Earth Day can be any day when you volunteer in your community. Children have a tough task in front of them – inheriting a planet with increasing pollution and diminishing natural resources. However, parents, teachers, and other adult role models can make a positive difference (and investment) in the future by helping to foster environmentally-conscious children.
It’s easier than you may think.
Most children are naturally curious about life around them and the role they play in it. A walk in the park can be a classroom. Identifying trees, flowers, butterflies, insects, and other life forms can be fun and educational. Other free and low-cost options include: checking out books about the environment from the library; going on an outing to your local nature museum; or going on a Junior Ranger hike at one of our country’s national parks.
Dinnertime discussions are also a great forum for interesting, environmentally-friendly topics. Like other life lessons, the complexity of these discussions are age-dependent. An 8-year-old may want to know why the leaves are green, whereas a teenager might want to discuss the pros and cons of electric, hybrid, and gas-driven vehicles.
However, simply learning about the environment is only part of the answer. Children crave actionable results. Here are 12 ways you can show them how they can make a difference.
- Use both sides of a sheet of paper for drawing or writing.
- Recycle and reuse paper, plastics, and other materials.
- Turn off lights in a room when it’s not in use.
- Don’t leave water running while brushing your teeth.
- Hang clothes out to dry rather than using a dryer (weather permitting).
- Replace plastic bags with reusable plastic containers in lunch boxes.
- Plant and tend a garden.
- Have a designated day to walk to a destination rather than taking the car.
- Keep disposable gloves in the car and by the front door to pick up trash from parking lots or while walking in the neighborhood.
- Put a basket at kid-level for recyclables and have them take it out to the big recycling bin once a day – this gets them actively involved but keeps items from piling up. Plus kids love carrying baskets.
- Cut up clothes with holes in them and sew together with Stitch Witchery to make a simple purse or reusable grocery bags (for lighter items only!).
- Save empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls. Pack the inside with lint from dryer. Use these whenever you start a fire in your firepit. This teaches kids to reuse items that would otherwise be trash .Have a contest between your trash and recycling bin to see which one is fuller when taking out to the curb. Give a treat when recycling wins.
How do you raise an environmentally-conscious child? These examples are only a drop-in-the-ocean of ways to help. As children get older, encourage them to come up with their own solutions.
