7 Ways To Help Your Tot Develop A Green Thumb This World Environment Day

7 Ways To Help Your Tot Develop A Green Thumb This World Environment Day

3 Jun 2015 | 6 min Read

Baby Chakra

Author | 501 Articles

In our last post we shared some tips on how you can engage your child in fun recycling projects. Now we take this a step further

It is famously said, “Charity begins at home” – however, as we approach World Environment Day lets give age old saying a little spin, and instead say, “Responsibility begins at home”. There have been enough and more reports on how our planet our home is in a state of peril. So we are not going to discuss the statistics here. You have the news for that. What we will however urge you to do today is to envision your child’s future. A decade, two decades, even five decades from now. What do you see? Envision your child’s life long after you are gone? What does it look like? Do you see her enjoying a holiday with her family at the beach? Do you see your son, all grown up, taking his family on a trek over the weekend, a nature walk perhaps.

What if we told you, none of this would be possible if you don’t start helping him build exactly that future today? It’s not as far as we think. Which is why, as we observe World Environment Day, we urge you to once again think about the new saying we coined – Responsibility begins at home. For if you like every other parent, envisions a future world for your child where he/she is able to enjoy the abundance of nature like you have in your growing up years, then its time to start acting now. Teaching your child to be a responsible and conscious citizen of this planet is the only way you can ensure that they get a chance at enjoying a future they truly deserve.

As with anything, children learn best from what they see around them and when something becomes a natural part of their daily life. So it is, when it comes to saving the environment too. Don’t let consciousness about the environment be something that is only a school project that needs to be submitted, instead take active steps to help your child be a responsible citizen from a young age, and here are some handy tips to help you do just that.


1. Recycle, Reuse Rethink:
No we areasking you to turn your house into a junkyard by hoarding all the stuff you don’t need. However it’s a great way to show your child how you can reuse something that had been deemed useless. We have shared some great ideas for recycling on our next post, so you can go through those to see what suits you, and what’s more it can be a great craft activity for your child too.


2. Energy Saver:
The best way to teach a child anything is to make him in charge. Children love to display authority and shoulder responsibility around the house. It makes them feel more included and important. So make your child in charge of saving electricity and resources around the house when they are not being used. He can also report about any leaky faucets. And if you want to make the experience more rewarding you can even have a star chart for your little energy saver, and ensure it becomes second nature for your child to be a responsible user of resources

3. Connect With Nature: In an technology driven world, children are often shuttling from one indoor environment to the next with bursts of technology and screen driven entertainment keeping them busy. However, it’s important that you make a conscious effort to help your child connect with nature. Make it a habit to regularly visit parks and local gardens where you’ll take a stroll together. Play games that will interest your child in the wonders of nature, like spotting different coloured bugs or making a dried leaves crown, climbing trees or just a simple picnic in the city park on weekends. Let nature become an important part of his life.

4. Gardening Time: At least once a month let your child plant something new in the house or at the local park. Get him his own set of gardening tools and make it a fun day out for both you and him. And if you are planting a seed in a pot in your house you can begin by using a recycled planter pot. You can also assign him with the duty of watering the plants in the house every day and inculcate the habit of looking after them.

5. Giving Back: Ever so often we get caught up in our daily lives and forget about our larger role in the society.That of giving back to the planet we take so much from. And the best way to do this is to get engaged in some volunteer work in your locality. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate plan, but rather a simple activity that the entire family can participate in and feel good about contributing to. A clean up drive in the complex you live in, a drive for collection of old toys that can be reused by lesser privileged children are great ways to involve your children in giving back to our society and setting the right example for them to follow.

6. Travel Time: Another handy tip that can go a long way in saving the environment is being a conscious traveller. Encourage the use of car pools, public transport or walking whenever possible are great ways to reduce energy use and control emissions in your own little way. As always your child will look at you for cues on how to conduct himself, and the habits that you form right now are ones that he is likely to have in the future too


7. Read And Share:
Lastly, there is nothing a good book cant teach a child, so pick up books that encourage responsible behaviour towards the environment. Share stories on how the Earth can get damaged if we don’t act responsibly now, and also make it a fun experience for your child to learn and understand how we contribute to the society we live in.

With these few changes and little effort from your end you could help your child grow up into a conscious youngster who cares and acts for the environment that he lives in. Do you have any tips that you would like to share as we celebrate World Environment Day, on making our children the responsible citizens of tomorrow?

#environment #momhacks

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