As part of her WOW Blog Tour, author and illustrator Rachel Dillon joins us today to promote her gorgeous new children’s book, Through Endangered Eyes: A Poetic Journey into the Wild.  Her passion for animals and endangered species has led her to write about them in hopes that educating others will lead to a more conscientious treatment of these animals and their habitats.

Rachel was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, and earned her bachelor’s degree in art and graphic design from the University of Wisconsin Madison. She lives and works as an artist in the Southwest. Beyond design and fine art, Rachel holds a special interest in ecology, evolution, and extinction.

5% of all of her book and art profits are donated to the World Wildlife Fund and the Folsom Zoo Animal Sanctuary. You can purchase the original artwork, note cards and prints from the book at her website – Dillon Design, visit her blog, Children’s Book of Endangered Animals or see her work at Artists for Conservation.

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Don’t forget! Tomorrow’s your last day to enter my contest to win a free ebook from EcoBrain.

Click here to see the rules and enter.

I’m giving away a free ebook copy of Radical Simplicity: Small Footprints on a Finite Earth by Jim Merkel.

It’s the first book that guides the reader to a personal sustainability goal, then offers a process to monitor progress to a lifestyle that is equitable amongst all people, species, and generations.

Click here to enter now!

I recently watched the History Channel’s Life After People on DVD*, which combines visual effects and interviews with leading experts to show what happens to the planet if humans vanished. It’s basically the story of how civilization would decay, and how Mother Nature would reclaim and renew the Earth. The thought provoking documentary made me wonder what kind of children’s science activities could you do – besides watching the Life After People DVD of course – to explore the concept of decay. And what kind of children’s cooking activities could show you how you preserve food?

What decays?

• Build backyard compost bins or indoor vermicomposters (worm composters) for food and yard waste and watch the decomposition.
• Walk outside in the woods, the beach, or a park and look for evidence of natural materials like leaves, dead trees, and cut grass which are decaying. Even rocks break down into pebbles and sand. Contrast with man-made waste like glass and plastics that do not decay. Find some man-made materials that do decay like metal (rust) or paper.
• If you can stomach it, visit a local taxidermist to find out how the flesh is removed from animals. You can see the defleshing process online, but you may not want to share the pictures with the kids. Pretty graphic, but some kids love the gross out factor.
• Put a few food items on the counter and watch them decay – bread gets moldy, fruit turns into rotten mush, and if you’ve watched Super Size Me, you know that McDonald’s french fries don’t decay. (Don’t let this experiment go too long or you’ll have a smelly room full of fruit flies.)

And how can we prevent decay?

• Take a piece of untreated wood. Cover half with a some sort of deck sealant and the other half without. Leave outside for a few weeks in the sun and rain. Observe how to the two halves look compared to each other after being exposed to the elements. Theorize how the sealant prevents the wood from weathering and decaying. What do you think is more harmful to the wood – the sun, freezing and thawing, or getting wet and drying? (Probably all three.)
• Talk about the different ways we preserve food – salting, smoking, cooking, drying, freezing, canning, pickling, and refrigerating. Even cheese, ice cream and yogurt making are just ways to preserve milk. To explore this further, here’s a children’s food preservation science activity link. For cooking activities you could: 
  • learn how to make fruit leather 
  • make some pickles under three hours
  • make some homemade yogurt with a yogurt machine or make yogurt with a without a yogurt machine

(*Thanks to Attention!PR for the review copy of Life After People.)

Today’s color is green. But I’m thinking “green” as in earth-friendly. Ecomall has a great web page of many eco-friendly activities to do with kids. Check out the BBC’s website on gardening with kids. One “green” project you may like to try is composting. Not only will the kids enjoy putting a compost bin together and adding to it, but they’ll have fun watching the worms crawl through the soil once your bin starts up.

Green Food Ideas
KidKuisine is one of my favorite kid food blogs. Two great green inspired recipes are Green Tortilla Chips and Leprechaun Legs.

Green Tortilla Chips
You don’t need to look all over for green chips, you can make them at home, and serve them with your favorite dip.

Ingredients:

1. 1 Tbsp. Green Food Color
2. 1/4 C. Water
3. About 40 5 1/2″ White Corn Tortilla Shells

Directions:

1. Mix together food color and water.
2. With pastry brush, brush on color on both sides of a 5 1/2 ” white corn tortilla. Let dry for one hour.
3. Slice into triangles and fry in hot vegetable oil.
4. Drain tortilla shells on paper towels, salt to taste.

Leprechaun Legs
This is a fun way to make stuffed celery sticks.

Ingredients:

1. 8 oz. Cream Cheese (room temperature)
2. 8 oz. Can Crushed Pineapple (drained)
3. Celery Green Food coloring

Instructions:

1. When cream cheese has reached room temperature whip until soft and fluffy.
2. Blend drained pineapple with cream cheese until completely mixed to gather.
3. Add in food coloring to desired shade.
4. Clean and trim celery. Cut celery into desired pieces.
5. Fill celery with cream cheese mixture and place on serving tray, cover and chill until ready to serve.