Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Teaching Kids Green Habits

Everyone has heard that children absorb information, languages, routines, and habits at a very high level. Most adults can attribute a good portion of their lifestyle to their early years and what they were exposed to at that time. By making kids aware of their carbon footprint, and teaching them about green healthy living and biodiversity, we can help raise a generation of environmentally sensitive people.

Creating a dialog with your children’s school about educating the students on recycling, composting, and the benefits of mass transit (the school bus is just about everyone’s first exposure to this) is a great place to extend your green principles. Also set up a community group for kids to get involved with local river or forest clean ups. This is first hand experience for kids to see the results of a mismanaged environment and how much can be done to improve it in a short period of time.

Carbon offsets are a great concept to expose them to as well. Teaching a child about reducing their consumption can be a chore, but by placing these building blocks in front of them at an early age it will enable them to understand just where their environmental waste goes and what they can do to offset their footprint.
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