Friday, April 15, 2011

Teaching Your Children to Go Green

One of the best ways to teach your children green principles is by example. The more your children see you conserving and recycling, the more likely they are to do the same. As a parent, you can structure activities for teaching your children the importance of going green. Here are a few tips for getting your family members to do their part to protect the environment.
Teaching Green Principles to Children by Example
If you have young children in the home, they will watch you very closely. Little kids are like sponges. They will imitate everything you do. You can teach them at a very young age to recycle, turn off the lights when they’re not in use, and to practice other environmentally-friendly behaviors by actively doing these things yourself.  To draw attention to your green activities with young kids, announce your actions as you do them: “I’m going to throw the aluminum can in the recycling bin.” Making sure to turn off the lights or the TV when you leave a room are ways to provide a good example for kids.
Structure Green Activities for Children
You might save a week or two of recyclables and then sit your kids down and ask them to help you sort the materials. Separating plastic, paper, aluminum and glass is a useful exercise for kids. They might ask you why you are separating them and why these items don’t just go in the regular garbage can. These are opportunities to advance their knowledge of the environment. You might explain that these items can be reused and how much energy it saves when you don’t have to create glass or other materials from scratch.
Starting children at a young age with these practices is helpful for creating a future generation that values energy conservation and thinks twice about tossing recyclables into the garbage can.

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