Top 5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Yellow-tailed Woolly Monkey

  May 24, 2013 - 5:30 am | , ,
Leave a comment

yellow-tailed-woolly-monkey

  1. The yellow-tailed woolly monkey was once considered extinct.

    The species was first discovered in northern Peru in 1820; however, between 1926 and 1973, not a single yellow-tailed woolly monkey was sighted, causing scientists to deem the animal extinct. Then in 1974 primatologist Russ Mittermeier rediscovered small groups of the monkey in the highlands of Peru. Still, the yellow-tailed woolly monkey is still considered one of the rarest mammals in the world. (Eco-Mothering was able to adopt one! See the video at the end of this post.)

  2. They are named for a distinct yellow stripe of fur.

    It runs along the underside of their tails and is what separates them from other species of woolly monkeys. Their fully prehensile tail is used as a fifth limb for climbing, eating and leaping (up to distances of 15 meters).

  3. They are a male-dominated society.

    They usually live in groups of 4 to 30 monkeys that include males (one dominant), females and offspring. The omnivorous animal exhibits a charismatic and playful personality: frolicking in the forest canopy and throwing fruit at the heads of poachers. As observed in a 2011 scientific study, the adult mothers spend the least amount of time resting (45% less than males)—a very similar statistic to human adult mothers!

  4. They make a barking sound like a puppy.

    The yellow-tailed woolly monkey will “bark” when it is excited or as an alarm call about potential predators. The high-pitched sound can be heard over long distances and may continue for periods of up to 30 minutes.

  5. They only live in the cloud forests of Peru.

    YTWM-habitat-mapThe species prefers the tall trees (35-40 meters), the steep ravines, the chilly air… and is unable to adapt to other habitats. The inaccessibility of the yellow-tailed woolly monkey’s habitat is what protected the species for so many years. However, increased human interference (logging, development, hunting) is destroying the South American rain forest, and the Critically Endangered species remains on the edge of extinction. Currently, there are fewer than 250 yellow-tailed woolly monkeys left in the world.

For the Kids: An online coloring page of the yellow-tailed woolly monkey. Color it in, and save it to your computer. And make sure to watch the kid-centric video below!

VIDEO: As rare as they are, we have adopted a yellow-tailed woolly monkey named Eek. Sofie loves him. Eek also happens to be eco-conscious and pretty handy with technology, so we put him to work. Check out the monkey’s first video about the Super Powers of Poop.

Eek-super-powers-of-poop

Want to help? You can donate to EDGE (Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered), a conservation group focused on protecting species such as the yellow-tailed woolly monkey.

 

IMAGINATION LAND: Getting Active and Creative with Your Kids

  May 21, 2013 - 5:30 am |
Leave a comment

This is a guest post by Amanda Daniels.

If your kid is anything like mine, he loves to dress up. And not just for Halloween but for birthday parties, holidays and, well, because it’s a Tuesday. If he can get to his rain boots, Batman cape and T-ball uniform, he’ll wear them to school, the store, to bed, wherever. And who am I to say: “No. You can’t wear that?” His little mind works in wonderful ways I can never understand.

However … I can play along. I can step out of my adult world and have some fun with the little guy. The saying, “wisdom begins with wonder” has never rung more true. While some kids get caught up in TV and video games, others are playing yoga tag and jumping in mud puddles with friends. Parents tend to enroll their kids in a sport or two or three with practice every day, which is a wonderful way to develop certain skills but allows little room for the creative freedom of the imagination to soar.

imagination-creative-boy

Activate Their Senses

Take your kids on little field trips to the library to experience books. Go to the zoo and talk about animal safaris. Remind them to smell the salt in the air at the beach and feel the cold of the snow. Take them fishing so they can have a sense of the outdoors and see the beauty that exists in nature.

By tapping into the imagination, kids can cure some of their most stressful moments. For example, in the book The Power of Your Child’s Imagination: How to Transform Stress and Anxiety into Joy and Success, the author talks about empowering your child to survive this often stressful world with easy and creative skills. Imagine your child, plagued by a headache, able to use his imagination to picture an ice blue pillow to cool his head.

