Guest Post: How to Teach Your Kids Green Living

It’s never too early start teaching your kids how to live an eco-friendly lifestyle. They’ll pick up on a lot just by observing the way you live, but it can help to make a point of explaining what you do and why you do it. Kids will naturally adopt the habits they grow up with, but by instilling awareness into them as to why these habits are important, you can help create a lifelong interest in green living they will carry with them into their adult years.

Here are some easy ways to help your kids understand, and participate in, a green lifestyle:

Saving Resources. Get your kids into the habit of turning off lights, computers, and appliances when they aren’t using them. Remind them not to leave the water running when they’re brushing their teeth, to take shorter showers, and not to linger in front of the fridge with the door open. Kids won’t think of these things on their own (not even if they see you regularly doing it), so gently remind them until it becomes second-nature.

Recycling/Composting. Kids love feeling like they’re being helpful. Teach them which products you recycle or compost, and let them help you with these activities. Explain to them why it’s important to reuse items and produce less waste.

Eating Organic. When you take your kids grocery shopping, explain to them why you’re choosing organic options. Describe the importance of eating food that will fuel their bodies and help them stay healthy, and how some food growers use things like chemicals and pesticides that are bad for our bodies — and the earth.

Creating a garden in your backyard is another great way to teach kids about eating fresh. Give them each a little plot of their own, and let them help you weed and water, and they can watch their efforts pay off as their little plants slowly grow into real vegetables and herbs.

Driving Less. Whenever possible, opt for a walk or a bike ride instead of a trip in the car. Explain how this is not only healthier for you, but it’s also better for the environment because it reduces pollution from cars and decreases the use of gas, a fuel source we need to conserve.

Getting Out in Nature. Kids are very visceral; things become much more real to them when they can see them and interact with them. So get them out there in the big, wide world so they can see why it’s so important to conserve it. Take them to parks, botanical gardens, zoos and farms. The more they come to love nature and all the things in it, the more enthusiastic they’ll be about living their lives in a way that takes care of it.

While writing for QuickQuid, one of the most trusted online quick loans lender in the UK and a member of the Consumer Finance Association, Kelly Gurnett also runs the blog Cordelia Calls It Quits, where she documents her attempts to rid her life of the things that don’t matter and focus more on the things that do.