Nurturing Eco-Conscious Kids – A Guide to Teaching Sustainability

What children learn when young stays with them throughout their whole life. This means that it’s never too early to start teaching our kids about important things in life, things such as sustainability.

Children are naturally curious and have this innate drive to understand and discover the world around them. That’s why sustainability is the perfect way to teach them about the world that surrounds them.

Through sustainability skills, children can learn different values and figure out how important are nature and the environment and how they relate to us humans. But to be able to teach them about such important topics, we need to make sustainability fun for them, especially during their early years.

If you want to ensure your children grow to be responsible adults, who care about making a positive impact, here are some tips on how to teach children sustainability and eco-friendliness.

How to teach sustainable practices to children?

Getting children’s curious minds interested in sustainability won’t be difficult. All you have to do is make learning fun and interactive. Here are some ideas and activities you can do to teach your children about sustainability both at home and in kindergarten.

• Spend time in the great outdoors

The best way to get children interested in sustainability and to make them appreciate our planet is by spending time in nature. Children who spend time in the great outdoors are more likely to feel a deeper connection to nature and to appreciate it more.

The more your kids are surrounded by nature, the easier it will be to teach them about sustainability and eco-consciousness.

So, take your kids outside, visit parks, go for hikes, spend time in the mountains, and let them explore nature and inquire about it. Simply bring your children closer to nature and they will develop a deep appreciation for our planet.

• Read stories about sustainability

Storytelling is yet another great way to get children interested in sustainability. Stories can make a great introduction to different important topics such as climate change, environment, and sustainability.

Many childcare centers such as Insight Early Learning, encourage learning about sustainability through storytelling. The best thing about storytelling is that you can start with it as early as you want.

• Try eco-friendly crafts and games

You should never diminish the importance of sustainability but you can make it more fun for children. Children are more likely to learn something if they find it fun and interesting.

That’s why an amazing way to teach children sustainability skills is through eco-friendly crafts and games.

There are tons of different eco-friendly game and craft ideas online. For example, you can use natural materials for games and various crafts. Go outdoors with your children and collect twigs, pebbles, pinecones, rocks, and shells. Searching for these objects and materials can already be a game in itself. The best part is that you can use those materials to create something with your children.

• Incorporate sustainability into your family values

Children are little sponges that soak up everything they see us do and later they emulate it. This means that as parents and caregivers, we need to lead by example. And what better way to teach our children about the importance of sustainability than by incorporating it into our family values?

Make sustainability a part of your family culture by taking care of the environment daily. Recycle, reuse, and reduce should be your family’s motto. Turn off lights when leaving the room, avoid using cars, recycle, and reuse as much as you can. When children see you doing these things, they will start doing them, too.

Similarly, cooking zero-waste meals with and for your children is a great way to incorporate sustainability into your family culture and teach them about its importance.

Which sustainable life-long skills will children learn?

With these and many other activities, our children will learn different sustainable life-long skills. Here are some great examples of what your children will learn if you start teaching them sustainability skills early on:

They will understand the environment

One of the most important lessons that children will learn through sustainability skills is to understand the environment. They will understand how the environment works and what sort of impact humans have on it. Through that, they will learn how to protect it.

By teaching children the importance of sustainability, you will help them develop a closer relationship with nature and in turn, they will protect and appreciate our planet more.

Recycle, reduce, and reuse

Children will learn the three Rs of sustainability. The earlier they learn the importance of recycling, reducing, and reusing, the better they’ll be able to protect our planet when they get older.

These three skills are crucial for protecting our environment and natural resources. Once the children learn and hone those skills, they will continue to do them later in life as well.

Water and energy efficiency

Yet another pair of skills children can learn early on. Both of these skills involve learning about different ways to save water and energy. As mentioned, you should teach your children to turn off the lights when leaving the room and turn off their devices when not using them.

Then, they can learn to turn off the water while brushing their teeth, taking shorter showers, or collecting rainwater and using it to water plants and gardens.

Tell them that all this will not only save money but also contribute to a healthier environment.

Composting and understanding where food comes from

Eco-friendliness and sustainability will teach children composting skills. Food waste is a serious matter that needs to be taken seriously. The best way we can fight against food waste is by teaching our children where the food comes from. As well as how composting is beneficial

Through these skills, children will learn to appreciate the work put into growing food. And the importance of composting and minimizing food waste. All these skills will teach them not to be wasteful to recycle what can no longer be used and to compost what can be composted.

Bottom Line

Encouraging your children to learn sustainability and eco-consciousness is a great way to teach them skills and develop knowledge that will help them make a positive change.

Teaching children about sustainability will contribute to a more sustainable and greener future.