Teaching Kids To Love And Care For Nature

One of the roles of a parent in a child’s life is as a teacher. Parents are the very first teachers children have. From teaching them their first words to guiding their first steps to teaching them about good manners and proper conduct, most kids have their parents to thank.

And while a formal education is an area best left to professional educators, instilling the correct values and morals falls on parents making their children grow up to be socially responsible individuals.

This includes having compassion and love for the earth and nature. Basic things such as throwing their trash properly or tree care are concepts that aren’t too hard for kids to grasp. A parent doesn’t need to be an environmentalist with extensive knowledge to teach kids to love the environment. You have to be conscientious and care about nature to do so.

Here are a few simple ways that parents can teach and model a love for the environment at home:

Replace bad habits with good ones

Getting rid of bad habits will always start with education. In this case, the correct information about the world’s environmental issues and pointing out which negative patterns contribute to its worsening condition allows people to evaluate their lifestyle. Some introspective reflection about our way of life and choices will make us all aware of things that aren’t beneficial in the long run.

If we want our children to become more conscious about nature, we need to be aware of the habits we need to replace and start building new ones.

Take time to review the products around your house.

As we take the time to reflect and evaluate our way of living, we should also look at what we have at home and its impact on the environment. The truth is that the things we buy for our personal or household consumption are environmentally safe. This goes for some cosmetics, household products, and even furniture. A lot of these products have high toxic chemical content that is harmful to the environment. It would be best to switch to green products not just for the environment’s safety but for your family’s, too.

Practice the Three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

One of the best ways to instill a more profound love for children’s environment is to teach them the importance of the Three Rs: reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Teach your kids how to reduce their waste both in and outside your home. Lessen the use of plastic bags, paper towels, and other items made from non-biodegradable materials.

Show them how to reuse certain things instead of throwing them out. Anytime you reuse something, the amount of trash that takes up space in a landfill also goes down.

Lastly, be the role models of recycling at home. Other than adequately segregating your trash, teaching kids to recycle will give them a sense of more significant contribution to the cause.

Minimize or eliminate the use of plastic in your home

Plastic is one of those inventions that have brought so much convenience to all of us. However, it has also become one of the leading sources of the earth’s pollution and causes of degradation in the same breath.

It has proven helpful as it has been used as the material to build all sorts of devices, including life-saving ones such as heart valves. On the other hand, single-use plastic bags and other pieces of plastic containers take a lot longer to decompose.

Minimizing your family’s use of plastic materials can help reduce the amount of plastic waste produced per household.

Clean green

As mentioned earlier, a lot of household products contain high levels of toxic chemicals. Suppose you intend to promote environmental awareness in your family. In that case, you will need to replace your existing cleaning agents with more eco-friendly ones made from natural and organic materials. This helps protect the environment and keep your family safe, too.

Spend plenty of time outdoors

Lastly, one of the best ways to make your children love the earth is to carve out time regularly to be one with nature. Make them fall in love with it by spending as much time as you can outdoors. Plan weekend hiking or camping trips with them. Take a walk around the neighborhood or have a family picnic in the park. Play games in the backyard. Spending time outdoors gives one a greater connection and a more profound love for it.

Raising kids that genuinely love and care for the environment gives their generation a better chance at having a better world where clean air and water are available, and the earth’s natural resources are plentiful.