply