Teaching your Child about the Environment - Blog Action Day 2007 October 15
Your children are going to inherit the earth that we are living on today so you obviously want it to be as healthy as it can possibly be for them. Although it’s great that you’re doing your part to take care of the environment, it’s equally as important that you teach your children about the environment. If they learn form an early age about the importance of taking care of the environment and the ways that they can do so, they’ll be more likely to carry that behavior on into later years. Additionally, if they can do their part to help care for the environment now, they will feel productive and involved which helps to build self-esteem.
| Teaching your children about the environment is something that should be a part of your daily routine. If your family recycles (which hopefully you do), you shouldn’t just do the recycling yourself. You should have clearly marked bins for the recyclables for your family and have your child be actively involved in adding to these bins as appropriate. Explain about why you recycle when you’re doing it so that your child knows is not just a part of what you do in your house but that there’s a reason behind why you’re doing it. When your child starts doing chores, taking out the recyclables could be one of those chores. This helps to make your child feel directly involved in the recycling which builds self-esteem and reinforces the behavior. |
You can also work conversations about the environment in to your other daily activities whenever they come up. When you see litter on the ground, pick it up (as appropriate) and explain why it is that you’re doing this. Of course, you’ll also need to explain about what items shouldn’t be picked up from the ground and why. But there are dozens of things that you do every day when interacting with the world that are great as learning lessons about the environment. For example, every time that you fill the car up with gas is a time that you can discuss the environment and the impact of vehicles on the environment. Reinforce those lessons by walking, bicycling or using public transportation whenever possible and reiterate to your child that you are helping the environment when you do that.
In addition to these kinds of daily lessons, you should take the time to get your child out into nature. An appreciation of nature goes a long way towards healthy behavior towards the environment. Go on hikes with your child. Go camping. At the very least, get out to the park once a week and play in the grass. It’s important that your child is not removed from the nature around him or her. You can reiterate lessons about the environment during these times, but it is actually just the experience of getting out and appreciating nature that these times will really be all about. Take photos on these expeditions to use in craft lessons later that reinforce the importance of the environment.
Learning about the environment can also be done in traditional education ways such as reading books and watching videos. There is a lot of good material out there these days to help young children learn about the environment. Combine these with crafts to get the point across. For example, take the photos of nature from your hike and use them to create a story book with your child that has a message about the environment. Of course, the learning is going to start with you so practice good environmental habits yourself if your want your child to really learn these lessons.
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