What is Earth Day?
Every year on April 22nd the world comes together to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment.
Here are 10 ways to celebrate and teach your children about Earth Day:
Reduce electricity
Explain to your children that lights, computers, televisions and furnaces use energy, and that energy is in short supply. “Turn it off” if you are leaving the room.
Take small steps
There are dozens of small things your kids can do every day to save energy and keep the world cleaner and greener. Your kids can:
- Shut off the water when they brush their teeth
- Walk, ride a bike or take the bus instead of traveling by car
- Take faster showers or baths in just a small amount of water
- Help hang clothes on the line instead of putting them in the dryer
- Choose products that are not over packaged
Recycle
Explain to your kids that every bottle and can they use is waste that just sits in a big pile at the local dump if we don’t recycle. Get them involved by making it their job to sort recyclables and take them out for pickup. If there’s no recycling collection in your area, find out where you can drop off items.
Compost
It’s easy to collect your own food scraps and garden waste and turn it into healthy compost in your own yard.
Do a donation tour
A great way to get across the message of “reuse” and “recycle” is to take kids on a trip to your local thrift store, recycling center, or church. If your children have old clothing, toys, shoes, or other items in reusable condition, make a family trip down to the donation center so they can see how their trash is someone else’s treasure. Teach kids how items can be reused for different purposes–for example old towels, blankets, and comforters can often be donated to local animal shelters for bedding. These real-life examples will teach kids that many items they would normally throw away can actually have a second life.
Write a letter
Your children can write letters to government leaders and corporations about pollution and other environmental issues, and you can give them a hand in looking up addresses and help them decide what they’re going to write. Talk about how you live in a democracy and every voice counts, no matter how small.
Make a reusable bag
Plastic shopping bags are a big garbage problem — it takes 1,000 years for a bag to break down! Have your kids help you choose some heavy fabric and sew it into simple rectangular bags with handles. Or, buy some canvas bags at a craft or environmentally friendly gift shop. Then use fabric pens to draw pictures on them. Take the bags out with you every time you shop.
Do a project
If your child has an independent research project coming up at school, suggest she tackle an environmental issue like pollution, garbage or energy.
Enjoy the earth
Kids have to love the world to want to protect it. So take nature walks and look at the trees, flowers and sky. When you’re away on vacation, don’t forget to enjoy the local natural environment, not just the tourist sites. Encourage them to take pictures, draw pictures, read books and write stories about the world and its beauty.
Talk about it
Aking your children to shut off the lights and reuse plastic bags is not enough — they must understand why we’re doing these things and what impact they might have.
Here are a few “green” merchants on the ShareASale network to help you celebrate!!
Bean Products, Inc.
15% Commission and a 30 Day Cookie
Join Now!
Environmental Elements
3% Commission and a 30 Day Cookie
Join Now!
District Cotton
20% Commission, 90 Day Cookie, Auto Deposit and Datafeed
Join Now!
Novica.com
6% Commission and a 30 Day Cookie
Join Now!
For more “green” merchant ideas check out our “green directory“… Happy Earth Day!!!
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