Tips for Raising Eco Friendly Kids

Raising eco friendly children involved being an eco friendly and environmentally conscious parent.

Some of the ways to get kids to become more environmentally conscious about the impact their actions have on the planet is to incorporate eco friendly habits into daily living. 

1. Teach children about recycling and make sure they recycle.
2. Show them about ways to save energy.
3. Make sure they learn how to reduce and reuse water by turning off water when it is not in use and save running water.
4. Teach them to turn out lights. Have them remind you to turn out the lights.
5. Get them to be more eco friendly at school.
6. Have them learn how to pack a no trash lunch and bring reusable utensils
7. Learn to say "No" to buying water bottles. Use reusable bottles.
8. Get them involved with a school recycling program.
9. Make sure the family brings reusable shopping bags when shopping. Buy products in containers that can be recycled.
10. Have them help grow a family garden
11. Hold recycling or swapping parties to recycle toys, books, clothes and costumes.
12. Get them reading about being more eco friendly.

Even young children can learn how to recycle, turn off lights and water to save energy.

Disney's Friends for Change Project Green
Disney's Friends for Change Project Green is about taking steps together with your friends to help the planet. Friends for Change helps kids help the planet by inspiring kids to work together to make small daily changes that add up to a big difference.

Disney Friends for Change ToolKits
Download different Friends for Change ToolKits to Green Your Scene, Be more Book Smart, Learn what you can do about the Oceans, Discover ways to Make Yourself Heard and more.

Children can become more eco friendly by learning how to save energy by powering down appliances, using power strips and reusable batteries. 

Teach children to

1. Power down appliances like computers when not in use.
2. Plug cell phones and electronic game chargers into a power strip. Then power down the power strip whenever the electronics are not in use.
3. Adjust the thermostat. Turn heaters down at least two degrees in the winter and turn air conditioners up at least two degrees in the summer.
4. Wash laundry in cold water.

Unplugging devices, washing in cold water and lowering and raising the thermostat can help save a lot of energy. These simple action can make a big difference by saving energy, saving money and reducing the impact on the planet.

One key way to raise more eco friendly children is to teach them to use water wisely by watching the amount of water used. Fixing leaks, turning it off when it is not needed and limiting the amount of water used for showering or washing a car can make a big difference.

• Turn off the water in between when washing your hands. 
• Turn off the water when brushing your teeth.
• Save water in a container while waiting for the water to heat up in the sink or the shower. Use the saved water to water plants or for cleaning dishes.
• Rinse dishes off while the food is still fresh. It will take more water if the food dries out.
• Run only wash full loads of laundry or dishes.
• Decrease the amount of time in the shower, so everyone takes a shorter shower.
• Don't use the toilet as a wastebasket. Flush only after using the toilet.
• Fix faucet leaks.
• Water plants during the morning or evening, when it is cooler. Avoid watering during the hottest part of the day. It will be lost to evaporation.

There are many ways that energy can be saved with lights and appliances.

1. Turn out the lights when they are not in use, whenever you leave a room.
2. Post signs near light switches to remind people to turn off the lights.
3. Replace standard light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL).
4. Buy energy-saving lights. 
5. Power off electrical appliances when not in use.

Even young children can help by reminding older siblings and parents to turn out the lights.

There are many ways for kids to be more eco friendly at school, from the school and lunch supplies that they buy to recycling school materials.

• Ride the bus to school.
• Cover books with recycled materials like brown bags, tin-foil or even tyvek envelopes.
• Use recycled paper and recycled notebooks.
• Use recycled or refillable pencils.
• Recycle school papers at school and at home.
• Participate in school-wide recycling activities.
• Pack lunch in a reusable lunch box or lunch bag.
• Take a reusable water bottle
• Pack no waste lunches
• Encourage teachers to turn off lights.

Another fun way to get kids to be more eco friendly it to organize a book, toys. clothes or costume swapping event. This encourages children to reuse their books, toys and clothes. It is particularly popular with parents around Halloween to be able to get new Halloween costumes.

Getting Environmentally Friendly at School
These days, school is about more than learning how to read, write, and do arithmetic. Waste management and conservation are important, too.

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Great Seneca Creek Elementary School was the first public school in Maryland to receive certification as "eco-friendly" — a concept catching on in schools around the nation. Eco-friendly schools offer ways to save energy, improve air quality and educate students about the environment.

BACK TO SCHOOL: Eco-friendly school supplies
Going back to school not only means class registration and mentally gearing up for another year of concentrated learning- it usually involves a good deal of shopping. Texbooks are just the beginning- the little things like pencils, pens, paper, and notebooks, can really add up- for your wallet and for the environment. So make greener choices this year and go back to school in sustainable academic style.

According to Nubius Organics the average "brown bag" lunch can create between 4–8 ounces of garbage everyday. Over a school year's time, this can add up to 100 pounds of trash.

Preparing a No Trash Lunch or a No Waste Lunch involves eliminating disposable paper and plastic packaging, utensils and wrappings.

1. Start with a reusable lunch bag, not a brown paper throw-away.
2. Pack food in reusable containers - sandwich containers, sandwich wraps, fruit containers, snack containers.
3. Make your own applesauce, yogurt and fruit containers. Buy the largest containers available and package them into reusable single sized containers.
4. Use cloth napkins in place of paper.
5. Pack reusable utensils.
6. Bring drinks in reusable water bottles.

Tips for a No Waste Lunch at Home and at School
Did you know that if you use a disposable lunch, you create between 4–8 ounces of garbage everyday? That can add up to as much as 100 pounds per year!