Plan a Party Together

Maybe it’s a birthday party, a party because it’s Thursday or a 4th of July extravaganza — go big with costumes for everyone! A pirate theme is fun for all ages and you can get cheap plus-size costumes for couples and kids at online costume shops (around 75 percent off), along with everything your kid’s little buccaneer imagination can muster up. From eye patches and treasure maps to gold-filled treasure chests and shoulder-sitting parrots, this is the kind of creativity we should help them dream up!

Invite kids and parents and watch your child delight in the wonder of planning a party with his own imagination (and you can have some satisfaction, too).

Go Old School

Childtime.com makes a valid point when comparing games of older generations to those of today. Without computers, TVs, iPads and video games (well OK some of us had old-school video games), children have to fend for themselves in the fun department. They begin creating fantasy and alternate worlds, which is healthy.

Expose your kids to this kind of imagination. They don’t have to do it alone, though. Play with paints and Legos; let them dress up in your clothes and wear your jewelry; get out the glue and crayons. Make messes. Explore the city or the woods together. Run through sprinklers. By doing these things together, you’ll have a happier kid and a free-spirited you.

Amanda Daniels is an eco-conscious wife, mom and writer from Portland, Maine. She covers sustainability issues and parenting topics for a variety of blogs and her local paper.

Simple Ways to Reduce Pollution

  May 20, 2013 - 5:30 am | ,
Leave a comment

 This is a guest post.

One of the most important steps when it comes to going green is cutting down air pollution. Transportation is the most obvious source of air pollution, but there are other ways that humans affect the amount of pollution created. This includes everything from the products you buy to the way you dispose household waste.

Harmful pollutants in the soil, air or water have a terrible effect on the ecosystem, making life more difficult for plants, animals and humans. The elderly and children are more susceptible to the health effects that these toxins can bring. Lucky for those who have their own life and health insurances, but for people who can’t avail such services from life insurance companies, it can be a big problem. You can ask for help from companies like Aviva Life Insurance by clicking here, and start changing your lifestyle little by little to prevent serious health problems.

Making small changes to your daily habits can reap big results in reducing pollution, especially when everyone in the family is eager to do their part.

reducing-air-pollution

Photo: Cairo air pollution by Nina Hale/Flickr

  1. Take a good look on your home energy consumption.

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that by saving energy at home you can help reduce carbon emissions in the air. Most sources of energy require burning fossil fuels, so the less energy you use at home, the greener the environment gets. You can set your lights and appliances on a timer to have them automatically turn off when not in use. Instead of using standard light bulbs, switch to compact fluorescent bulbs, which us less energy.

  2. Manage the time when you are using your heater.

    Turn your thermostat down in winter and turn it up in summer. Water heaters should also be turned off to save power. Always check the pipes where insulation passes through to make sure that your insulation is on the recommended level. Perform regular maintenance on air conditioners and furnaces to make sure that they are running efficiently.

  3. Walk or use your bike when going for short-distance errands.

    You can also use public transportation or carpool whenever you can. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, a person can save more than $1,000 per year if they carpool.

  4. Reuse, reduce and recycle.

    This can help cut down the amount of waste that is produced in your household. Recycle things that are made of plastic, paper, glass and aluminum. Carefully dispose chemical substances such as batteries, solvents, paint and pesticides.

 

Top 5 Yoga Poses for Kids

  May 17, 2013 - 5:30 am | , ,
Leave a comment

Kids love to move. Getting them started early with yoga feeds that need and offers a ton of benefits—both physical and mental—including: strength, flexibility, concentration, self-control, balance, expression, confidence and relaxation. Who doesn’t want all that for their child? Below are five poses (four easy, one challenging) that are great for introducing kids to yoga.

yoga-poses-for-kids

  1. Tree Pose (Vriksasana)

    yoga-treeThis classic is the first yoga pose my daughter latched onto, and she still loves it. Tree pose teaches self-control and concentration while it improves a child’s balance and lower body strength. Kids “become” a tree by planting their feet into the ground for stability and noticing the sway of their bodies. Many often find they have better balance on one side more than another, which is perfectly normal.

