Tips to Show Your Kids How to Be Eco-Conscious

While a lot of
adults seem to be jumping on the eco wagon there now seems to be a
lot of concern with how children respond to being eco-conscious. That
being said parents are trying to find ways of teaching their kids eco
responsibility. Below is a list of tips on teaching your kids to be
eco-friendly from an all too popular website called iVillage:

• Water: Teach them
  to keep the water flow to a pencil-thin stream when using the sink.

• Energy: Tell them
  to turn off the lights when leaving a room and to leave the lights
  off during the day. Natural sunlight is generally good enough.

• Toxic Exposure:
  Cleaning up messy little hands? Be sure to avoid anti-bacterial hand
  soaps and hand sanitizers that contain triethanolamine.
  Anti-bacterial hand soaps have been proven to cause more harm than
  good because they kill beneficial bacteria as well as the bad stuff
  and may be leading to super-strains of bacteria that are resistant
  to antibiotics. Hand sanitizers that contain the ingredient
  triethanolamine can damage liver and kidneys.

• Waste: Recycle
  newspapers, magazines and junk mail. You can present it as a game
  that involves sorting out the different types and putting them in
  their special bins for points. Assign a daily chore to help with the
  sorting and recycling.

• Make notebooks out of cereal box
  covers and fill with three-hole punched recycled paper. It’s simple:
  Have your kids save their favorite cereal boxes and cut out the
  front cover a little larger than 8 1/2 x 11. Collect 50 sheets of
  paper already printed on one side; flip the stack over and punch
  holes in the entire stack. Slip metal rings through the holes to
  hold it all together.

• Food:
  Teach your preschooler how to help pick out ripe seasonal fruit and
  vegetables for their snacks and meals. Show them that when they have
  finished their fruit and vegetables, there are parts that can be
  composted. Involve your children in composting your food scraps,
  coffee grounds, etc. Get them used to seeing that food waste is not
  garbage but rather something that can be turned into soil to grow
  more food.

• Pack
  sandwiches, fruits, veggies and treats in reusable food containers.

• Transportation:
  Walk whenever possible. Plan out your weekly menu and shopping
  needs, and go to the store once to cut back on multiple trips.

• Have kids take the bus to school
  to cut down on carbon emissions

jennl | My Bio & Articles

Jennifer is a freelance writer, and has written for various health and environmental blogs, which includes running her own green living blog. Currently she is studying to become a C++ Programmer.