|Raising Earth Savers: Five Ways To Raise Children Who Live Green, Eco-Minded Lifestyles|
|Friday, 15 July 2011 12:25|
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by GREENWISE on JULY, 2011
This is a guest post by Lydia-Quibbin Jones
Children nowadays are becoming less in-tune with the environment. With modern technology crammed in every aspect of their lives, it’s so easy for the little ones to get sucked into a vortex of indifference and completely forget about nature.
This is sad news to think that a couple of years down the road, our kids will inherit what we have propagated. It’s already accepted that we (the adults) have done the environment more harm than good over the past couple of years, but pointing fingers will not change anything. What we can do now, as parents, is strive to raise a generation of earth savers.
There is no shortage of incidental lessons to learn at home if we only take time to join our kids in the learning process. Here are ways we can encourage our kids to adopt a Green attitude:
1. Bring your children outside for nature walks. There’s nothing like the beauty of the environment to inspire children to go Green. Many times, children are deprived of this basic pleasure in life because we get wrapped up in other stuff that we consider more important.
When children don’t see the beauty of nature, it becomes hard for them to appreciate efforts done in making the environment better. Schedule a weekend with your children and get away from the flurry in the city. You can search on the Internet which locations near your area are best for nature walks or camping out with children. VisitMyForest.org and NWF.org are excellent sources to help you get started.
2. Conserve water and energy at home. By teaching your children how to conserve water and energy, you are instilling in them lessons in responsibility. It takes a responsible person to know that these sources could run out anytime in the near future if preventive measures are not done to conserve them. Tell your older children why unplugging appliances from the socket is a good practice. When appliances are left plugged in standby mode, they turn into “vampire electronics” which suck plenty of electricity, thereby adding kilowatt hours to your energy bill. Teach teens to run the dishwasher only when it is full. That way, all dishes will be washed at the same time, reducing your energy consumption to nearly half. Take a look at the US Department of Energy website for more information about energy efficiency.
3. Recycle. In our home, recycling is serious business. Every bottle, can and plastic is separated accordingly to help in a faster recycling process. All those things end up in landfills or oceans if they are not disposed properly. This could lead to larger problems in pollution which Green advocates and implementers are trying to curb. With the recent flooding this year in Mississippi, I think it makes a lot of sense to recycle, especially if it means saving people’s lives from disasters.
4. Go organic. Many parents skip organic produce because they’re pricey. That may be true at the onset, but if you have some tricks up your sleeves inbuying organic produce at the grocery store, you’d find out that you can save a lot of money in the long run without sacrificing the health of your family. Or if you have a small lot outside your home, you can have a small organic garden which the kids can help you set up. This will tide you over during the winter months when fruits and vegetables are at their most expensive. Going organic also helps reduce the amount of chemicals your children ingest by eating non-organic produce. These chemicals increase waterway and air pollution, add to mineral depletion of the soil and are not good for the overall condition of the earth.
5. Be an example. Making the right decision for our children is now more important than ever because of the escalating problems we hear every day about our depleting resources. But simply telling them to “conserve energy” or “take care of the environment” will be useless unless the