Get Moving on our Energy Journey (Girl Scouts)

Our Junior Girl Scouts are going to "Get Moving" on their energy journey this winter. As a leader I admit it's sometimes been tough transitioning the journey leader guides into something manageable, enjoyable and not like school.

This week, we formally kicked it off with a talk on "people" energy and energy balance - calories in and calories out.

It's About Balance

We found a great starting point on Energy Balance 101 lesson plans from Discovery Education. The girls learned about calories and energy, then discussed how to figure out how much exercise it would take to balance out extra treats.

Because I'm very sensitive about weight issues, we also talked about ways our body uses energy without formally "exercising" - everything from watching TV (breathing, heart beating, etc.) to walking between classes to even sleeping, noting that some actions use more energy than others.

The girls learned about label reading too, and calculated how much energy they were going to take in with their Thanksgiving-themed snack (Pumpkin Pie in a Cup). I'll note that the recipe in the lesson plan did not go over well, as it seems it wasn't sweetened enough for the girls' tastes. I'd adapt it this way:

Pumpkin Pie in a Cup
Mix in a cup:
1/2 cup canned pumpkin (note: a can serves about 3 girls)
2 tablespoons marshmallow creme (or more, to taste)
2 tablespoons whipped topping or whipped cream
cinnamon and/or pumpkin pie spice

Serve with graham crackers.

Balancing Out Our Snacks

After the girls snacked, we "balanced" the energy and playfully learned about stress management by playing our family's Yoga 4 Kids Board Game. Lots of giggles happened while the girls tried to learn yoga poses, and several girls made comments at the end of the meeting about how relaxed they were,

We also launched a steps contest. Each girl got an inexpensive pedometer and were asked to track their steps daily until the next meeting. The winner would get a prize. I have to chuckle that they all started working on their steps immediately, and one mom shared on Facebook her daughter was making laps around the house!

Badge match-up: Get Moving! Energy Journey, Staying Healthy steps 1, 2, 3, Simple Meals step 5.

How do you teach your kids about fitness, nutrition and energy? Share your ideas or questions below!

Looking for more Girl Scout ideas? Visit my new scout leader resource site, Use Resources Wisely. 

Cloth pull-up connundrum

Cloth diapers were officially retired in my home a year ago. We were down to naptime/nighttime accidents, and I thought, surely it won't be long now.

As the cloth diapers were outgrown, they weren't replaced with larger sizes. But the reality is no two children are alike, and my first child's potty training successes weren't perfectly replicated in her brother.

A few weeks ago, I conceded defeat. Not that I think my child won't get through bedwetting, but that he will do it on his own time. And after loads of loads of morning washing of bedding and PJs, I figured something had to be done. I could continue to invest in overnight pullups, with modest success, or I could try a new tactic.

Cloth diapers worked well with my wetter, wasn't there a "big boy" option?

The reality is, while the web world may be abuzz about cloth diapers, there isn't much of a peep when it comes to its older pull-up cousin. It's like we don't discuss the challenges of bedwetting, even among preschoolers who may still be in daytime pull-up land. While you can find a few "potty-training" cloth pull-up options, cloth pull-ups are typically larger versions of cloth diapers in look and functionality (side snaps, etc.) And as we're keen to prove we can keep up with the 10 year olds on the block, that just wasn't going to cut it. Nevermind that the closest thing to a nighttime cloth pull-up option was just layering in more bulky inserts into a cloth diaper, creating extra bulk, an issue as we approach summer.

Yes, we're in a cloth pull-up connundrum. I searched off and on for a few weeks for any cloth overnight pull-up on the internet. Most options were on small mom vendors and most cloth pull-ups were designed for day (or non-heavy bedwetter) use, but I was able to finally find few overnight cloth pull-up choices to check out. (Happy Heinys and Super Undies were on the short list.)

After researching options on a few mom sites, I settled on a purchase of some overnight Super Undies. (Truthfully the deciding factor was after contacting the business and finding out they had some returned items, which saved us on our purchase.) And the other day, a box was waiting at our front door. Addressed to the little guy, who's always wanting the brown truck to deliver a box to him. We opened it up, and looked at the picture of the cool "big kid" who was in pull ups and a "super" cape and talked about his new cloth pull-ups. While he didn't get why the kid wanted to wear his cape, he proudly put the overnight pull-ups on that night, talking about his "Batman" pull-ups. (Whatever works.) And he slept soundly, really soundly that night, a far improvement from the accident-prone evening the night before from a disposable product sample that failed.

Was the cost of cloth pull-ups worth it? Time will tell. While overnight cloth pull-ups did cost more than my cloth diapers, they weren't considerably higher than the price of the all-in-ones I bought before. Given that you can easily spend $30 a month on overnight pull-ups/diaper solutions for preschoolers if you're not catching sales or couponing, I figure I'll make up the difference quickly. And if it saves me from a few loads of laundry or extra bags of trash. all the better!

Another reason to unplug your appliances

Unplugging your appliances seems like a hassle. Sure you can save energy, but you have to re-plug it in...

Let me give you a reason to reconsider.

Today my husband, who was working on a few projects at home, walked by the coffee maker -- only to see it was sparking! (And it wasn't an old coffee maker.)

I shudder to think what would have happened if he wasn't around. Clearly God was looking out for us!

So if being green isn't a good enough motivation, consider having to replace your home!