When you’re making an effort to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle, you naturally want to include your family as much as possible, but it can be overwhelming trying to get your children to join in. That’s why, today on the RAINE Clothing blog, we’re sharing 5 of our top tips to get your children excited about living a more sustainable lifestyle!
1. Wash, Squash, Recycle
Getting your children involved in recycling is probably one of the easiest ways to ensure that they’re taking an interest in sustainability, and it’s relatively easy to start! We’d recommend starting by creating a space for recycling in your home – whether this is a small box you can keep by your bin, or a separate bin entirely, having a designated space for recycling is a great place to start.
Once this is set up, you can talk your children through the appropriate disposal process; when they finish with an item that’s in recyclable packaging, they should wash it to rinse out any residue of the food or product where necessary, squash it down to a more compact size, and pop it in the designated recycling area, ready to be taken out.
It can also be fun to ask them to help you sort the recycling if you live in an area where this is necessary; they can guess which parts of the packing are recyclable, which go with plastics, and which with cardboard!
2. Get planting
Growing your own fruit, veg, herbs, and flowers at home is a great way of teaching your children about the importance of the environment, whilst also creating a fun, engaging activity that you can do together. This is a great way to educate your children with practical, hands-on experience, and can be tailored to whatever you’re growing, so you don’t necessarily have to have a large garden! For example, if you opt to help them grow flowers, you have the perfect platform to discuss the importance of bees, why they’re under threat, and how what you’re doing can help, whereas if you choose to grow produce, you can explain all about the difference between standard and organic products, and how they’re grown.
3. Let them pick out sustainable clothing
If your child likes to have a say in their clothing choices, this is a great chance to talk to them about exactly what sustainable fashion is, and how it can have a positive impact on the environment. Helping them choose one or two pieces from sustainable clothing brands helps to open up a conversation about why choosing eco friendly and ethical clothes is so important.
If you’re not sure where to start, take a look at our post on what makes a clothing brand sustainable!
4. Try recycled crafting
Is your child interested in arts and crafts? Try saving reusable materials for your next craft project! Using old bottles or caps, toilet roll tubes, or scrap paper are all great ways to make sure your children understand how important it is to reuse materials. The possibilities are virtually endless, depending on the household items you use any given week, so it’s a great creative outlet for your children, too!
5. Make sustainability into a game!
Making every day eco-friendly tasks into a game is a great way to make them more accessible for children, and it’s relatively easy to do! Set challenges for who can have the shortest shower, who can turn all the lights that aren’t being used off first, or who can wash, squash, recycle the items in your recycling bin first are all fun ways to make your children want to get involved in behaving more sustainably!
It’s so important that children grow up with positive thoughts and feelings around living a more eco-friendly and ethical life, so starting with these activities whilst they’re young is a great way to make sure they grow up with a strong respect for the environment, as well as providing great opportunities for you to spend more time together!
How do you try and get your children interested in sustainable living? We’d love to hear your tips and suggestions below!
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