Eco Babies & Kids
Tips
Children are the next generation in the effort to
preserve our home, the Earth. The fact that kids are so
open to new ideas and learning makes teaching them to be
good stewards of the earth fairly easy. All the small,
but important habits you establish in your home will rub
off on them as they grow. They will automatically be
conscious of good environmental practices.
Small, but important practices:
Reduce, reuse, and recycle. This concept is the flagship
of the ecological movement that we've all cut our teeth
on. It's easy to teach this by example.
Reducing simply means not being wasteful with anything.
Reduce the amount of "stuff" you buy. Reduce the
temperature that you have your thermostat set at in the
winter, and reduce the amount you use your
air-conditioning in the summer. Reduce the time you
spend in the shower, or the amount of bath water you use
in the kid's nightly bath. You can use only cold water
for laundry, thus saving energy used to heat water. Ride
your bikes to the store instead of taking the car.
Reuse just means to take a used object and see what it
can be used again for. Creative minds can come up with
all sorts of ideas for reusing items. There are groups
such as Freecycle that will help you get rid of things
you no longer use, that someone else will. This is a
wonderful way to keep things from going to the dump when
they still have life in them. Reusing also can include
donating clothes in good condition to a resale shop or
charity, or making your clothing purchases from such a
place.
Recycle is easy to teach kids and a very visible daily
reminder of something important we can do. Teach your
kids what kinds of plastics are recyclable by showing
them how to look for the recycle numbers imprinted on
them. Paper, newspaper, cans, glass and plastic can all
be recycled. Some cities have curbside pick up, and some
of us have to travel to the recycle center to take care
of our recyclables. Either way, teach kids what can be
recycled and to put those materials in the proper bins.
Have them help bring them to curbside or let them ride
with you to the recycle center. Composting is another
way to recycle and you can easily start a compost pile
or bin and use the composted material to create a
wonderful, organic garden.
Take time to teach your children how the natural world
works. You can visit nature centers that offer
educational programs with them and watch informative
television programs that talk about environmental issues
at a child's level. Find books and movies such as
Ferngully-The Last Rainforest that have environmental
messages. Discuss how ecological balance works and the
concept of biodiversity so that they can understand.
Talk to them about shopping and purchasing
conscientiously. Explain to them that we need to share
the planet with other people and other creatures and
it's up to us to rise to this responsibility. Kids are
naturally curious and can be very sensitive and
empathetic to the call for help from our environment.
It's up to you to set the example and to trust them to
take up the cause as they grow.
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