Everyone should have more than a passing interest in caring for the environment. But as the song goes, children are indeed the future. Instilling the importance of caring for the environment and being conscious of one’s impact can help you raise the next generation to be more considerate of their consumption and the way they treat the world around them.
It doesn’t matter how old your children are; there are multiple ways you can encourage them to be more mindful of what they do and how they impact the world.
Lead By Example
Those small things you do each day will help set a precedent for your children as they grow and watch you. From recycling your waste correctly to being mindful of your water consumption, reusing instead of discarding, and fixing things instead of buying new, all of these small habits your children will be exposed to throughout childhood will impact them and become second nature, as if that’s the only way to live life.
Remember to always answer questions about why you do what you do when asked by your children. Not only do they need to see you leading by example, but they also need to understand how you do the things you do and the benefits. The more people understand, the more likely they will be to replicate behaviors for the right reasons, not simply because they see you doing them.
Make it Fun
Despite the actions you perform to help you make a difference and be more mindful of your actions to improve your usability when it comes to sharing this with your children, you need to make it fun. Fun is how young kids learn especially younger children and what keeps anyone interested. So, do away with boring lectures on the state of the environment and climate change and look for fun and engaging approaches that capture their imagination. For instance, you can turn recycling into a game or make a nature walk a treasure hunt for different types of leaves and flowers.
Whether you are gardening to reinforce the importance of growing your own produce or creating a thriving habitat for local wildlife, or you are using scavenger hunts to learn more about your local area and find new places to shop or source items from, it is more fun than boring chores, for example, or something that they don’t understand or want to engage with.
Find like-minded Resources
If you are spending time with children at nursery or school, for example, look for options that meet your ethos to help you reinforce the lifestyle you want to live. Whether this is an enrolling them in childcare focused on nature, they get to spend time outdoors, be exposed to the world around them more, and use the great outdoors as their classroom.
You can also join volunteer groups that focus on supporting the local area, i.e., litter picking, planting trees trending to flower beds, etc. The more resources in your local area you can utilize that match your lifestyle and values, the easier it will be to share this passion with your children and show them how they, too, can set an example at any age.
Go, Minimalist,
It’s all good and well supporting the environment and embracing the great outdoors to help your children realize the importance of caring for the world around them. But if you are also consuming lots of resources at home, you’re going to be giving out mixed messages.
Embrace a more minimalist lifestyle at home by only buying what you need and not filling your home with clutter and excess items. This reduces waste and teaches children the value of thoughtful consumption and the impact of their choices on the environment.
Be more aware about the purchases you make and what takes up space within your home, and embrace the less is more way of thinking as the less you buy and consume, the lower your impact on the world and the more sustainable life you can choose and live.
Get Creative
Living a more sustainable life and reusing what you use to lower your consumption means getting creative with what you have and what you can do with different items. You need to reuse things as much as possible, and this means engaging your more creative self and getting your children to do the same thing, too. For example, you can turn old jars into pencil holders or use egg cartons for seed starters.
Involve them in the creative process and get them thinking about how to reuse items around the home so they don’t go to waste. Whether it’s containers and wrappers or toilet roll tubes for crafts, or you get tour children to help you reuse materials or old clothing to refashion into new pieces or use items in fun ways to get more life from them.
Kids have a wealth of creativity, and embracing this can enable you to think outside the box to get more creative and allow your kids to explore their creativity in a fun and sustainable manner.