Now more than ever we need to be teaching the next generation about the importance of saving our planet. Plastic pollution in our seas, smog in our air and the poaching of endangered animals to extinction are all massive causes for concern for our beloved planet.
So, why not start early? Why not teach our kids from when they’re toddlers about how to make environmentally-conscious decisions? Be it, what clothes to buy, what gifts to give or what toys to play with.
We, as adults, can guide them to start their own thinking about how best to save our planet. After all, our little children will one day be the people who govern our countries or write laws or be scientists or inventors. They may hold the key to saving the Earth from humans.
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I have compiled a list of ideas for parents and carers to pick from to help save our planet and bring up our kids to be more aware of human impact on the Earth and how we can play a part in reducing this impact.
Read Child-Friendly Books About Looking After the Environment
Reading stories about animals or plants which are in trouble is not your typical picture book for kids. I’ve only ever seen a handful and I think it’s so great that we can get the message across to our kids at an early age that we can do things to help our planet. And it needs our help.
On a recent visit to Newquay Zoo, I saw the book Marli’s Tangled Tale. There’s a series of books by the same author, Ellie Jackson, (Buddy’s Rainforest Rescue (an orangutan), Duffy’s Lucky Escape (a turtle), Hunter’s Icy Adventure (a polar bear), Nelson’s Dangerous Dive (a whale) and Ziggy’s Frightening Flight (a honey bee)) and they all discuss topics of human impact on animals. Marli gets herself trapped in the string of a balloon from a balloon release that has gone out to sea and she can’t get back to her egg in the cliffs. I’ve read this with my 4-year-old daughter many times. She enjoys the picture and we’ve had discussions about why balloon releases are so bad for the environment and wildlife.
I’ve also recorded myself reading the story onto a Make Your Own card for her Yoto audio player and she listens to it regularly and can recite some of the words word-for-word.
The Lorax is a book that I just picked up because it was a Dr Seuss book. I didn’t even read the blurb but as I was reading it to my daughter, it suddenly dawned on me that this book was about de-forestation and essentially the impact that some thoughtless humans have on our planet.
We love the rhymes and the fab pictures that Dr Seuss books have and cannot believe that this book was first published in 1971! Well before even I was born!
In the story there is a character called the Once-ler who we never see the face of. He comes to where the Truffula trees grow and starts chopping them down to make these strange woollen-type clothes and when his business starts growing so does his need to chop down the beautiful trees.
The Lorax comes to talk to him on behalf of the trees and animals and begs him to stop but the Once-ler just keeps on chopping the trees down until the land is barren.
It’s a good way to open up talking to children about how the actions of humans can impact on plants and animals.
Here are some more books along the same themes:
Buy Second-Hand Clothes For Your Kids
I love buying bundles of clothes for my girls from Facebook Marketplace. We save a shed-load of money but also we’ve found some real gems in there too which we weren’t expecting.
My girls are currently 1 and 4 years-old so they have no idea about brands. They like certain characters like the princesses from Frozen, LOL dolls and Bluey but other than that, if the dress is pretty or the t-shirt is a nice colour with a pretty picture on, they still love it and it doesn’t matter where it’s come from.
Buying second-hand clothes is one of the best ways you can help save the environment as a parent. My opinion is that children don’t need to be dressed up looking emaculate all the time, they just need to be comfortable in what they’re wearing and be able to run around in it.
We buy our bundles from Facebook Marketplace, but Vinted is also a great place to find bags of clothes.
We also have a quick look at the children’s clothes rail in charity shops as you can sometimes get some lovely items there too for rock-bottom prices.
It always makes me feel good when I see a brand new item for say £18 and I can tell myself I’ve bought 5 or 6 items of clothes or even more for that same price.
Use Cloth Nappies and Re-usable Wipes
We didn’t go down the cloth nappy route but it means that you are saving 100s of plastic nappies from going to landfill which is such a fantastic thing.
