We’re back this week with a pretty inspiring and motivating Friday Reads round up of articles about raising smart kids and saving the planet by making one simple change to your grocery list.

Why Your Family Should Quit Using Paper Towels Immediately  from Inhabitots

It’s scary to think about just how much waste we’re producing. Even the most eco-conscious family is no doubt chucking tons of garbage each year. Sure, recycling and buying recycled, sustainable products makes us feel better about our reckless consumption. But, really, we’re still not making enough of a dent in the damage that we’re doing. That’s mostly because the majority of the damage is done by the manufacturers, not the consumers. We just enable them. If we could stop using paper goods at home i.e. paper plates, paper napkins, paper towels, then we could seriously affect what’s happening to our planet. This article sheds light on that damage that paper towel use causes and will make you think twice. I’ve thought twice more than once. But, I just couldn’t find a great alternative to paper towels. We love cloth napkins and use towels or rags as much as possible. But, sometimes a paper towel is just the right man for the job. But, if you’re serious about reducing paper towel use in your house, check out SKOY cloths. They’re an amazing substitute. One SKOY cloth replaces up to 15 rolls of paper towels. Even if you just use your SKOY sometimes, you’ll be making a HUGE impact on the waste that your family produces.

5 Read Aloud Books for Boys from 4tunate

This is an awesome collection of books compiled from the blog 4tunate‘s readers. Some of the books you’ll know, others you might not but you’ll most likely love reading them all to your kids. I don’t think they’re just for boys, like the article says. I read a lot of these myself as a little girl and loved them. So, stock a few on your shelves and start a nightly reading ritual that will enrich your kids’ minds.

Raising Smart Kids from onlinepsychologydegree.net 

Speaking of my brilliant little guy, I’m always looking for more ways to encourage him to be a great thinker, to be passionate about learning and problem solving and to help guide him to a successful and meaningful future. I found this handy dandy infographic on How to Raise a Genius that doesn’t say much that I wasn’t already thinking. But, the hardest for me is limited TV under 2. I swore that we would be a minimal screen-time family. We never watched TV before we had a baby. I haven’t had cable since the mid 90s when I still lived at home. But, sometimes I just need to do it to cook or because he’s sick and I want him to rest when he’s bored of sleeping or whatever. It’s not like we do it a lot. And, we definitely don’t let him watch anything too violent, complicated, age-inappropriate or heavily branded/licensed or that has commercials. But, anything from PBSkids is fair game if you ask me. Most of their kids’ programming is educational, polite, friendly, encouraging and inspiring. So, if we turn it on for a 30 minutes a few times a week, I’m not going to feel guilty! But, see below for some great info on how to raise a brilliant kid researched and compiled by onlinepsychologydegree.net.