The NY Times is reporting today that independent lab testing for various vinyl bibs, including Winnie the Pooh and from brandmakers Especially for Baby and Koala Baby, are contaminated with lead and may provide a health hazard if children chew on damaged or cracked bibs. The bibs have been sold at Toys “R” US around the country, but there has been no widespread recall. This is not part of the latest lead-toy recall from China, although the bibs are made there as well.

Instead, try this adorable bib from Baby Soy. It’s organic, machine washable, and way cuter. And look Ma, no lead!

To get in the school mood (ha ha), why not visit a schoolhouse museum? You can find historic schoolhouses converted into education centers all over the country. Here’s a sample -

Schoolhouse Children’s Museum, Boynton Beach, Florida - We were fortunate enough to live five minutes away from this fully restored schoolhouse museum, located in South Florida. A gem of a hands-on museum for kids as young as two, step back in time and learn about the area’s history through photos, dress up, pretend farming (the ‘milking’ cow is a fav), and an old-time Post Office and General Store, among others. Their calendar is always packed with activities, including story and music times, scavengers hunts, ice cream making, and sidewalk art classes, to name a few.

Discovery Creek Children’s Museum of Washington, DC, also has an amazing array of activities for kids of all ages. Located among four sites, including a stable, botanical, and aquatic gardens, the Historic Schoolhouse includes “12 acres of beautiful majestic hardwood forest, hiking trails, natural rock outcroppings, and a meandering creek.” Seasonal classes about insect lifecycles, natural animal habitats, and more take place both inside the schoolhouse and in nature.

Seneca Schoolhouse Museum, Seneca, Maryland - Located in Seneca National Park in Montgomery County (close to DC and Virginia), the Schoolhouse is open during the school year for “back in time” local history day trips with a costumed teacher. Also available for birthday parties - way cooler than Chuck E. Cheese, if you ask me!

To look for a children’s museum in your area, or if you’re going on vacation, check out the website for the Association of Children’s Museums. There’s still a couple of weeks left before school, and this site might give you that last idea push to keep busy!

Note: This is a recycled post, actually, my first post ever…but in the spirit of Back-to-School, and for popularity’s sake, I thought it was most appropriate to share again…Enjoy!

In 2004, the CEH (Center for Environmental Health) began testing those adorable vinyl lunchbags we’ve bought, borrowed, and gotten for free as promo items for harmful substances such as lead. They found that even small exposures can cause behavioral and hearing problems, and advised people to buy lead-free lunchbags. The problem - um, where are they?

Enter Mimi the Sardine. Cute name, even more adorable product. Mimi’s line of lunchbags are lively, lead free, and lootie-licious! Made from a Swedish cotton fabric coated with a PVC-free, acrylic (not plastic) coating that is Okeo-Tex Standard 100 approved, these lunchbags come in a variety of prints any kid would love to carry all by themselves; plus, the bags are machine washable! Yes, you CAN get out the squished strawberries and spilled apple juice! You may find you’ll want one to sling over your shoulder, too - so check out their mommy-sized shopper!

My last post was about lunchboxes. But what about lunch at home? I used to use a lot of paper goods to make clean-up easier, and my kids especially love straws. For everything. Drinking, painting, magic wands…anyway, aside from chucking straws altogether, there are now much better alternatives for plastic and paperware. Browse around Green Home - it’s an amazing site, but I am particularly fond of their Kitchen section for a papergoods makeover. Can’t let go of brown bag lunches? Buy unbleached, recyclable ones! Do you go through plastic cups like the water that’s in them? These recycled cups are even dishwasher safe. And as for those straws, I love these compostable and biodegradable corn-resin straws. They taste particularly well with chocolate milk, so I’m told…

Have you been to a preschool classroom during lunch? It’s pretty appalling how many plastic bags, straws, foil and plastic wrap, and packaging in general goes right in the trash. Now, I’m not one to deny my girls their beloved drinkable yogurt or granola bars…but I do try my best to use reusable bowls, etc. to help lessen the trash pile. These ingenious “American style” Bento Boxes from Laptop Lunches really opened my eyes to a whole, well, lunchbox of ideas about lunchtime. The containers are lead-free, reusable, dishwasher safe, and totally recyclable. They come in tons of colors (you can order just the interior containers to mix and match as well as the whole Laptop system), AND you get the Laptop Lunch User’s Guide, filled with clever ways to make lunch fun and eco-friendly. The website itself also has a wealth of information about nutrition, meal ideas, and recycling/lunch programs in schools, so look around!

teensy readers - get a 10% discount off your Laptop Lunch order! Use the discount code teensygreen at checkout. The offer will expire on October 31st, but get yours before the schoolbell rings!