Pack a No Waste Lunch for a Cleaner Planet, Healthier You
Packing a No Waste Lunch is healthy, eco-friendly, and more economical than buying prepared, to-go food. The average disposable “brown bag” lunch creates between 4–8 ounces of garbage everyday. That can add up to as much as 100 pounds per year! Not only do prepared and processed foods contain excess packaging, they are also up to 25% more expensive.

Can You Pack a No-Waste Lunch?
Billions of plastic baggies, over a billion pounds of trash, and countless fields of food are tossed into elementary and high school wastebaskets in America each year. Americans pitch 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. Clearly no one is going to suggest that we’re a very “green” nation with such practices. But we’re getting better at it. Low-waste and waste-free lunch packing is thankfully becoming more mainstream in America.

How to Pack a Waste Free Lunch
This is a very easy change you can make for the environment. By carrying your lunch this way, you also avoid trips to restaurants or the cafeteria and you can eat better. Try packing a lunch without any trash left.

Getting children involved in starting or participating in their school's recycling program is a great way to help them learn about volunteering and helping out in the community.

If their school doesn't have a recycling program, getting started can be pretty simple.

1. Find out who else is interested in doing recycling (teachers, parents, custodians, administrators and other children).
2. Organize a team, establish a club and/or get student government involved that includes students, teachers, parents and administrators.
3. Decide what can be recycled, where it can be recycled and where recyclables can be stored on campus.
4. Get recycling containers. You may need a container for every classroom.
5. Make sure kids and teachers know about using the recycling containers.
6. Figure out how the recyclables will be picked up. This will likely involve the custodial staff, students and possibly some parents.
7. Once a critical amount is reached, take the recyclables into the recycling center.
8. If the club gets money back for recycling, they need to decide what to do with the money. Perhaps finding a local cause that could use extra funds.
9. Recruit new students for the following year.

By recycling at school there is likely to be a lot less garbage going into the dumpsters which will made the adminstration and the school board happy. 

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Ever thought of starting a recycling program in your school? Well, here are some great tips to make it happen.

Action Tips: Start a School Recycling Program
Start a recycling program at your school. It might take some work, but its well worth it.

Paper Recycling at School
Paper recycling provides great educational value for students and their families. By using the links below, educators and students can find a variety of standards-based activities that highlight the opportunities for increased paper recovery in their own schools and homes.

Setting Up a School Recycling and Waste Reduction Program
Tips from the San Mateo County RecycleWorks to set up a school recycling program.

Start a School Recycling Program
Tips from the St. Charles County Office of Environmental Health and Protection in Missouri.

One of the easiest ways to get kids involved in being more eco friendly is getting them to bring along the reusable shopping bags every time the family goes shopping.

The family can also bring reusable produce bags to cut down on plastic.

When shopping look for containers and packaging that can be recycled or reused.

Image © Kirsti A. Dyer

Remember - Bring the Reusable Bags
Every day, people forget their reusable bags and end up taking items home in more plastic or paper bags; this completely defeats the purpose of buying reusable bags in the first place. One of my summer projects is to make bringing the reusable bags another habit.

Reusable Snack Bags - Reusable Sandwich Bags
I realized when figuring out 15 Ways to Minimize Your Impact on the Garbage Island that I needed to find a way to minimized the number of plastic bags we use weekly in making the girls lunches for school.

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The idea for this lens came out of what we did last year for Halloween. We decided to take the girls to a downtown trick or treating and costume parade at the last minute.

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One way of going greener this year for Christmas is to wrap presents and gifts with bags, towels, scarves and other items can be used long after the gift has been opened. Using resuable items for gift wrap is good for the environment and is another way to give a second gift with your holiday present.

A fun way to get kids more aware of the planet and where food comes from is to get them involved in planting their own garden.

Since most children and teens like eating pizza, plant a garden that grows pizza ingredients.

By planting fresh tomatoes, peppers, squash and herbs like oregano, basil and parsley you will be able to harvest and cook up a garden fresh pizza.

A Three Sisters Garden is another children-friendly gardenwhere kids can learn about how the Native Americans used companion gardening to grow crops.

They may also find growning a wildlife garden to attract different forms of wildlife a fun nature experience.

Image by barry.pousman

How to Plant a Pizza Garden
One very easy way to introduce children to garden and get them involved in the gardening process is to plant a pizza garden; this is a garden filled with vegetables and herbs that can be use to make a fresh garden pizza.

Three Sisters Garden
According to many Native American legends the three sisters are corn, squash and beans who can only grow and thrive if they are planted together. The technique of planting these three different plant seeds together is one that has been used by Native Americans long before the Europeans arrived. It is interesting to see how the wisdom of the Native Americans can now be explained by science of intercropping.

How to Make a Wildlife Garden
To seasoned gardeners, planting a garden to attract wildlife may be a bit counterintuitive. Where I live, gardeners spend a lot of time trying to keep wildlife, like birds, deer and moles out of their gardens, but inviting some wildlife into your backyard can be very rewarding.

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The first step in raising your children to be eco friendly is to be eco friendly yourself. You need to walk the walk. You can tell your children to be respect the environment all you want, but you’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t practice what you preach. Follow the practices of reducing, reusing, and recycling.

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After achieving your goal of being an environmentally friendly person, and being a positive citizen pour this over to your family life and ensure that your children will live the same environmentally friendly and positive lifestyle you have.

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Children are the future of our planet. As parents, it is comes as no surprise that it is our responsibility to educate our children about caring for the environment and about making the most of our limited resources to ensure the sustainability of our planet.