Earth Hour is tomorrow (or later today depending what part of the world you're from) and even though there are only a few hours left until people worldwide start shutting off their lights for an hour, there is still plenty of time for you to participate in this global event. The Crunch Domestic Goddess is a mom who is "raising social consciousness and a new generation of tree huggers since 2004" and she's got some great ideas to involve your children in Earth Hour and use the opportunity to educate them on the importance of environmental awareness. She's also got a fun suggestion if it will be just you and your partner turning off the lights (hint: you can probably use your imagination to guess what that activity might be).

Last year Earth Hour 2007 was a Sydney, Australia event where 2.2 million people and 2,100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour. This year it’s getting worldwide attention and millions of people in some of the world’s major capital cities, including Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane and Tel Aviv, will unite and turn off their lights for Earth Hour.

If your kids are still up at 8 p.m., you can make Earth Hour into a fun family event.

- Light some candles (out of reach of the kids)

- Have a “camp out” in your living room

- Play a game like Hide and Go Seek

- Talk about your day

- Talk with your children about why you are turning off your lights for an hour

- Try to do their normal bedtime routine in the dark or by candlelight (We did a dry run of this Monday night and Ava loved it!)

- Go outside and look at the stars

- Just enjoy the time together

And if your kids are NOT still up at 8 p.m. (lucky!), then by all means, enjoy a nice quiet candle-lit evening with your significant other. I won’t give you a list of activities. Surely you can figure something out. (Makes me wonder if we’ll see an “Earth Hour baby boom” 9 months from now).

The goddess also has some ideas of how to take your eco-consciousness beyond the one-hour timeframe and extend it into your daily lives. Click the link to read these tips and other ideas from the Crunch Domestic Goddess.

» Crunchy Domestic Goddess