One of the first things we teach our kids is how to recognize colours. But ‘green’ isn’t as simple as it once was. It’s now a whole way of living that impacts everything we do as well as our planet.
So how do you explain that?
E Is for Environment by Ian James Corlett is a great way to start.
Also the author of E Is for Ethics, and writer of many popular kids’ TV series such as Being Ian and Rolie Polie Olie, Ian knows lots about kids and speaking their language.
This sweet book is a series of stories following Lucy and Elliot as they learn environmental lessons at home, school and at play. Each story is followed with questions for you to share with your own kids as a discussion starter. It’s also filled with interesting enviro-facts that kids are sure to glom onto. You can learn more about Ian and his book through this video and you can also check out a chapter excerpt of his book.
Because this month we’re all about ‘green’, we’re giving away five copies of E Is for Environment to our readers. To enter, simply post a response to this blog before April 30 sharing a tidbit on how you have helped to teach your kids how to help the environment. We’ll conduct a random draw from all of them to choose our winners.
For complete contest rules and regulations, click here.
Comments
On our walk to the bus stop or just around the block, if I see any litter, my 4 children and I will pick up anything and stuff it into our stroller and bring it home to either recycle or put it into the garbage. The kids also think it’s a privilege to help out mommy or daddy in sorting our recycling into paper or plastic before every garbage pick up day. I take great pride in the fact that they will stop my husband from just “throwing” something out and tell him that it should be recycled!
I tell my girls to bring home any waste from their lunches and snacks at school so that we can compost them instead of sending them to landfill. I do the same myself from work.
Our Chunky Monkey is about to turn one, but we don’t think it’s too early to impart some green living tips! We lead by example and describe everything we do: turn off lights, unplug appliances when not in use, compost foodstuffs, and use the green and blue bins (to name a few). She watches intently and we look forward to her contributing when she manages to learn how to put things IN, instead of just take them OUT ?
Her favourite toys are books (or as she says “beps”) so being able to teach her about being green while doing her favourite activity is just perfect!
We have been encouraging the children to let the light shine in by opening the blinds in their rooms instead of turning on a light. No lights left on wasting energy now!!
We take camping vacations, where we hike and learn about the plants and animals. If children can experience the environment first hand, they are more inclined to take care of it.
As soon as my children were able to recognize their numbers, I had them checking for the recycling numbers on products and deciding whether they were recyclable or not.
We recently moved to Canada and love the enforced recycling program. My 3-yr-old loves to put her food scraps in our compost bucket under the sink and knows what each recycling can is for in the kitchen.
We collect all the bottle empties and then I involve our child with returning to the store and she gets to keep the money for pocket money. This motivates her to get involved in the process.
When my children celebrate their birthday each year with classmates, they ask their friends to donate to the World Wildlife Fund of Canada in lieu of gifts. Then mom and dad and the grandparents give them something for themselves… like books or science labs or whatever they like. This way we can have fun, celebrate their special day, help the earth and not be excessive. It works for our family.
Just a few months shy of 2 years old, my little girl Chloe is adding words to her vocabularly. The latest is “compost”. We make an activity with the preparation of each meal of putting the meal trimmings into the compost. Then we take the opportunity for some outdoor time to take the compost to the bin at the back of our yard across the creek. The journey on the way is always pleasant and Chloe sees that fruit, vegetable and yard waste go back into the land and not into a garbage can—- and gets some fresh air too. Very soon we’ll be taking the composted materials to put on our garden and vegetable beds and she will join in this too.
I put 2 small bins in each room: one for garbage and one for recycling and teach kids what goes in each. This way it’s easy to recycle and you don’t have to go to another room to do it.
Great idea for a kids book!
They’re still little so I’m just keeping it simple for now with teaching them seperating waste. They throw their own stuff in the appropriate bins.
Recycling is probably one of the main things. They can already sort waste, and know where the bottles go, food waste etc. We have also taught them the importance of turning things off when not in use.
save the world, one piece at a time. start with our children and teach them well.
We always participate as a family in the Spring garbage clean-up our city holds.
I have taught my kids how to recycle, encourage them to reuse items, and strongly encourage them to shop at secondhand stores. I encourage them to walk places rather than take the car, and to be open to all forms of public transportation.
They learn a lot in school with Earth Day and such but i try to talk about turning lights/water off and recycling at home everyday with them.
We buy used- clothes and even toys that our son gets as his gifts.
Composting,recycling and education is the utmost importance for everyone.
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