  2. Downward-Facing-Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

    yoga-downward-dogAn excellent and invigorating pose for kids and adults alike, Downward Dog is good for relieving tension and energizing the body. Its full-body stretch helps relieve back pain, headaches and fatigue. Traditionally part of the Sun Salutation sequence, Downward Dog flows well into Child’s Pose.

    yoga-Ldog

    A fun version of this pose is L-Dog, which is like downward dog with your feet against a wall. Sofie loves L-Dog, which she learned from her yoga teacher, Miss Elyse (Om Kids Yoga Studio), who believes upside poses are excellent for all ages: “Anytime we go upside down we are improving digestion and blood circulation throughout the body. Upside down poses such as L-Dog and Scorpion  build lots of upper body strength and helps kids let go of their fears.”

  3. Bridge (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)

    yoga-bridgeThis floor pose stretches the upper body and chest, improves digestion, increases flexibility and calms the mind. It’s also helpful for relieving stress. You can make a game of Bridge by pushing toy boats or animals beneath your child’s lifted body. This will inspire them to see how high they can raise up. Bridge is also an excellent pose for adults who spend large quantities of time hunched over a computer.

  4. Lion Pose (Simhasana)

    yoga-lionKids always love animal poses and this one adds a fun vocal element. Lion strengthens the lungs, releases facial tension and activates the immune glands of your lymph nodes. The pose can be done sitting cross-legged or kneeling. Have your child think of something that’s bothering them as they squeeze their body, hands and face real tight. Then let it go by extending the arms forward, releasing the tension, sticking out the tongue and roaring loudly. Repeat several times.

  5. Crow Pose (Bakasana)

    yoga-crowThis one takes some practice. I have never been able to do Crow, but Sofie’s getting close. Crow is the pose for building arm strength and balance. According to Miss Elyse, crow also builds confidence. “Most kids have to work really hard at learning the arm balance, and when they finally get it, they are so excited and more confident to try other challenging yoga poses.”

    Here’s a great video for getting into Crow.

Rhode Islanders should definitely check out Om Kids Yoga with Elyse Rotondo. She offers weekly classes for babies to teens as well as mother/daughter retreats and monthly pajama party yoga!

Crow pose image courtesy of OmGirl San Francisco. L-Dog pose image courtesy of Om Kids Yoga. All other yoga pose images courtesy of Namaste Kid.

Vote for me @ Top Mommy Blogs - Mom Blog Directory

 This post is featured in Party Wave Wednesday at HolisticSquid.com.

Save The Rainforest with This Reusable Water Bottle

  May 14, 2013 - 5:30 am | ,
Leave a comment

SIGG and Cuipo (a social enterprise named for an endangered, towering tree) have gotten together to promote rainforest conservation. They recently debuted three new children’s water bottle designs: Tiko the toucan, Peaches the pink dolphin and Cezar the Emperor Tamarin monkey. With each purchase you can save one square meter of Central American rainforest.

rainforest

Photo courtesy of panamaturismo.com

The SIGG bottles are typically Swiss—designed to be stylish, clean and functional—and made from 100% recyclable aluminum. The liners are BPA- and phthalate-free and have no VOCs (volatile organic compounds). My daughter likes her pink dolphin and doesn’t complain about a metallic taste in her beverage.

The cool part is activating your special code to save a section of rainforest. Sign in and redeem your code online with Cuipo. You’re automatically taken to a map that shows the section (latitude and longitude) of rainforest designated in your (or your child’s) name.

This makes a pretty cool geography lesson, too. Sofie’s square meter is on the gulf side of Panama, on the southern end of the Chepo district. She’s already imagined a family of howler monkeys living in her section of forest.

Cuipo acquired 3,300 acres of rainforest in Panama that is protected under their non-profit foundation, One Meter at a Time. The organization employs local and indigenous people and teaches them skills in preservation. A purchase of a Cuipo product (they also sell T-shirts) becomes a donation to One Meter at a Time.

View a helicopter tour of the rainforest preserve. It’s awesome to see so much greenery still intact.

cuipo-water-bottles

SIGG water bottles: BPA and phthalate-free

The kids’ bottles come in two sizes (Peaches and Cezar are .4L and Tiko is .3L) with a few facts about each rainforest animal.

Perfect for the upcoming summer months, these water bottles make a thoughtful eco gift. Find them at SIGG online or at Whole Foods for $18.99 – $20.99.

