Scott Naturals 4-Week Test Drive Week 2 ~ Giveaway

Welcome to week 2 of the Scott Naturals 4-Week Test Drive. (If you missed week 1, learn more about the Scott Naturals 4-Week Test Drive.)

With the temperature outside warming up (at least in the south) and the end of the school year looming, I thought this post was the perfect time to talk about greening your outdoor play time. Outdoor play is inherently green, but there are things you can do to make your play time even more green. Here are some ideas to green your outdoor play.

Bubbles – Blowing bubbles is a fav pastime for my three year old, I think we blew bubbles for an hour yesterday. But have you ever thought about the volume of package wasted with each little bottle of bubble soap? One way to green your bubble blowing is to skip the little bottles of bubbles, and like you do with the soap in your house, buy the giant bottles of soap to refill one or two bottles that you received in birthday party goodie bags. Even greener, make your own bubble soap! There are tons of recipes to make your own bubble soap online, here is one from the National Wildlife Federation. Since many recipes call for gylcern as a thickening agent, I like this one because it calls for sugar (something I actually have in my house).

1/2 cup of dishwashing liquid (Dawn or Joy)
2 cups of water
2 teaspoons of sugar

BONUS – Add a dab of food coloring for colorful bubbles.

Very green and very easy on the wallet. Plus it is fun.

Water Play – Another summertime fav is water fun and playing in the sprinklers. Make this cool activity green by continually moving your play around your yard to water the whole yard while you play. Then adjust your sprinkler timers to skip a watering. To really go green, try to time your water play for morning or late afternoon to avoid the hottest time of the day so more water will make it’s way to your plant’s roots.

Feed the Birds – Kids love to feed animals, and the classic pinecone bird feeder is a fun project for kids of all ages. Step one gets the kids outside souring the neighborhood for pinecones – an outdoor scavenger hunt! Next, generously spread goobs of peanut butter all over the pinecone, and then roll it in birdseed. Attach a string, hang in the trees and ta-da an easy outdoor craft to feed to birds (and squirrels).

Scott Naturals invites you to take the 4-Week Test Drive and try swapping your household paper products with the new Scott Naturals paper products made out of recycled and sustainable fibers. Scott Naturals products are made with recycled fibers and sustainable materials instead of 100% virgin fibers, and if we all swapped our current products for Scott Naturals for four weeks we would save 2 million trees.

To make taking the test drive even more appealing, Scott Naturals will donate $1 (up to $25,000) to the National Wildlife Federation for every click  to Scott Brand’s website to take the challenge. (All you have to do is click and $1 is donated on your behalf.) While you are there, I encourage you to take the test drive and snag coupons to save money on the Scott Naturals products.

The National Wildlife Federation also wants to encourage kids to get outside, and offers an “Be Out There” activity finder to help parents come up with fun things to do outside that is worth checking out.

Last week’s winner – Congrats to Jessie C who won last week’s month supply of Scott Naturals.

WIN it – Finally, to help one reader take the 4-week test drive challenge, I am giving away a Scott Naturals prize pack that includes paper towels, napkins, toilet paper and flushable wipes.

Mandatory Entry – Tell me your family’s favorite green outdoor activity.

Additional Entires: (Must do the mandatory entry first)

1. Take the 4-week test drive. (Remember, just for clicking that link $1 will be donated on your behalf to the National Wildlife Federation.)
2. “Like” TheSuburbanMom on Facebook. (Already a do, that counts too, just leave a comment below.)
3. Sign up for my newsletter. (You must confirm your subscription – thanks.)
4. Follow TheSuburbanMom on Twitter (@SuburbanMomClub) and tweet about this giveaway. “Enter to win a #ScottNaturals Prize Pack and take the #ScottTestDrive and go green! #giveaway @SuburbanMomClub http://wp.me/pQHaE-2Ys”
5. Comment on any other NON-giveaway post.

Stay tuned for two more posts with two more chances to win this prize pack.

This giveaway is over, but you can enter to win the same prize pack in week 3 here.

Contest ends April 25, 2011 at 11:59 PM – There will be 3 more giveaways with the last ending May 9. Open to U.S. residents in the continental U.S. only. Winning comment will be chosen at random by Random.org and contacted for shipping information. Winner will have 72 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

Disclosure – This post is sponsored by Scott Naturals and TheMotherhood, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.