7 Easy Ways to Encourage your Children to Look After the Planet
With warnings about climate change and pollution becoming stronger and more frequent, our children are facing a real responsibility to be eco-conscious in their day to day living. This generation are being educated to look after the planet in a way that no generation before has been. They see looking after the Earth as a way of securing their future and feel a personal responsibility to do so. Although we don’t want our children to live in fear of the future, we do want them to make choices which will positively affect it. Here are some easy ways in which you can encourage your little ones to look after the world around them.
Involve them in household recycling. When children are involved in the process of recycling, they can take ownership of it. This also helps them to establish good habits for the future. Get them to sort items into different categories and talk about what can and can’t be recycled. Involve them in taking out the weekly bins and going to the local recycling centre.
Discourage children from cheap, single use toys. Children are bombarded by cheap promotional items constantly such as free toys in magazines or kids’ meals, class prizes and bubble wands. These are designed to be tempting to children and are fairly successful in doing so! However, these are devastating to the planet. Kids play with them for a matter of minutes then they are thrown away and lie in landfill for hundreds of years. Talk to your children about the impact these have on the planet and encourage them to think carefully about which toys they choose.
Buy second hand toys. The majority of toys are made from plastic, which will hang around our planet longer than we will. Look out for toys on second-hand sites or charity shops, you will be amazed by what you can find! Not only will this encourage your child to live a more sustainable life, it will be easier on your pocket!
Read stories that explain climate change and pollution in child-friendly terms. This is one of the most effective ways to get the message across. There are so many great books out there such as Somebody Swallowed Stanley by Sarah Roberts and Usbourne Looking After Our Planet.
Spend time in nature. If children love nature, they will naturally want to protect it. Build a bug hotel in your garden with sticks and stones. Go for walks in local parks, forests or beaches- look out for wildlife and different types of plants.
Grow your own food. I am not a gardener by any means. However, I have been growing strawberries with my little one for a couple of years now. He loves taking responsibility for watering them and is so excited every June to eat the fruits of his labour. We also have a herb garden where he loves to smell the different herbs and pick them to use in cooking our dinner. We chose strawberries and herbs because they require little maintenance/ space and are easy for a 5 year old to look after.
Turn off lights and taps when you are not using them. It can be so easy to leave the lights or TV on when you leave a room, or to leave the tap running when brushing your teeth. Taking responsibility for turning off lights and taps is an easy way in which our children can contribute to conserving the world’s resources (and save money on our energy bills!).
Looking after our planet does not need to be time consuming or costly. Making simple lifestyle changes can have a positive impact on our world. We want the world to be a better place for our children. Helping them look after our natural resources will help them look forward to the future with positivity and hope.