Ways to Teach Children Environment
Teaching your children to love and respect the environment should be one of your top priorities. Even though America represents just five percent of the world’s population, the country accounts for 30 percent of its garbage. That equates to about 1 million pounds of waste per person each year. Garbage is just one facet of the impending environmental crisis, which also includes air and water pollution, deforestation, and more. Use the following activities to show your child how they can make a difference when it comes to saving the environment.
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Involve Them in Recycling Habits
About half of the garbage Americans throw out each day could be recycled, meaning we cause an exorbitant amount of waste. Help your kids contribute to recycling by teaching them how it works. Make it fun by decorating recycle bins for your home with pictures of what should go in each one. Create one for plastics, cans, paper, and whatever else your local area recycles. Then, give them a few items to practice placing in the right bin.
If you have multiple kids, make it a contest by giving them each their own set of bins and seeing who can recycle the most each week.
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Schedule an Energy Audit
Unless you’ve recently had your HVAC system serviced and had a professional inspect your home, it’s probably not as energy efficient as it could be. Even the most stringent homeowners might be missing a few factors that are increasing their utility bill each month. Lower the bill by scheduling an energy audit. Make sure your children are around for the appointment and try to explain the various factors of energy efficiency while the HVAC professional is investigating your home. If you’re lucky, the professional might even want to play along and give your children extra tips.
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Give Them a Plant to Take Care Of
Many kids don’t understand the lifecycle of a plant. Educate them on what it takes for a plant to grow, including how to water it and make sure it gets enough sunlight. If your child is advanced and wants to learn even more, conduct an experiment in which you tinker with the pH and water pollution levels of several potted plants. When the contaminated plants don’t grow, they’ll see firsthand just how things like motor oil and acid runoff affect plant life.
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Participate in a Cleanup
Sure, you can tell your child the statistics on garbage, but they might not truly understand unless they get their hands dirty. To help them get a better idea of the problem, take them on a kid-friendly cleanup in your neighborhood. They’ll get to spend the day outside picking up trash. Once they realize that their neighborhood is just one of millions across the globe, they may realize the enormity of the issue.
Your children are the future of the world. If they don’t understand the importance of the environment, we could lose our most precious resource. Instill in them the value and pricelessness of Earth by teaching them how to take care of the world from an early age.
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