With each year passing by, we get more and more aware of the impact we have on our planet. As a parent, it is important to teach your kids – the new generations – how important our planet is and how we can save it. By teaching your kids the importance of sustainability you teach them to take care of their home and all fellow humans and animals living in it. Through small changes, you can gradually help them understand sustainability, what it is and why it is important. And to help you get started, here are a few tips on how you can do this.
Teach Them Through Having Fun
Kids love to have fun and that’s great! Why? Because you can easily make learning and teaching about sustainability fun. You can create a game that will help your kids learn through play about sustainability. You can use colored boxes to help them visualize and separate recycling and then ask them to choose the right box. You can also assign points or prizes if your kids like to compete. Another way to do this is to take them on a field trip to a recycling center. They will be excited to go on a trip with you and see how the whole process of recycling works. Plus, they can learn a lot about the environment and how to preserve it.
Set An Example
Children always look up to their parents and will follow your example no matter what you do. So, if you’d like to teach them about sustainability and how to do it, you have to be sustainable yourself. You can try and swap an hour of watching TV
by taking a walk at the park or somewhere in nature. You can also ditch disposable products and single-use plastic and opt for reusable options. Additionally, you can gather your kids and prepare their lunches and snacks together and teach them how important it is to use reusable snack bags in the process. You can go even further and swap anything you can for more sustainable options including:
- Cloth nappies, reusable sanitary products, washable makeup remover, and similar products are better than single-use ones.
- Invest in metal straws and help your kids understand why they are better.
- Replace single-use plastic bags with washable ones made of natural materials.
- Switch all products to brands that actively work on reducing waste.
- Opt for reusable, refillable, and sustainable packages, bags, bottles, and everything else in your home.
Repurpose Old Toys and Furniture
Another great lesson and example lie in repurposing. This is also one of the rules of sustainability and you can easily teach your kids how to be sustainable and why it’s important by repurposing old toys. If they have a lot of toys that are old and your kids can’t separate from them, give them a new purpose, and don’t throw them away secretly. You can all come up with new ideas on what will be the new purpose of the toy and use it in that way. The same goes for older furniture. If you have older pieces around the house that are still usable, you can give them a fresh new look, upcycling them or find them a new purpose. Plus, do all this together with your kids, listen to their ideas and get their creative juices flowing on how to be sustainable.
Plant a Garden Together
In order to teach your children the responsibility of sustainability, you can plant your own little garden. Try and educate them on what you’ll need for the garden, let them pick the fruits and veggies, and then make an effort together to learn how to tend to it. Not only will tending to a garden teach your kids responsibilities and care, but it will provide them with some great new skills and benefits. Additionally, they will reconnect with nature, learn how to appreciate it, they will have fresh produce at home, and will learn how important it is to take care of the planet, plants, and nature because they provide us with life and nutrients. An added bonus is that you will teach them how important it is to eat healthy foods that are grown organically. Our children rely on us to teach them everything important in life. Besides manners, responsibility, and skills to be good people, we have to teach them how to help the environment for the sake of their own future and health. So, hopefully, these several tips will help you get started and have fun along the way.
