Guest Post: Raising Green Children

August 24, 2010 by Brenda
Filed under Family, Featured Posts, Green Living

Parenting 101: Raising Green Children

Raising “green” children doesn’t require you to live in a tree or make clothes out of recyclable goods. While young children are too young to understand concepts such as global warming, they are not too young to become aware of their environment. Smokey the Bear has always been an effective way to teach kids how to prevent forest fires. But how do parents teach their children to be environmentally conscious? These are some fun ways to help your kids learn more about preserving our environment.

At home, you can demonstrate the waste management rule:
• Reduce: cut back on wasteful items by buying items with less packaging
• Reuse: incorporate methods to reuse old items or give them to someone who can use them
• Recycle: separate items that can and can’t be recycled

Children learn the most from their parent’s daily example. You can show your kids about the types of materials that can be recycled. By giving your child recycling responsibilities, they will quickly learn the rules of recycling, such as taking off caps from bottles. These responsibilities will become habits and children will follow them throughout their lifetimes.

In addition, Kids can recycle and earn money with items such as:
• Steel and aluminum cans
• Plastic with SPI plastic resin codes of 1 or 2
• Paper or Glass

Reducing waste can come in the form of:
• Purchasing products with less or recyclable packaging
• Planting a garden instead of buying prepackaged foods
• Using edible or compostable materials for crafts

Reusing includes:
• Repairing old toys
• Using the other side of used paper for scratch paper
• Reusing school materials such as mechanical pencils and binders

Crafts such as paper mache and hands-on science projects can teach your children more about the natural world. Furthermore, they allow children to see that reusing old materials around the house can create exciting activities while simultaneously helping the environment.

Environmental responsibility can be taught in many fun ways. For instance, there are thousands of movies, books, and online games that are based on educating children to become more aware of the natural world. Family outings such as travelling to the nearest state park allow children to experience the outdoors and learn countless ways to preserve natural habitats. A trip to the aquarium can give them a hands-on outlook on the consequences of what happens to trash in the ocean and who it affects. Furthermore, there are several community activities that focus on preserving the environment. For example, some events involve cleaning up trash in parks, which teach children to refrain from littering.

By setting an example and exposing children to the natural environment, parents will be making a lifelong impact on their children and their views of the world.

Author Bio: Elizabeth Waters is a full-time mother of three. When she is not running after her kids, she is a content writer for Online Schools, where you can learn about various online education ideas to find top online schools to meet your needs.