Category Archives: Eco Friendly Parenting

Should the Schools Get Involved?

I read over on Tree Hugger that The Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation is helping to bring environmental curricula to K-12 schools. Right now they’re pretty much in New York State, but it would certainly be nice to see it expand.

Of course, not everyone will be happy about this. There will be people such as my father-in-law who will go on about “eco-nazis” taking over the schools. You probably know the rant.

It’s important to have children learn early to think about the environment. I don’t mean teach them to go nuts on the subject, but topics such as recycling, cleaning up after ourselves and not using more than necessary are certainly quite relevant. Over time these can be developed further.

Reading through their site, I learned something I hadn’t known. Vermont has written sustainability into their educational standards already. Pretty wonderful to see states working on that already. Be nice to see other states follow suit.

One of the wonderful things about teaching children at a young age to respect our environment is how well they tend to take to it. The things they learn young can stick with them for life. I especially like this quote:

This new way of thinking challenges educators, administrators and the entire community to enrich education from an early age with sustainability knowledge, beliefs and “habits of the heart”.

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Help Your Children to be Kind to the Environment

Many children today don’t learn to think at all about the environment. Others do, of course, but if there’s no example set, what else can be expected?

This is something important for all parents to consider, although it can be easier for stay at home parents such as myself to set the example.

I consider keeping to the facts to be one of the most important things you can do. You want your children to trust you, and if they find out you exaggerated, there goes some of that trust

This can be challenging. Trying to explain the issues at age appropriate levels is not easy. You can start off at a fairly young age, however. Preschoolers can be great about turning off lights and asking before throwing items in the trash or recycling bins. They love helping in the garden. All very simple, very preschooler friendly.

As they get older you can discuss some of the more serious issues. Why we don’t want to produce more garbage than we have to, for example. You can also get into why you have to be more careful about disposing of things such as electronics and batteries. Continue reading →

Encouraging Kids to Garden

One of the reasons I love renting a house instead of a garden is that we have a back yard. We don’t have a place that we can dig up for a garden, but since much of the yard is wood chips rather than lawn or other plants, we built some garden boxes from scrap lumbar and grow plants there.

My children love this. They get to see the plants grow and see where their food comes from. That makes them luckier than a lot of children, who often have a disconnect about where food comes from.

The nice thing about using containers is that you can garden even in a small space. For those raising children in apartments or condos, you can do something as simple as grow herbs in the kitchen window.

Encouraging your children to garden has many benefits. They’re often interested in eating foods that they helped to grow. The flavor is better and the produce is fresh as can be. Continue reading →

PBS Planning Earth Friendly Programming for Earth Day

I read this over on Green Options and thought I would share it with my fellow parents. My daughter loves watching PBS Kids, so we’ll probably catch a few of these shows.

The lineup isn’t just children’s programming, of course, but that’s the part that interests me most. With a 4 year old and a 2 year old, children’s programming is a big part of what appears on our television. And of course the chance for the kids to get environmentally responsible ideas is a good thing always.

This all starts late in March and runs through April.

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How Much Can a Stay at Home Mom Really Do For the Environment?

Why is it that when women talk about being a stay at home mother, many describe themselves as being “just” a stay at home mom? I’ve always felt that there’s nothing so simple about it. As a stay at home mom you have the power to make a big difference for your family or even for others.

I like to think about the environment, for example. There are plenty of things you can do around the home to make sure that your family lives in a more environmentally friendly way. Some of it can even save money, which is often near and dear to the stay at home mother’s heart.

You’re always home, so that probably means you’re always using some electricity. But at some times of the year you can cut down on your electricity usage by something as simple as opening the blinds during the day and letting the sun light the house. This may not work in the dead of winter or when it’s so hot during the summer that you’d have to turn on the air conditioning, but it can be effective. Continue reading →