Have you ever thought about how many things you can do to teach your children to adopt a more eco-sustainable lifestyle? Normally children tend to imitate what parents do and if you are an environmentalist or in any case aware consumer, most likely your children will follow in your footsteps. Often, however, they do not listen to the requests that come from those who take a model.
So you need to come up with innovative, creative and fun ways to teach your children how to become truly green people. Children are our future so it is necessary to make them understand the importance of respecting the environment in which we live, and then let’s see some ways to teach them to make our planet a better place to live.
1) How many times have you scolded them because leaving their room or the bathroom they forgot the light on ? Yet in this way you did not get that they learned to turn off the lights by leaving every room in the house. A great way to teach him to save electricity is to invent a prize game, for example . Whenever you leave the room and remember to turn off the switch, you could assign it a point, and at the weekend, based on the points accumulated, give the whole family a picnic in the park, complete with a basket and blanket.
2) Take a bath can be great fun, but make the shower allows you to save a lot more water , but always both the short shower. One way to make your children understand that there is no need to run rivers of water to wash themselves is to set the time with the stopwatch to make the “hateful bath time” even more fun. If the children finish taking a shower before the timer sounds, you could give them a reward such as reading a fairy tale before going to sleep.
3) When children brush their teeth, they often leave the tap open all the time. Turning off the tap while washing is another way to avoid unnecessary waste of water. It is important to teach children to open it only when necessary. You should make them understand the importance of water by telling them, for example, fairy tales with animal protagonists or cartoon characters they know. With a little imagination, with some funny names and with some funny events you could create stories for children to teach them about savings or water .
4) Leaving the food on the plate is a bad habit typical of children (and not only). In fact, food should not be wasted and you must teach your children to finish what they have on their plates. Sometimes letting him eat lunch or dinner completely can be a real feat so try to make meals a fun time for the whole family and maybe don’t overdo the dishes.
5) Instead of taking your children to school every morning in the car by yourself, you could organize with the parents of their neighborhood schoolmates and take them in turns in a sort of car-pooling between parents. Maybe if the school is not so far away you could even take a walk. In this way, not only will you reduce your carbon footprint, but the kids will be able to enjoy some special moments with their friends before school.
6) Take a walk with your children to the nearest library and borrow educational books that talk about ecology and energy saving, in order to let them know where the energy comes from and the importance of using it with caution.
each your child to recycle old newspapers, magazines, Christmas greeting cards or birthday cards. Put a basket near the door of his room and every time the child puts something in it , make him understand that he has done a good job to help the environment remain greener.
8) Instead of raising the thermostat when it is slightly colder at home, make the children wear something heavier or invent some games (or even some simple chores) to do at home to make them do a little movement and then heat the body temperature.
9) Try to make children eat a lot of fruit and vegetables in the first place for the health of your children (how? Read these tips ) and also because you could make them understand how to reuse leftovers by throwing them in home compost : great way to make them richer our land. If you have a small vegetable garden on the balcony, return them to the cultivation of vegetables.
10) Use reusable shopping bags , let them decorate their designs once at home and take them with you next time. So you will make them understand the importance of reducing plastic bags to save our planet.
One last piece of advice off the list, often take your children for a walk in the countryside but also in the park to let them experience the pleasure of being in the middle of nature and consequently to make them understand how important it is to preserve it.
By following these simple but useful tips you will help your children grow eco-responsible and become eco-aware adults.
