Earth Day is a fun holiday to teach your kids about being more eco-conscious, but every day can be a great opportunity to green your kids. Here are 10 of our favorite tips to raise an eco-friendly family.
Garden with your kids
Honor your children’s innate desire to get their hands in the dirt by giving it a green purpose. Whether it’s container gardening or breaking ground on a backyard garden plot, get your kids excited to plant seeds that will grow into food they can eat at the dinner table.
What your kids can learn from the garden >>
Compost with your kids
Composting is a kid-friendly eco-project that is both fun and functional. Starting a compost pile will show your kids how nature can come around full circle; you eat food, put compost-caliber scraps into a pile and months later you get to put the compost into the soil to grow more food.
Shop organic with your kids
Take your kids to the farmers’ market or co-op or join a CSA (community-supported agriculture, where you buy shares in the harvest from a local farm) to teach your kids about organic produce and other food items, such as organic eggs, meats, and grains. While you’re shopping at the farmers’ market or visiting a farm for a CSA pick-up, you can introduce them to local growers and explain the difference between organic and conventional farming. Having your kids visit farms and talk to farmers will help them develop an appreciation for their food sources.
How eating organic improves your child’s health >>
Make recycling a normal part of life for your kids
From bottles and aseptic packaging to cardboard and paper, your family has plenty to recycle. Instill recycling values in your children now and they will grow up with recycling being a normal daily routine, like brushing teeth.
Teach your kids to power off
Saving energy at home is one of the easiest daily ways for your kids to be kind to the earth. Teach your kids to turn lights and electronics off when not in use, and celebrate energy conservation every week by having a candlelit dinner or two.
10 Simple ways to save energy in your home >>
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