Remember when I told you about the Care and Share contest being run by The Weather Channel Kids in partnership with Idbids and others? Well, the contest ran, and the winners have been announced.

The class winners hail from Curlew Creek Elementary in Palm Harbor, Florida—their project was titled S.I.S.T.E.R Earth (Stop Idling Save The Earth’s Resources). They tackled the bane of my existence, the carpool line! Evidently their efforts to reduce idling cars while waiting in line for school pick-ups were quite impressive.

The family winners are the Northrops of Dunwoody, Georgia, who’ve been protecting their local watershed by cleaning up trash along the Chattahoochee River as part of the Rivers Alive Cleanup.

Congratulations to all the winners! I hear Waverly is headed to the beach to hang out at Curlew Creek, and if any of the winners don’t want the Ben & Jerry’s portion of their prize winnings, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

Because, um, I’d hate for that ice cream to go to waste. Yes. That’s it. I’m just trying to reduce and reuse. This has absolutely nothing to do with my addiction to Cherry Garcia. Ahem.

My children have always helped me in the garden, even when they were iddy biddy things and “helped” by kneeling beside me with their plastic tools, pretending to weed. Nowadays, they can do actual weeding (much to their chagrin), and they help with the watering and harvesting. (You understand that by “harvesting” I mean that my son eats handfuls of parsley until his tongue turns green, and my daughter pops tomatoes in her mouth while assuring me that it’s okay because more will grow, Mom, and this one was bruised, honest.)

This is the first time that one of my children has owned their own garden plant, though. My son’s class is participating in Bonnie’s 3rd grade cabbage program this year. So he came home with a cabbage and informed me that he was going to take care of it all by himself.

I was game. We set aside the necessary 4-foot square and planted it and darned if my son isn’t taking this all very seriously. He checks on it every day, and waters it when necessary, and looks it over for bugs, and chats with me about fertilizer. He’s started asking me things like, “Why don’t we grow all of our own food?” (answer: “Hey, look over there… something shiny!”) and “How big do you think my cabbage will get?” (answer: “Really big. We’ll eat it for a week straight!”). He’s having a great time, and I’d admit to getting more than a few chuckles out of listening to him talk to his “baby.”

Now I just need to find the perfect recipe, because I haven’t the heart to tell him that every time I’ve fed him cabbage in the past, he didn’t like it.

I’m not entirely sure how it got to be April already, but it did. And that means we’re headed towards Earth Day! Of course, we’re trying to teach our kids that every day is Earth Day, but it is nice to have a commercially-sanctioned time to be extra-vigilant about our role in preserving the earth.

PBS KIDS GO! is pulling out all the stops this year—in addition to highlighting their new show The GREENS (a great show for kids about sustainability and green living), they’ve put up an Earth Day channel on their video site, where kids can watch episodes of The GREENS as well as earth-themed episodes of other PBS favorites like Maya and Miguel and Curious George.

That’s a great place to get even the youngest kids exciting about taking care of our planet… for Earth Day, and every day.

And parents, you’re not off the hook—check out the PBS Parents Expert Q&A Blog all month long; for the first half of the month, questions will be fielded by Dr. Alan Fortescue (of the Earthwatch Institute and advisor to The GREENS), and for the second half of April, Halle Stanford (Executive Vice President of Children’s Entertainment for The Jim Henson Company and an Executive Producer on Sid the Science Kid) will be answering questions. Don’t just talk the talk, parents. There’s plenty for us to learn, too, and plenty of resources out there to help us do it. Iddy biddy steps for all!

I’ll bet we can make Earth Day last the entire month (at least).

My kids love nothing more than an online game with an incorporated community. They’re all about Webkinz and Club Penguin, but as a parent I feel like playing Cash Cow isn’t exactly educational. I know that not everything can (or has to be) educational, but when fun meets learning, we’re all happy.

That’s why I’m digging the new Habitat Heroes site—an eco-conscious destination for kids dubbed “Club Penguin meets Greenpeace.”

Here’s an excerpt from the press release:

Habitat Heroes™ is an interactive web destination where children can adopt an animal from an endangered species, and create a life for it, while also playing games, reading fun facts about the planet, and communicating with other young environmentalists. Children select and personalize animal avatars to represent them on the site, and decorate the habitats where their avatars live. The number of avatars for a specific species on the site corresponds to the number of members of that species existing in the real world. For instance, only 3600 members who sign-up can choose the black rhinoceros as their avatar, corresponding to the 3600 black rhinoceros in existence. The site will introduce a new endangered species once the old one is retired.

Check out all of the charities they support, too. I can’t wait to let my kids loose and see how they like it.

We’ve been busy ’round here, lately, and I almost forgot to let you know about something really exciting. Idbids has teamed up with The Weather Channel Kids to help bring you a great contest for kids, just in time for Earth Day.

The Care and Share Contest is a fabulous way to get your kids excited about taking some iddy biddy steps towards taking care of the earth this year!

