Are you gearing up for summer fun with your family? What kinds of trips will you be taking this year?

In our family, we love to go camping. Spending family time outdoors, appreciating the natural world and connecting in a slower-paced environment brings us closer together. It also teaches our kids how to respect and protect nature and gives them a personal relationship with our geographic area.

As you probably know, camping with kids is different than camping without kids! It is in many ways more fun. But it also requires extra planning and consideration.

Here are some tips to making your camping trip more kid-friendly:

1. Plan the trip as a family and get input from everyone – especially the children. To browse and reserve campgrounds, try Reserve America or the U.S. government's portal for campground reservations. Most states have a Web site for state park campgrounds, so try a Google search for yours!


2. Think about activities, not just scenic vistas. What do your kids like to do? Fishing? Swimming? Hiking in the woods? Try to find a camping spot with good activity options that will engage all members of your family. Educate yourself a bit about the place you're going, and be prepared to translate some local knowledge into exploratory activities relevant for your child's age. Looking for birds or bugs, dissecting a pine cone... whatever you'd enjoy exploring in your own back yard, only more so! And encourage your kids to leave most all of their toys behind. There will be plenty to explore!


3. Keep it short and sweet. Two to three nights is usually plenty for young children. As for the distance to your destination, avoid locations that require more than two of driving to get there, if possible. This gives your kids an opportunity to know your "neck of the woods" better, and shifts the balance of time away from traveling to and fro in favor of time spent at your destination.
   
4. Do a practice round. If your kids are new to camping, consider doing a backyard campout first, to practice setting up the tent and sleeping outside.


5. Come prepared to teach and model good stewardship. Depending on the camping arrangements, you may need bags to pack out your trash, to help kids understand the responsible and safe use of fire in camping, and avoid transporting firewood, buying locally or gathering it on-site instead.


6. Pack a simple first aid kit, including any medicines (especially prescriptions) you might need for fever, cough or allergies. We tend to bring herbal and homeopathic remedies. And remember the bug spray! We like the herbal spray Buzz Away.


7. Teach your kids what to do if they get lost. The most common advice is for them to stay right where they are if they are lost. Consider giving younger children a whistle to wear and blow if they need help.


8. Take clothing that can be layered so that you can adjust as the temperature changes. Plan for rain so you have fun even if it comes.


9. Bring several flashlights so the kids won’t fight over them. They are also fun to play with in the dark! Remember to bring extra batteries.


10. Bring more water than you think you will need and pack a small bottle for each child to carry.

Do you have tips from previous camping experiences with kids? What do you wish you had remembered to take? What was the best camping trip you took with your kids and why?

A few years ago, this kind of post title might have been harder for me to write. But it's clear that when it comes to children dying after being forgotten in their car seats, what we have is a societal problem in need of solutions instead of isolated cases of "bad parents" being negligent in forgetting children in their cars. Over on Z Recommends we have a post up today about the issue, and thought we'd share some tips that can help ensure you or your loved ones don't make this tragic mistake. We've compiled these tips from KidsandCars.org, the SafeKids Campaign, and our own thoughts.

• Put something you'll need on the floorboard in the back seat - your cell phone, purse, wallet, or other daily necessity you won't forget.


• Never leave a young child alone in a car, even for a "quick" errand, even with the windows down, even if they're old enough to not be in a car seat. Cars pose a variety of hazards for young children beyond the possibility of heat stroke - carbon monoxide poisoning from older vehicles left running, airbags, trunk entrapment, and more. It can also turn an opportunistic car theft into a kidnapping.


• Establish a habit of opening the back door of your vehicle every time you arrive at your destination to make sure no child has been left behind. Developing the habit, even on days you know you don't have your child with you, can help you remember your child is there if you ever do let your child's presence slip out of your conscious mind.


• Keep a large stuffed animal in the child's car seat when it’s not occupied. When you put your child in their car seat, move the stuffed toy into the front passenger seat.


