Week 38 - Green the Next Generation

We have 8 more days until Christmas and I was thinking it would be a great time to introduce the idea of green living to your kids. While you are shopping for their gifts, pick up a little something that will teach them about environmentalism. The key is to not only give them something to create awareness, but to give them something they connect with.

Gifts Which Describe the Earth

Kids may have a tough time understanding the concepts of “the earth” or “global warming”. They haven’t learned the world extends far beyond their home or neighborhood. What we have to do is show them the earth and space, to help them understand there is more than what they can actually see. There are a few ways we can do this.

Globes - They show kids what the earth looks like. Kids always think its fun when you show them where they live, where other family members live, and where people on the other side of the world live.

Atlases - Like a globe but includes detailed information. Not only detailed maps but also detailed cultural information. So for example, when you tell your child to turn the water off when brushing their teeth because water is a luxury that the majority of the people in the world do not have, you can show them the different places in the world where people don’t have access to running water. It makes ideas concrete.

Nationalgeographic.com offers:

1. An extremely detailed (and pricey) atlas at $99 - $165


2. An award winning Atlas for Kids ages 8 - 12 at $24.95


3. And a Student Atlas for $19.95

Magazine Subscription - A subscription to National Geographic Kids is a great gift. It brings the world to your child. It provides information, photos, games and ideas on ways kids can help. Ensure you teach your child to not only share the mag with friends, but to recycle it too.

Gardening

What better way to teach your child about locally grown food than to give them a book about growing vegetables? Nothing is more local than your own backyard. If you include kid sized gardening gloves, a trowel and a packet of seeds, you’re child will be chomping at the bit for spring!

One of the best kid books about gardening is Roots Shoots Buckets & Boots by Sharon Lovejoy. The book offers a lot of fun activities for kids to do in the garden. There are projects like, planting a pizza garden and making a sunflower house.

Supporting Wildlife

If your child loves birds, butterflies, bats and toads what would be a better gift than something that will help them provide a habitat for those animals, bringing them closer to home for better observation.

Buy a bird house, seed and a book about the birds in your area. Purchase a butterfly or bat house and again include books about local species. Same goes for a toad house; your child will be excited to place it in the new garden they will make this spring.

Support Their Cause

If your child has a favorite animal, “adopt” that animal in their name. You can do this by visiting worldwildlife.org or your local zoo’s website. In most cases you get a stuffed animal as a thank you for your support. Wrap the stuffed animal with a book or DVD about that animal and explain to your child that you have adopted it. Go online together to see pictures and what the adoption means. Your child will feel very proud they are helping something they care about.

All About Recycling

Kids typically enjoy recycling because kids like collecting things. When they get older the novelty sometimes wears off. One way to continue encouraging recycling is to move the focus from collecting to utilizing. Crafts are the way to do this; here the focus now becomes the “reuse” aspect of the 3Rs.

There are many good books out there, but one particularly good book is entitled, Good Earth Art, Environmental Art for Kids by MaryAnn Kohl and Cindy Gainer. This book features more than two hundred projects, and includes ideas for painting and drawing, sculpture and mobiles, collage and printing, weaving and crafts, and handmade art supplies all emphasizing the use of found objects. So if you have a budding artist, this is the way to go!

DVDs

There are a ton of DVDs about the earth, the environment, animal life etc., but if there is one gift you get for your family this holiday season, it should be: The Planet Earth Series (I know I've said it a lot). It truly brings the world home!

With a little thought we can educate our kids in a fun way without being preachy or making them feel they got “ripped off” (present wise). When you give your child a gift that not only informs them but gives them the power to change something, you truly give a gift to the earth!