 

Disclosure: Thanks to SIGG for sending a Cuipo water bottle to preview. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

 

Top 5 Family Alternatives to Watching TV

  May 10, 2013 - 5:30 am | , ,
Leave a comment

Spring is most definitely here (even in New England), yet I am still stuck in my winter habit of after-dinner TV watching. Blame it on the current season of The Voice or our recent acquisition of HGTV. It all seemed harmless until, when asked for her opinion on how to organize our basement, my six-year-old daughter says, “Let’s ask designer Hillary.”

Hmmm… Might have to tear myself away from addictive design shows. Time to lead my daughter into alternative activities that don’t find us blob-like on the sofa every evening.

fairy-house

Under the Rhododendrons:
Sofie and Mike built a fairy house using ivy and fallen branches on a cracked flower pot.

  1. Outdoor Games

    As a kid, we played hide-n-seek, freeze tag and Kick the Can until it got dark and our parents hollered for us to come inside. While there are quite a few kids on our current block, the atmosphere just isn’t the same. When we take neighborhood walks, we often see closed doors and the blue flicker of the television through windows. (Is everybody watching HGTV?)

    Fortunately, our house has ideal placement across from a cemetery. I say ‘ideal’ because it provides lovely green views and makes for a good game of graveyard hide-n-seek. Its paths are also a good place to teach Sofie to ride her bike without the training wheels. Perhaps if I leave some items outside (sidewalk chalk, bubbles, sports balls, gardening tools, etc.), we might be inspired to engage outdoors more frequently.

  2. Art Projects

    I used to cringe (and still do) at the amount of time it took to set up a space for painting or some other messy art activity. But art doesn’t have to be limited to paint. Lately, Sofie’s been interested in constructing from recycled items around the house: toilet paper tubes, fabric, pencils, straws, etc. She’s at the stage where she thinks Scotch tape can hold anything together.

    This kind of art is a more portable and less messy activity. Often, it’s even eco-friendly (except for the Scotch tape, I suppose). We can combine this with #1 by making art outdoors like when Sofie and her dad built a fairy house last weekend (featured in the photo above), although my personal favorite is her three-dimensional eagle nest complete with dead fish.

    eagles-nest-art-project

    Sofie’s paper eagles nest with mom, pop, babies and dead fish.

  3. A Trip to the Library

    When I suggest this to Sofie, I always get an excited response. I hope that doesn’t change. I’ve loved making trips to the library since I was a kid. It’s like shopping for free stuff. At our local library, I get a few books for myself, Sofie chooses some for her, then we meet up and read a few together. Sometimes we run into people we know, so it becomes a social outing. A library trip is also a nice, mellow pre-bedtime activity. You feel like you got out and did something, but it doesn’t get the kids all riled up.

  4. Imaginary Play

    This starts to fade as we get older, which is a shame because the imaginary world can be quite delicious. Sofie still loves to make up stories, poems, songs, dances, anything really. At age two, she made her orange slices talk. My husband continues a DeGuzman family tradition of making his hands become crawling, talking creatures called Vin-Vins (I don’t know why) that we all engage in.

    After a day of creating professionally through writing and design, the prospect of being more creative sometimes seems exhausting to me. But this kind of imaginary play is much more organic than adults creating a finished product. All I really need to do is make a stuffed animal start talking to Sofie and she’s off and running with some storyline, and she loves, loves, LOVES it… whether we banter aimlessly or engage in a more structured storyline around playing school or doctor. It may seem silly on the outside, but imaginary play is linked to many benefits in child development.

  5. Writing Letters

    This may seem odd in the time of email, but it can be fun for kids ages 4-7 who are fascinated with letters and how they connect to make words. Sofie sees me sending emails to my friends, and has expressed a desire to connect with her friends outside of school. Remembering how I loved the idea of pen pals as a kid, I’m thinking she may enjoy writing letters and mailing them to her friends. Drawings, notes, tiny care packages of love. And when they write back, she gets the joy of receiving actual mail – something of an anomaly these days.

    I also found this site for pen pals from around the world. Kids can take part electronically or via snail mail. I have to research it a bit more to check out its safety factor, but I know Sofie would be thrilled to exchange letters and stories with a little girl in Paris, France.

Here are some other ideas for family fun that don’t involve the TV:

Research and draw out your family tree. Go stargazing. Face paint each other. Do origami. Plant something. Cut paper dolls from magazines and catalogs. Have a treasure hunt. Camp in the backyard. Have a drum circle or family jam session. Do yoga together. Put on a play. Bake something.