You’ll want to read the entry guidelines and official rules before you get started, but the idea is to submit an innovative and impactful Earth Day celebration plan. There are two grand prizes (one for a family, and one for a class) which include an actual visit from the Idbids. (Plus, you know, money and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. I guess that stuff is good, too.) There are also weekly prize drawings, so get your kids thinking and planning for a chance to win.

Entries are being accepted through April 20th, 2009. I hope your child’s iddy biddy steps can win them a biggie big prize!

I know I’ve been talking about my garden, a lot, recently. It’s not that I’m fixated, it’s that I’m… hungry. Wait. Let’s just say that I’m a little fixated.

Ahem.

Anyway, I’ve been very focused on what I’ll be planting outdoors, for food, and somehow in my Internet researching I came across this post at TreeHugger about the best air-filtering plants to keep indoors. It caused me to stop and think; despite my grand garden plans, I don’t keep many plants indoors.

But then I got to thinking, some more, and realized that this is a golden opportunity to both take another iddy biddy step and to have one of those responsibility encouragers we parents so love.

It’s so simple! I’m going to let my kids peruse NASA’s list of air-filtering plants, and then I’m going to take them to nursery to each pick out a plant for which they will bear responsibility. Although my children have been known to lose track of everything from socks to entire backpacks, I think they will enjoy (and take seriously) the responsibility of watering and otherwise caring for their very own plants.

It’s a practical lesson for them, and cleaner air in the house for our whole family. I can’t wait.

I have kids, and so it probably goes without saying that I have paper. Notebook paper. Computer printer paper. Construction paper. Wrapping paper they’ve saved from gifts because it’s “so cool” and they “might want to make something with it.”

I’m all about creativity. I am. But I am somewhat less about creativity when an hour’s silence means I walk into a scene where my kids have decided to “play school” and write reports… for all twenty stuffed animals and dolls attending. And when they clean out school cubbies and bring home sheaves of completed work. Sometimes it looks like The Great Tree Massacre happened up in one of their rooms, and then what? Do I let them keep each and every masterpiece (taking up space, increasing clutter) or do I throw away the mess under cover of darkness (bemoaning the wastefulness of it all)?

I’ve done both. Frankly, I’m not happy with either choice.

So I’m thinking about ways to cut down on our paper consumption. Apparently I can do away with envelopes via Letterfu—which is very cool—but I couldn’t tell you the last time I sent a paper letter, so that may not be saving us much paper.

I’m also eying this little set, thinking that perhaps the kids might enjoy recycling their own paper into… more paper.

Something has to change. What are your great ideas for taking iddy biddy steps to reduce paper waste?

I’m one of those holiday grinches who tends to believe that Valentine’s Day was made up by Hallmark (bah, humbug), but with kids I sort of feel like I don’t really have the luxury to opt out. Valentine’s Day is a big deal in elementary school, you know. Or so my children keep reminding me!

This year I’m committing to taking a few iddy biddy steps towards making our holiday involvement as eco-friendly as possible. For example: I’m thinking those boxes of characters cards from the store are probably not the greatest green choice. Ahem.

I’m loving all of the suggestions on how to Go Green on Valentine’s Day from Reader’s Digest Canada (I know, I was surprised, too), but my favorite is definitely the idea of using biodegradable seed paper. The kids could cut out hearts and write “PLANT ME” on them! It fulfills their need to give out a little something to everyone, and my need to feel like we didn’t just add to the landfill. Perfect.

(And, hey, if my husband reads that article and decides to get me some organic flowers and Fair Trade chocolate, well, that just makes it a family effort, right? Right.)

As big of a fan as I am of books, I’m not much of a how-to book sort of person. I believe in doing, not in reading about doing. And I’m particularly wary of books about how to get your kids to do anything, because heaven knows that if getting children to do anything was as simple as following instructions, there would be a lot more well-behaved children in this world. And in my house. Ahem.

Anyway, that said: I absolutely love this book, You Can Save the Planet: 50 Ways You Can Make a Difference. It’s a little paperback. It has both text and wacky little drawings, and it has great information in kid-sized bites.

But more importantly, my kids ate it up and promptly started lecturing me about things they thought might be eco-violations. This is a book that says the things your kids refuse to hear from you, because you’re also the person who foolishly believes they should remember to put their dirty socks in the hamper and eat their vegetables without complaining.

It’s from Scholastic. It’s $4.99. It just may get your kids excited about going green. What’s not to love?

I love it when kid-centric media uses its power for good.

Really; I mean, they’ve still got a job to do—which is primarily making money, sure—but when they inject a little bit of humanity and goodness into their mission, well, it makes me feel all mushy inside.

And so yesterday, when Nickeloden launched The Big Green Help, my heart grew three sizes. Wait; that was the Grinch, not me. But I really dug it, is my point.

It’s a whole bunch of things—daily green tips, quizzes, a glossary, online games with their favorite Nicktoons—but it also features the Big Green Help Global Challenge multiplayer game. Let your kids download it and pledge real-world hours to reduce their carbon footprints! Nickelodeon is working in conjunction with groups like 4-H, the National Wildlife Federation, Boys & Girls Club of America, and more. It’s serious fun with serious results.

And best of all, kids will be clamoring to do their part to help make a greener world. It’s brilliant!