How to teach your kids to be environmentally friendly

Children are fast learners we cannot deny that.  Their age is the age of fast assimilation of things and circumstances so they learn fast and are able to maintain it in their mind.  Whatever is taught them in the early stages of their life is easily stored in their young mind.  This makes it possible for elders or parents to teach their children about environmental awareness even at a young age.

Going green is not a new thing especially in this age of global warming.  Every person whether young or old needs to be educated about how to take care of Mother Earth.  This is one way of enhancing eco-consciousness including the young children.  There is always something that children could do to our environment and that emanates if we train them to be environmentally conscious and friendly.

Here are tips on how to teach your children to go green:

Be the model to your kids.

Everything starts from the home and from you being the parents who are the models to your kids.  Show them that you are a worthy example by practicing what you want to teach them.  If you are the model then the kids will follow.  It is important that you practice what you teach them.

Start while they are young.

The early stage of your children’s life is the best part where you can instill in them the art of going green.  Environmental enhancement is better achieved if you start training your children to go green while they are still young.  This will make them better aware of their environment and help save Mother Earth.

Train your children to practice sustainable lifestyle.

A sustainable lifestyle teaches the children to enjoy life without having to destroy what is around.  This will teach your children to appreciate the beauty of nature and what it does to us.  You can bring them to the parks, camping, fishing and other activities that involve nature and show them what nature could do to man.  By doing this they will have a better grasp of what going green is all about.

Teach them about earth saving tips.

This is good in that your children will learn to be more conscious of saving energy at the same time this action will help save the earth.  When you use less energy, you help decrease global warming.  This practice will definitely be beneficial to both you and Mother Earth.  So if you are using the regular electric bulb that consumes too much energy, why not shift to an energy-saving fluorescent lamp?  This is brighter and at the same time more energy saving and your children will be happy if they do their homework and there is bright light to help them see their work better.

Educate your kids about waste management using reuse, recycle and reduce.

There is just too much garbage on earth that sometimes you couldn’t imagine what will happen with the wastes after ten years.  It is not impossible that we will soon be buried in garbage if we don’t do something about waste management.  Waste management is not only a problem of the few but a global problem that must be addressed.  But this should start in every household.  Teaching the children about waste management helps a lot in solving this waste management problem.  First, you must explain to them that in order to help solve the problem, they must help reduce, reuse and recycle materials.  You can do this by giving them examples.

Plastic bags are the worst contributors to pollution because they are non-biodegradable.  You can teach your children to use the plastic bags repeatedly and then sell them to the junk shop if they are of no use already.  Your old jeans are very good to use as door mat or potholders.  Plastic bags could be reduced by using the cloth bag when going to the market.

Have a garden and involve the children in gardening.

This is a fun activity for the family.  Children love doing things with their parents.  If you involve them in gardening, they will surely enjoy this.  Aside from teaching them to go green, you will also develop a good bonding.

Going green is being close to nature which is a very healthy habit.  Remember that the kids are our future and by teaching them to be environmentally friendly, you are teaching them to save Mother Earth and to save lives too.