4 Ways to Help Your Child Learn to Care About the Environment

Teaching your children about the environment and how important it is at an early age is vital. There are many ways your kids can learn to take care of the environment and keep their carbon footprint to a minimum. The following guide provides you with four fun ways you can teach your kids about taking care of the environment each and every day.

Try Fun Recycling Projects

Your children to understand what recycling is and why it is so important. Not only can you help your children learn how to recycle items, but you can also teach them how to create new items with the items.

You can clean out cans that contained vegetables and paint them to use them as pots for growing herbs or flowers. Have your children stuff dryer lint into empty toilet paper rolls and hang them near your flower bushes, berry plants or small veggie garden to keep pests away. Allow your children to use old boxes for art and craft projects, and talk to them about creative ways they can think to use items.

Create a Compost Bin

If you want your children to learn how to make the most of everything they use in life, create a compost bin for them to put scraps, peels and rinds from food into. The bin will show children over time how compost breaks down, and you can then use the compost to fertilize plants.

Reduce Energy Use

A great way to teach children about conserving resources is through energy conservation. Teach your children about what energy is and why we need to be so careful to use it as sparingly as we can. Explain to them fossil fuel is often used to create energy and that when it is used, pollution is put into the atmosphere. Explain that when less energy is used, less pollution is emitted into the world.

Make conserving energy a game for your kids. You can have a board on the wall that has small blocks your kids can fill in each time they do something to save energy. It can include turning off the lights when leaving a room, turning off electronics when they aren't being used or simply making sure they shut the door when they go outside.

Grow Plants in Small Spaces

To teach children about the environment, you can have them grow herbs indoors on a window sill. They can use painted tin cans and some of the compost from the compost bin mixed with dirt to grow herbs. Allow them to be responsible for watering the herbs so that they can see how the water affects them and how essential sunlight is. When you use the herbs in cooking, let them to pick the herbs for you. Tasting the herbs in their food will help your children appreciate the time and effort they put into growing them.

It's best to be upfront and honest with your children about the environment. They need to know that there are things that they can do to make the environment a better place, but the example you set for them will make the biggest impact. Avoid littering, recycle when you can, and make a conscious effort to always be as environmentally friendly as possible when you are in front of your kids. If they see you care about the environment, they will too.

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