For older kids, notebooks are a necessity, but if you’re a paper lover like me, your kids probably have a stack of their own as well. Notebooks all over the house means the ability to draw, write, doodle, and sketch whenever necessary. These paper products will help your kids start the school year off right, and hopefully inspire them!

If you have a girly dreamer in the family, these adorable notebook/journal, made with 100% post-consumer recycled notebooks and printed with veggie inks, will let her pour out her dreams. These wirebound notebooks are more practical for class, made from 50% recycled and 30% post-consumer fiber that contains bright, lined paper with low glare (who knew?). Comes in 1- to 5-subjects for your high schools juggling multiple subjects. And little scientists will love to carry these buggy notepads, also made with 100% recycled content and unbleached paper.

Of course, there’s always an old standby. This classic Composition Notebook with recycled materials works for moms too! Happy writing

All notebooks are available at grassroots, via Design Milk.

This week I’m going to try and cover as much eco-’back-to-school’ as possible, and believe me, there’s a lot of ground to cover. It may be difficult to go to Office Depot and find all the eco-friendly products you want for your kids, but there are a lot of alternatives out there. First a fun one…Remember those fruit smelly pencils? When you were done with the pencil point, you took it out and moved it to the bottom and a new one would appear? They were all plastic and lead and are probably still sitting at the bottom of a landfill…well, fast forward and taa-daa - Smencils!

We love Smencils for so many reasons (besides the fact that they sound so nerdy and back-to-school!) These SMElly peNCILS are made out of recycled newspapers, biodegradable erasers, and recyclable packaging - they wrap newspaper around a standard #2 core (so yes, you can take the SATs with them), and are dipped in wonderful flavors. The pre-scented Smencils come in flavors like bubble gum, cherry, orange, and watermelon, and their smelly-ness is guaranteed for two years! You can even make your own Smencils with the Home Kit! Great for recycling projects at home and in the classroom…Smencils even has a fundraising program, to spread the message of good-smelling recycling without the added calories (M&M’s, anyone?).

ModernTots is celebrating its birthday with a storewide (online and in their Brooklyn shop) ONE DAY ONLY 10% off everything sale! Pick up the great Pandabo game, made from renewable bamboo, or splurge on that low-VOC paint DucDuc crib you’ve been eyeing…starts tonight at midnight through Tuesday, August 14th.

Nubius Organics is having a big sale, including 25% off all Under the Nile organic clothing, new styles too!

Learning Tees has free shipping for the month of August! Enter the code freeship when you check out. Like, totally awesome!

Sign up with IdealBite’s weekday emails and tell a friend about them too…you can win $200 worth of cosmetics from afterglow mineral cosmetics!

Sign up for Green Nest’s free newsletter, and you’ll be entered to win an air purifier!

My daughter can’t get over how cute this baby is, and how fun the onesie is too! San Francisco moms Victoria and Kelley blended their love for the earth with keeping their kids organic to form Little Green Star. By using organic cotton and water-based inks, and with sweet designs such as “Ladies Don’t Litter” (ladybug-style), and my fav, “My Other Ride is a Hybrid,” Little Green Star helps kids show off their eco-friendliness in a gentle, approachable way. Plus, they come in sizes 3-6 months through 6T, so you can keep your kids in these tees for years!

For an even sweeter deal, the moms behind Little Green Star are offering a 10% off discount for teensy readers! Just plug in the promotion code teensygreen when you check out. Wishes do come true!

When I found out I was pregnant with my second daughter, my first splurge was the amazing patemm pad. What a wonderful mom-inspired story and invention! The round shape keeps even the squirmiest kids protected, and the interior pockets are great for short trips out with baby stuff, or bigger kids stuff like crayons and paper. I lugged my patemm to the beach, playground, on vacation, and used in the house instead of a second changing table! It’s my favorite baby gift ever since, and the toughest part is deciding which one to send - each one is more beautiful than the next. How happy I was to read that patemm now has an organic line AND (the original ones, not the organic line) are now available at Target! Together with textile maker HarmonyArt, the three organic cotton designs are just as lovely as the rest.

The creator of patemm, Grace Welch, has been so generous to give me an organic patemm pad for this week’s giveaway! It’s the small “buhayin” patemm with pockets you see above, a gorgeous, funky, swirly, cheery, cotton printed twill, machine-washable patemm, valued at $78! Comment away, people, you know you want one…the giveaway will end Thursday night at midnight, PST. Please leave only one comment with an email address, so I can reach you if you’re the winner! Good luck! THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED, BUT CHECK OUT THIS WEEK’S GIVEAWAY!

via goodyblog