Humans are part of nature, but often are mistaken because we think we own it. We exist by nature, it provides us with food and shelter. Unfortunately, many times aren’t grateful and we exploit nature. Read on to learn how you can teach your family toprotect the environment and begin thinking in a new way about nature.
Caring for the environment begins at home
To respect nature you have to really want to. So, teaching your children to respect nature requires instilling in them a genuine care for nature. They have to care in order to want to take care of it.
Imagine your child seeing you throw a cigarette butt out the window of your car. Or imagine your child seeing you using plastic water bottles. What kind of example are you sending them? It is in these small ways that we teach our kids that we don’t really care about protecting the environment.
In order to teach your children to protect the environment, the first thing you should and must do as parents is to lead by example. In order to transmit these values, your children must be convinced that small actions to protect the environment are good and what is more important, they actually help.
Teach about environmental care
So, what are some actions you can begin to embody for your children? Here I explain some tips for caring family environment that virtually anyone can begin to perform, regardless of means.
Less baths and showers
Everyone likes a warm bath, but do you really need to be clean? Imagine the amount of water that can be saved in the world if we all decided shower. Obviously, I’m not saying that you should never shower. But you don’t need to shower everyday to still be generally clean. So, cut back on baths and showers and save water.
Reduce waste at home
Imagine if everyone reduced household trash and reused things such as glass jars, plastic bags, aluminum foil, etc. Show your kids that you should reuse what you can and recycle the rest.
Play with your children using recycled materials
For example,you can make a rattle with a bottle and chickpeas, a house with boxes large cardboard … imagination has no limits! From a young age, teach kids that they don’t need fancy toys and gizmos to have a good time. They can reuse everyday products and with a little imagination, they can have a great time.
Go shopping with cloth bags
Buy cloth bags to avoid the indiscriminate use of plastic bags, which are harmful to the environment. Cloth bags are cheap and go a long way toward reducing the amount of waste we produce.
Saving water and electricity
Teach your children not to let the water run when they aren’t using it and to turn the lights off when it is no longer necessary to have all the lights on.
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
Finally, show that you are willing to make sacrifices to help the environment. Make upgrades to your home to make it more energy efficient. Expert Toledo roofers have outlined a number of ways you can make your home more energy efficient from upgrades as simple as installing new windows and a cool roof to upgrades as complicated as installing solar panels. Even though such upgrades can be expensive and may take a long time to pay off, they are absolutely necessary to reducing our harmful effects on the environment. By showing your kids that you are willing to make financial sacrifices to save the environment, you show them how important it is.
With all these tips you can start caring for the environment as a family. And remember to encourage your children to work for the environment themselves by coming up with games for caring for the environment. So, in addition to family fun, help our planet.