HOW TO TEACH YOUR KIDS THE IMPORTANCE OF GREEN LIVING
The key on how to teach your kids the importance of green living as with a lot of things in life: be an example to them. If you do it, they will follow.
I give you one example: when I first started to go to playgrounds with my son I always started straight away to clean up all the rubbish laying around. Not only because I find it important to protect our environment, but also to protect my son from picking things up and putting them in his mouth… He was about 2 years old when he started doing the same: first “clean” the playground and then play.
This leads me to another important point: fun and encouragement. Kids learn best when they are having fun. And part of having fun for a kid is praise which leads to them feeling encouraged in continuing.
So, this post doesn’t contain only tips on how to teach your kids the importance of green living, but tips on how to make it fun as well.
How to teach your kids the importance of green living — some facts:
Why we need to save water:
70% of our planet is made up of water, but only 3% is not salty, so we could use it. BUT, of those 3% we cannot use 2% as these are in the form of ice. Try to get your head around this! So, when explaining this little fact to your kids, tell them as well that water is our most precious resource next to air and that it is very important to make sure that it lasts. And it´s not only us who need water: plants and animals need it as well.
Climate change and it´s impacts:
This summer has been extremely hot in many countries. If you have followed the news with your kids or if you live in one of those countries, then here is a chance to explain to them the importance of us trying to make a positive change. With the heat came fires, water shortages, people and animals suffered, farmers could not get their crop to grow properly, so food shortage… Then now you can see a different impact we have on our climate in India. In case you havent seen the news: India had it´s worst flood in 100 years displacing about 800,000 people and more than 1,000 people have died. You don´t have to tell your kids these numbers, if you think they are still too young, but use the news as examples.
Climate change and it´s impact on the icecaps:
My son asked me the other day if polar bears could swim and I wanted to know why he was asking. Well, mum, if all the ice melts, can a polar bear swim or will it die? I explained, that they can swim, but not forever and that they need somewhere to go. Kids see things with different eyes than we do, but if it gives you a chance to explain or you see that they understood what you are trying to teach, then that´s brilliant. The ice melting will have an effect on many animals like polar bears, some seals, some penguins as they need ice to give birth…
Let´s get some facts together: Antarctica has about 90% of the world´s ice. It extends to almost 14 million square kilometers — this is about the size of Mexico and the US combined. If all of it´s ice melted, the sea level would rise by 200 feet! This would cause the disappearance of many mayor cities in the world. According to scientists at the US Center for Atmospheric Research the Arctic will be free of ice by 2040, if the current rate of global temperature rise continues. This is only 22 years from now! (they have a counter as well showing the tons of ice melted this year so far)
Deforestation and it´s impact:
Every year a lot of trees get cut down which never get replaced. Those trees would be very important to clean our air and to give shelter, food etc. to animals. Did you know that bees are an endangered species now? Instead they get cut down to produce palm oil, furniture, paper or for building plots.
Although paper is not the…
Click Here To Read The Full Article HOW TO TEACH YOUR KIDS THE IMPORTANCE OF GREEN LIVING
