Those of you that know me well may have been wondering why I decided to participate in in the Sprite and TwitterMoms back to school campaign. The TwitterMoms part isn't questionable. It's the Sprite.

You see, I don't let my kids drink soda. I have even spoken out about the evils of high fructose corn syrup in the past. Sprite contains high fructose corn syrup. So, have I completely sold out?

Apparently, while I was away for a couple of days, that very topic broke out on TwitterMoms. Follow the discussion.

I went through the same thoughts before agreeing to participate in this campaign. I would like to see more brands align with parents - thus creating more opportunity. I've been blogging for over 2 years now, and we're getting there. We really are.

Let me explain why I don't think it was a "sell out" for me to participate in this campaign.

You see, I DO let my kids have a treat every now and then. And when I do, I've always considered Sprite to be one of the better soda choices.

Also, this campaign isn't about telling children to drink Coke or Sprite. It's for parents to talk about back to school. I have not been asked once to promote the product, just to talk about back to school to other parents. Parents who probably do drink Coke or Sprite on occasion. I know I do. My Jack & Cokes would be jack without the Coke. (sorry, bad pun).

So, no. The Sprite and TwitterMoms back-to-school campaign has nothing to do with pimping soda to young kids. I am certainly not endorsing soda machines in elementary schools.  I would not have participated if that were a stipulation.

That being said, the Sprite and TwitterMoms campaign is doing something WAY COOL for schools.

Read on.

Did you know that you can donate your My Coke Rewards to schools? That's right. Schools can use these points to buy "creative supplies, textbooks, athletic equipment and many other rewards that allow children to learn and excel."

My daughter attends public school now and I am well aware of how limited school budgets can be. Especially in this economy.

Folks, THAT is why I am participating in this campaign.

Wondering how you can earn points for your school?

There are two great ways that do not involve drinking soda.

1) Check out the Sprite Back to School Tweet-a-thon. Sprite is giving away 25,000 My Coke Rewards to the school that gets the most tweets using the school name and hashtag #spritebts.

Any tweets naming a school and using the #spritebts hashtag made between now and midnight, August 31, 2009 will count and we’ll announce the winner and announced on September 1, 2009. Make that school yours!

That's pretty cool.

AND...

2) Participate in tonight's Twitter Party from 5-7pm PST sponsored by the Sprite and TwitterMoms back to school campaign. Follow the #spritebts hashtag on Twitter to share funny stories, tips and tricks for back to school.

Sprite will credit each #spritebts tweet during the Twitter Party with 10 additional My Coke Rewards Bonus Points. All the points earned will be donated to the same school that wins the Sprite Back-to-School Tweet-A-Thon.

Yep, do the math.  That's 50,000 My Coke Rewards points for one school.

I'll end with words of wisdom from my lottery-playing grandfather:

"You can't win if you don't play."

Almost daily, I read TreeHugger, The Good Human and about a dozen other eco-friendly sites while doing research for my real job. My husband jokes that I'm becoming a new age, tree hugging hippie freak. Ha! He's the VP of Ops for a Biofuels company. Talk about pot calling kettle black.

Between you and me...he's kinda right. The moment I'm aware of an eco-friendly alternative to a product we already use, I'm sold.

We already use homeopathic and herbal remedies as a first line of defense when it comes to our health. We already see a chiropractor for preventative maintenance. Over the past year or so I've been slowly changing us over to more eco-friendly cleaners and personal care products.

One area where I haven't done such a great job? School supplies.

With back-to-school just around the corner for us, I'm committed to greening up the kids' lives. Thought I'd share some of the products I've come across.

Here are my top 5 eco-friendly back-to-school ideas:

1) Did you know that vinyl lunch boxes can contain lead?! Yeah, I didn't want to know that either. Awareness kinda ruins things sometimes. Now, I can't use the cheap vinyl lunch boxes, despite how darn cute some of them are. I suppose an alternative would be a brown paper bag, but that can lead to deforestation. We can't exactly hug trees if they're all cut down, right?

I found a few eco-friendly lunch container options:

If you prefer to use a brown paper bag, at least these recycled paper lunch bags. They are, well, 100% recycled.

or, even better...

 

Check out these lunch boxes from citizenpip:

Totally on my shopping list right now. They contain "no lead, BPA, PVC, or phthalate." They are cute enough that your kids might forgive you for not letting them have that way-cool-but-full-of-chemicals Lightning McQueen lunch box. These are insulated and waterproof. They have a nameplate. AND the best part? They are only $10.

If you are like me, you love the idea of an eco-friendly lunch, but buying the entire kit would blow the budget. I'm buying bits and pieces separately to make our own lunch kit.

I'll admit, I still use plastic snack bags sometimes. I also bought a few plastic sandwich containers w/cool cartoon logos at the dollar store. I'm not sure they will get along with the new eco-friendly lunch box and water bottle, lol. If I'm going to go green, I'm going to go all the way.

I found these eco-friendly waxed paper bags. They are "made from unbleached fibers", "will not contaminate groundwater" and are "non-toxic when incinerated." They are somewhat comparable in price to plastic baggies. Honestly, I know they are disposable, but I'll probably use these.

If you want to take it a step further, you could buy these reusable cotton bags at Eco Lunch Gear.

2) Now that I picked out a lunch box and snack bags, I'm looking for a great water bottle.

Some disturbing stats:

• Just manufacturing the 29 billion plastic bottles used for water in the United States each year requires the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of crude oil. (source)
• 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter. Incinerating used bottles produces toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals. Buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade. (source)

Just say no to disposable water bottles - especially when we're talking about putting them into 2 kids' lunches all week. We would be throwing out 9 bottles/week. That adds up.

For $10, citizenpip has a cute aluminum one, but I've already mentioned them. I'll share more linky love.

