How to Help Save the Planet with Young Children
There seems to be a belief that saving the planet is hard. This may be due to ‘all or nothing’ accounts on Instagram or YouTube that leave people feeling like they are failing if they have a bad day (or like I just have, a bad month!). But this really isn’t the case.
Yes, some days it can be hard to do the right thing. Many times it does cost a bit extra or take a bit more time or effort, but there are so many different ways you can make a difference in everyday life and plenty of ways to get your children involved as well. By involving them from the early years they will grow up with a deep love and respect for our planet and be the generation that can make the biggest impact towards helping stop the climate crisis. And it is a crisis. We cannot recycle our way out of this situation so the more we can build more natural means into our daily lives the better.
I would like to state that I believe that the most important thing you can do with children is to talk to them about it. Answer their questions (there will be many) and if you don’t know the answers tell them that and research them together. Sometimes this can be hard. I regularly explain to my children that we cannot buy what they are asking for because it’s not vegan and then explain to them why we are vegan, in the middle of the supermarket, while people sometimes watch, or even on occasion make comments (not all bad).
At Home
Turn the lights off
Yes I know this sounds annoyingly simple and something your mum said dozens of times but it’s true. Making sure you turn the lights off can make a big difference; with small children, I often find myself with all of the lights in the house left on where we have moved from room to room. Just try and be a bit more conscious about turning them off and your children will too – my three-year-old now reminds me which is a great help. Also, give your lightbulbs a dust every now and again as dusty ones use more electricity than clean ones!
Use Natural Cleaning Products
Use homemade (we have an all-purpose cleaner blog post here) or as natural as possible cleaning products. If you do buy them why not look to get them refilled at bulk shops to save on plastic waste; these are becoming increasingly popular and therefore more accessible, which is fab.
Buy recycled products
Like recycled paper for drawing on or toilet rolls (we get ours from Who Gives a Crap). Explain that this helps save cutting down millions of trees and uses the resources that we already have. This is a great way to introduce children to the concept of reusing objects and materials and explaining that the earth’s resources are not endless.
Eat less meat
Yes, being vegan is the best option. It’s best for your health (in my opinion), best for the planet and best for the animals. But if you can’t stop eating cheese or drinking milk then try cutting out the meat and eggs, or whichever bits you think are achievable. If you don’t want to cut anything out then try having one or two vegan days a week; anything you do to consume fewer animal products will make a difference.
And why not go a step further; talk to your children about why you are changing the way you eat, explain to them where your food comes from, and show them how to cook. This not only makes them better educated about their food but more likely to eat what is produced at the end of it.
Buy Secondhand toys
We’ve touched on this in other posts, but we are huge fans of buying second-hand toys. It saves you lots of money and is hugely beneficial to the environment as many toys these days are made from plastic. And, as mentioned above, it is also a really good way to introduce children to the concept of reusing objects and materials and explaining that the earth’s resources are not endless.
Outside
Plant bee-friendly flowers
This is a nice pretty one to do. If you are lucky enough to have a flower bed or space for a few pots you can plant some bee-friendly and/or butterfly-friendly flowers. These will be native flowers with lots of nectar for the bees and butterflies to enjoy. This is made easier these days as many places will put little symbols on the labels to let you know if you have chosen a flower loved by a bee or butterfly. The children particularly enjoy this one and we enjoy explaining to them what “Mr Bee” is up to.
Install a water butt
If your children are older this is something they can help with or watch you install. Quite simply, the water butt collects all the rainwater that runs down your roof and through your gutters and reserves it for future use. This can be particularly useful in the summertime when rain is less frequent – I believe that children of any age enjoy filling up a watering can and watering flowers, I certainly still do.
Grow your own
Growing your own food has taken a wonderful upswing since lockdown started and I’m hoping this becomes a more normal part of life for everyone. Growing our own food and buying as much as we can locally helps massively to reduce our carbon footprint and is a great activity you can get children involved in too. It involves mud and water so my children love the whole process, from planting seeds to watering, right through to harvesting the produce. They also love going to our local greengrocers and seeing all the vegetables arranged means they are much more likely to try them when they are bought. Their current favourite vegetable is aubergine.
Don’t use slug pellets
Putting slug pellets down kills hedgehogs so we don’t use them. Yes, the slugs may get a few more of your plants but it’s better to overplant and accept a few will be sacrificed to the slugs rather than to kill a hedgehog.
Do a nature survey
We enjoy doing the RSPB bird survey where you make a note of which species of birds visit your garden and how often you see them. There are many different surveys out there to take part in and it’s a great way to bond as a family and explore your own back garden.
Build an insect hotel!
We are all very excited to build ours (hopefully) this summer. We got the idea from the big insect hotel at Wildwood and the children are super excited to help Dada make it (mostly watching and passing him tools), but it’s increased their interest in bees, ladybirds, and ants tenfold.
Reusable lunch boxes and Bottles
A reusable lunch box for adults and children means less packaging and rubbish. Take the time to experiment with what people love to eat to create everyone’s perfect lunch and then pack them up and go exploring in nature together! And don’t forget your water bottle, much better for the planet than a plastic one.
If it’s not far, don’t use the car
Walk if you can. Fewer cars mean less pollution which is bad for humans and animals, not to mention the issues surrounding carbon dioxide they are adding to the atmosphere.
Litter picking
You can join in with an organised event or just start taking a bag and some gloves with you when you go for a walk. Our two littles have grown up doing this and now expect to do it on walks and when we take a trip to the beach. Once they are expecting it we find it’s best to pop their gloves on as soon as you leave the house so they don’t pick up anything with bare hands. We also have a no glass for toddlers rule, only Mama and Dada can collect that.
I could go on about this for hours, it’s something I’m really passionate about, but I’ve just realised this has ended up being a rather long post.
What do you do to help teach your children about saving the planet? And which of these ideas will you be adding to your daily lives? We’d love to know so please do leave us a comment!
Livvy and Summer