I’ve seen people advertise their cloth nappies to sell them on as well so that’s even better. You can buy them second-hand and then sell them on again if they’re in a decent enough condition. There are plenty of Facebook groups out there for support for Cloth Nappy Mums & Dads.
Cheeky Wipes are re-usable wipes which when used are placed in a bag to take home and wash. The initial outlay is more than disposable wipes would be, but over just a short amount of time, you’ll definitely have saved money and the environment with fewer plastic wipes going into landfill.
Give Eco-Friendly Party Bags at Birthday Parties
Party bags don’t need to be full of plastic tat which will be used once and then discarded. There are so many eco-friendly ways to create fun party bags these days.
First off, if you’re giving an actual bag, make it a paper bag or even a cloth bag to be reused. We used white paper ones for our daughter’s 2nd lockdown birthday and sent a bag with goodies to friends and family. She decorated each bag for the recipient which I thought was cute.
Inside the party bag, choose items that will be used over and over or items that can be eaten with no waste (such as plastic wrapping).
Here are some eco-friendly party bag filler ideas:
- A plant pot with soil and seeds
- a book
- some birthday cake
- plantable wildflower seed paper
- a personalised painted stone (personalised by them at the party)
- bird seed
- Handmade wax crayons
- a plant
- a wooden toy
- a paper notebook
Buy Wooden Toys over Plastic Toys
We do own a lot of plastic toys but I do keep a look out for wooden toys too.
Ideas for wooden toys would be:
- toy kitchen & accessories like food and pans
- toy ice cream shop
- stacking toys
To kind of counter-act the fact that we have a lot of plastic toys, I buy a lot of them second-hand. This makes me feel good that we’re saving money as the toys are perfectly all right having been played with by someone else before, but also we’re saving another toy from landfill.
Celebrate Special Eco-Friendly Days/Weeks/Months Throughout the Year
- Veganuary – the entire month of January can be Veganuary where you only eat vegan foods.
- Fair Trade Fortnight – February/March
- The Great British Spring Clean – March
- Earth Day – 22nd April
- No Mow May – Leave your gardens unmown for the entire month of May to allow bees and birds and other creatures the freedom to enjoy your area.
- World Bee Day – 20th May
- World Turtle Day – 23rd May
- National Child’s Gardening Week – last week of May
- Bike Week – End of May/Start of June
- 30 Days Wild – June
- World Environment Day – 5th June
- World Oceans Day – 8th June
- International Clean Air Day – 17th June
- Plastic-free July – July
- Don’t Step on a Bee Day – 10th July
- Love Parks Week – End of July
- National Marine Week (Actually 2 weeks) End of July/start of August
- World Nature Conservation Day – 28th July
- International Tiger Day – 29th July
- National Allotment Week – August
- Organic September – September
- Great British Beach Clean – 20th September
- World Car-Free Day – 22nd September
- Recycle Week – End of September
- International Walk to School Month – October
- World Vegetarian Day – 1st October
- World Animal Day – 4th October
- Reptile Awareness Day – 20th October
- World Vegan Month – November
- International Animal Rights Day – 10th December
Grow Your Own Veg
Create your own little space – be it in your garden, an allotment or in a window box and grow your own salad or vegetables. Packets of seeds, compost and pots don’t cost the earth – pun intended! and with a little time and effort you’ll have produce to eat.
Ideas for the easiest salad and vegetables to grow:
- cress
- green beans
- carrots
- parsnips
- potatoes
- tomatoes
- rocket
- spinach
- strawberries
- rosemary
Get Outdoors and Teach Kids About Plants and Animals
Teaching kids about the plants and animals which live near them will give them a greater understanding of their importance in our eco-system. It may also make them more responsive to caring about issues regarding the destruction of habitats or other ecological issues.
You could create a worksheet with pictures of different trees, plants and animals and go hunting for them in your local park.
They could have a go with an identification app on a smart phone. When you take a photo of a plant or tree, the app tells you what it is. We tested out Google Lens today by going into Google on my phone and choosing the camera option on the search bar and found out what the beautiful flower was that had popped up in our garden overnight.
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