• Make arrangements with your child’s day care or sitter to call you if your child does not arrive on time on scheduled days, or establish a quick-call routine with your spouse to say hello on your arrival at your destination.


• If you see a child alone in a vehicle, take action. If the parent cannot immediately be found, call 911 or your local emergency number.

SC Johnson, the company behind Glade, Pledge, Windex, Shout, the Nature's Source line of less-toxic cleaners, and air-freshening candles and sprays, announced this morning that in addition to removing phthalates from their entire product line, they've launched a website providing detailed product information which will include full disclosure of fragrance ingredients.

The move positions the company as the first major brand to completely eliminate phthalates, many of which have been shown to have troubling effects on fetal development in pregnant women, from its entire product line, and to "go public" with their product information in a way that clearly communicates they have nothing to hide from consumers.

"As a family company, listening and responding to consumers is SC Johnson's top priority," Chairman and CEO Fisk Johnson said in a company press release. "Today's families want to know what's in the household cleaning and air freshening products they use in their homes. Making information about the ingredients in our products readily accessible and easy to understand helps our consumers know they can continue to trust our products."

I'd credit companies like Seventh Generation - whose partnership with the Environmental Working Group has cracked open the issue of ingredient safety with their series of educational campaigns - with showing the marketable benefits of transparency for a company like SC Johnson, which already produces far less toxic products than many cleaning product companies.

The primary phthalate used in fragrances, DEP, was excluded from the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, a reauthorization and update of the powers and responsibilities of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which went into effect on February 10. That act banned six phthalates - three (DEHP, DBP, and BBP) permanently, and three (DINP, DIDP, and DnOP) temporarily, while further studies are conducted - from all children's products. The fact that DEP was not included in this regulation suggests that it is considered less harmful than the other six, and this claim has been vigorously defended by the fragrance industry.

Johnson said as much in the company's statement announcing this change, and his frankness on this issue is commendable.

"The particular phthalate that raised concern - DEP - has been extensively researched and has been deemed safe by various scientific bodies," said Johnson. "But the larger class of substances in the phthalate family has been more hotly debated, and we understand that sometimes whole categories of substances can erroneously be seen as concerning despite individual items being safe. So even though the chemistry was sound, we decided that making sure consumers know they can trust SC Johnson products was well worth the time and cost to change them."

The company further reports that DEP was the sole phthalate that had been used in SC Johnson products. But their elimination from the brand continues a trend seen by researchers and activists watching the use of phthalates in the cosmetic industry. The Campaign for Safer Cosmetics announced in December of last year that it was finding significantly reduced levels of DEP (and phthalates generally) in cosmetics, despite industry claims of its safety.

Although fragrance information does not yet appear to be posted to the website, Johnson states that the company began working with suppliers to phase out DEP last summer.

Even more impressive than the company's announcement, however, is the actual website SC Johnson has created to share information about its products, What's Inside SC Johnson.

"The website is still a work in progress, but all ingredients are listed and then further broken down, so that you can actually research them individually if you so desire," said SafeMama's Kathy Scoleri, discussing the move on her blog this morning. "As it stands right now, it’s not mandatory (on household products), so a lot of people (including us) are left to guess as to whether or not it’s safe for our families." Scoleri noted also that the site is far from complete, and indeed, many product areas are not yet listed on the site. We're curious about those Glade Plug-Ins we always see commercials for, which I've always assumed are pretty bad news. I'd love for Glade to prove me wrong, for the sake of those hopped-up women in the commercials, if not for ourselves.

Information on ingredients in SC Johnson products will be available on their website, which is fast, in-depth, and user-friendly, as well as via phone and in more detailed product ingredient labels. The level of transparency is almost surreal, with an "MSDS" (Materials Safety Data Sheet) link at the foot of every page, which pops up a window offering the MSDS - a crucial, and often carefully guarded, piece of the chemical safety puzzle - for every SC Johnson product. You can view their truly groundbreaking website here.