SIGG is a well-known brand that seems to have captured the market in eco-friendly water bottles. They claim to be "100-percent safe with NO leaching." You can even custom design your bottle wrap, which will appeal to the kids.

 3) Lunch box? Check. Water bottle? Check. Let's move on to backpacks. This is a touchy area for me because most of the eco-friendly options are extremely pricey. My kids are still young; my oldest is entering second grade. She needs enough space to carry a folder, her fabulous eco-friendly lunch box and maybe a sweater. I found a couple that are somewhat reasonable:

This Chloe the Cat Backpack from CBH Studio might do the trick. It's part of their little packrats line. Lots of different animals, very cute. All PVC-free. The business is "100% woman-owned and operated" and all backpacks are made right here in the USA.

For the bigger kids, Lands' End has their eco-friendly backpacks on sale. Made from "100% recycled fabric that's made from discarded plastic drinking bottles."

 

 

4) I love, love, love KEEN footwear. It's made from recycled rubber. Also just found Simple Shoes. They are committed to a 100% sustainable product. Way cool. I might get these for Max:

They are made from organic cotton, recycled tires and recycled inner tubes. In fact, they are called "Innertube".

 

5) There are so many great products out there, I debated about the 5th and final product to share with you. For some reason, i couldn't resist glue sticks. They always seem to appear on our school shopping list. Check out Coccoina Adhesive-Glue Sticks. They're a bit pricey, but if you are worried about your kid eating glue, this is "non-toxic, non-solvent, and acid free"...and supposedly, it tastes like marzipan.

Hope you found this helpful.  Let me know if you've come across any great eco-friendly school supplies.

About This Post

It’s back-to-school time, and this year Sprite and TwitterMoms have partnered with bloggers like me to share back-to-school tips and tricks, advice, stories and more! Visit Sprite's back-to-school channel on TwitterMoms to get helpful ideas, learn how to survive the back to school rush, seek out advice from other TwitterMoms and join the conversation. You can learn more about donating your My Coke Rewards Points to support your local school, how to enter for a chance to win some Back to School cash, check out recipes, or even play some fun games. Here's to a successful and stress-free back to school season from Sprite and TwitterMoms!

This post has been sponsored by Sprite and TwitterMoms only. None of the products or companies listed sponsored this post. I do not receive any form of payment from the companies if you buy their products, (well, except for the one amazon link).

OK, so I’ve already shared with you 10 reasons why I’m NOT ready for Back-to-School. Now I’ll let you in on a little secret.

Come in a little closer. Shh. I’m going to whisper so my family can’t hear me.

Sometimes I CAN’T WAIT for the kids to go back to school.

Please tell me I’m not the only parent who finds this time of year bittersweet.

Here are 10 reasons why I CAN’T WAIT for Back-to-School:

1) Sarah will be riding the bus to and from school. I was a nervous Mom last year, but ended up becoming a big fan of the bus. Not only will I not have to drive her to/from school, but I also won’t have to yell at the kids to stop touching each other!!! in the back seat of the car. Twice a day.
2) The kids are in serious need of haircuts. I dread going, so I put it off. Back-to-school will force me to take action.
3) Max will be going to school 4x a week this year instead of 3x. Oh, the plans I have for that extra day to myself. Bwaahhaaaa.
4) I’ve had my eye on a really cool eco-friendly lunch box. I’ve been on a spending freeze this summer. BUT the kids need lunch boxes for school. I can probably justify investing in one. Or two.
5) The kids will have earlier bed times on school nights. Score! An extra hour of “me” time. Or maybe “us” time with my husband. Maybe.
6) Unless Max has a potty accident, which hasn’t happened in ages, there will be no wet clothes coming home in their backpacks. Right now, on summer camp days, I get wet towels, swim suits, and water shoes. Oh, and on field trip days, about a pound of beach sand. Not gonna miss that.
7) I won’t have to lather them up with sunscreen and bug spray prior to leaving the house. Sarah is fine, but trying to get sunscreen on Max is the equivalent of trying to wrestle with a monkey...and the monkey usually wins.
8) I can’t wait for school pictures. I would love to take them to get their pictures professionally taken. It’s been a while. *sigh* Not in the budget right now. We’ll have to settle for the school shots. Max has grown a TON between 3 and 4. And poor Sarah has 6 holes in her mouth from lost teeth. Her pictures will be set aside for future blackmail, thankyouverymuch.
9) Sarah will be able to join drama club again. I’m 99.99% sure they will not do Annie again this year, so she will finally learn some new songs. AMEN.

And finally, I saved the best for last...

10) There will be no vending machines when I pick up Max at preschool. Right now, I pick him up from his camp first, then we get Sarah. She’s at a rec summer camp and the rec building has vending machines with ice cream, soda and candy. They are my nemesis.  We pass them twice a day and Every. Single. Day. the kid begs for something. Did I say Every. Single. Day?! Be gone, nemesis.  Be gone.
--
I mentioned an eco-friendly lunch box (see #4). I’ve been coming across some neat eco-friendly stuff while doing research for work. Check back soon for my next post: 5 eco-friendly Back-to-School ideas. In the meantime, where on the fence do you fall? Not looking forward to back-to-school? Or can't wait? Do share.

 

About This Post

It’s back-to-school time, and this year Sprite and TwitterMoms have partnered with bloggers like me to share back-to-school tips and tricks, advice, stories and more! Visit Sprite's back-to-school channel on TwitterMoms to get helpful ideas, learn how to survive the back to school rush, seek out advice from other TwitterMoms and join the conversation. You can learn more about donating your My Coke Rewards Points to support your local school, how to enter for a chance to win some Back to School cash, check out recipes, or even play some fun games. Here's to a successful and stress-free back to school season from Sprite and TwitterMoms!

This post has been sponsored.