Earth Day and kids go hand in hand. This is a special day set aside to bring awareness to conservation efforts and help educate people on how to be more earth friendly. Green Parenting is all about teaching our kids the importance of the environment. Parents can use April 22nd to teach their kids how to respect the earth and what they can do to make a difference.
One thing that most people do anyway is to recycle. If you don’t, contact your trash service and request recycling pick up. Most trash companies will do this for free, but you may need to use their special recycling bin. Kids can learn to recycle in several different ways. First, teach them how to identify whether an item is able to be recycled or not. The easiest way to check this is to look for the recycling symbol on the item. Things like plastic bottles and newspapers are almost always recyclable.
Recycling Made Fun
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A fun way to get kids involved in recycling is to make a recycling center and put the kids in charge of it. Make different bins for paper, plastic, and glass or cans. Let the kids make the labels for the different bins and decorate them however they want to. Then when something needs to be recycled, they can be in charge of putting it in the correct bin. This is great for preschoolers also, since it teaches sorting and helping. And kids of all ages can learn the importance of helping the family and the earth! Here is a list of Recycling Sites for Kids. One of them and my favorite is whenwomeninspire.com.
Create a Bird Feeder
Another great earth day project for kids is to create a bird feeder from something that would normally be thrown away, like a milk jug. Clean the jug and cut a hole in the side opposite the handle. Tie a string to the handle or around the cap and hang it from a tree. Fill the jug with bird seed and watch the birds have a snack. You can then talk to your kids about reusing things to reduce waste. You could also talk about the effects that unnecessary waste has on wildlife, like the pretty birds that you are watching in your backyard.
Watch this video with your kids for some create homemade bird feeder designs for Earth Day!
Community Events
Find out if your community has anything spec
ial planned for Earth Day. If they do, take your kids along and volunteer. Being actively involved in a project to help the earth will help your kids remember the lesson you want them to learn much better than a just a conversation.
Earth Day Recipe Kids will love:
Do you want something fun and simple that all kids will love? Make your own edible dirt. All you need to do is prepare instant chocolate pudding. Fold in thawed whipped topping. Crush some chocolate sandwich cookies and have some gummy worms on hand. In clear cup spoon some of the crushed cookies into the bottom. Then add some of the pudding and whipped topping mixture. Garnish with more crushed cookies and some gummy worms. All of a sudden, your kids have made their own dirt complete with worms! And it’s delicious!
Any of these projects will help emphasize the importance of giving back to the earth. Kids learn best with hands on projects, so dive in and have some fun. You and your kids will remember this Earth Day for many years to come.
Be sure to also check out our article –> Teaching Kids the Importance of Earth Day
What a wonderful post! This is really responsible parenting in action. Teaching children how to understand how to make a positive impact on their world is a fantastic idea.
Nice post, I enjoyed it a lot. I love your idea of the kids being in charge of the ‘recycling center’.
Thanks!
Love these ideas!