How to Teach Your Children About the Importance of Environmental Protection
As the world grows, you might want to teach your children to appreciate nature and why it is important to protect the environment. There are several ways you can teach about the environment by spending time outdoors, saving water, visiting polluted sites, showing photos of pollution, and helping clean up a beach or park. Good parenting can involve teaching kids the importance of protecting the environment.
Spend Time Outdoors Exercising
Spend time outdoors, exercising, walking, biking, or hiking at local beaches and parks. When you go walking or hiking in parks, point out some of the amazing plants, trees, birds, and small animals. Children love to learn about plants and animals. Playing softball, volleyball, swimming, and other sports at parks will be an active way for children to learn to enjoy being outdoors. Watch birds in the backyard come to the bird feeder, smell flowers when in bloom, collect and learn about several types of rocks and shells. Outdoor activities build an appreciation of the environment.
Teach Them To Save Water
At home, you can teach children how to save water by starting out when they are young. In the bathroom, let them take a shower instead of a bath and give them 10 to 15 minutes to complete the task. Explain to them that showers use less water than baths. If they want a bath, fill the tub up half full to conserve water. You can use leftover water from running the tap to water the plants and grass in the yard. Teach them to load the dishwasher and make sure it is completely full before you wash the dishes. Collect water in a rain barrel outdoors to use for watering the plants. Teaching kids about conserving water is a part of parenting.
Turn Off Electronic Devices
With so many electronic devices being used in the home, turning off your devices will save electricity. You can teach children to turn off the TV, laptop, or electronic devices when not in use. Limit the time they spend on the computer, TV, or cell phone to a few hours a day.
Using VOIP has proven to save money when added to your cell phones. VOIP costs on average about $20 to $30 per month. It provides cheaper long-distance calls and can be added to several lines when you use more than one. Electronics are here to stay and learning to save energy using them is an important part of parenting and teaching children about conserving energy.
Visit Polluted Sites and Show Photos of Pollution
Visit polluted areas that show how chemicals, gas, and oil from companies pollute the water, air, and soil. This is an immensely powerful learning experience. Visiting the town dump where our garbage is brought, visiting polluted beaches or parks with litter can show kids how pollution is bad for the environment.
A picture is worth a thousand words, and you can visit websites that show photos of pollution around the world. Visit the sites and look at the photos. Some of these sites are Pollution Around the World, Pollution/National Geographic, and Pollution in the US. There are almost 125 oil rigs in operation in the Gulf of Mexico. Did you know oil and gas drilling releases fumes that promote climate change and destroy wildlife habitats?
Help Clean Up A Local Beach or Park
Get your kids involved in local environmental cleanup of local beaches or parks by picking up litter and garbage and making it a place for others to enjoy going to. Participating in a community event with others can give children a chance to learn to improve the environment and appreciate local parks and beaches. Planting flowers, herbs, and vegetables in a local community center or community gardens can be another way for children to learn to improve the environment. Participation in environmental conservation is good parenting skills. Some corporations pollute the air, water, and soil with the chemicals they use. In 2015, despite this, the federal government collected 11% of taxes from corporations.
These are some of the ways to instruct your children about environmental issues and conservation. There are many ways parenting can incorporate protecting the environment into their daily lives.