Taking care of the environment is a factor in dozens of little choices every day. Do you make a special trip to the store when you want just one thing? Do you buy bottled water or buy a refillable water bottle? You can engage your children in these choices and help them learn to be green too.
Ask your kids questions to get them thinking about it. "Is it better to use a paper plate and throw it away or use a dish that you're going to have to wash?" "Is it better to use a paper towel or a sponge to clean up a mess?" What are the resources used in each option? If they don't know, can they find the answer on the Internet?
My kids are exceedingly aware of the price of gas. We have two Hybrids (a subject for another post). My kids are always pointing out the big SUVs and trucks on the road as gas guzzlers and talking about how much those families probably pay for each trip. They especially love to point out the 7-passenger cars with just one person in them.
Get your kids to think about the tradeoffs. If it costs us $40 less than that SUV driver to get to the City, we can buy pizza for dinner with the money we saved.
By bringing up green issues and making them a part of my kids everyday conversations, I'm hoping the message is sinking in and that they'll use this heightened awareness in their decisions even when I'm not around.
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Vinegar - the almighty green cleaner
14 years ago
1 comment:
Asking questions seems so obvious and yet it's not a topic on which I have asked them questions. So thanks for the tip!
My 5th grade daughter has recently started talking about alternatives for new cars. She asked me why all cars aren't electric, and I pointed out a few of the drawbacks (as I understand them) of electric cars. A few days later, she told me about this idea to remake all the roads so that we could all drive maglev (magnetic levitation) cars.
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