Happy Earth Day my friends!!!
I love this photo of my daughter from a few years ago when we planted a tree together. Throughout the years I try to teach my daughter that we only have one planet that we live on and we have to respect it at all times…. that means being good to plants, animals, creatures that we meet on our paths and people, including ourselves too.
What I’ve noticed is that over the last few years of her young life (she is 6 1/2 now) she has made amazing choices and said some wise things which made me smile… and showed understanding about how our relationship with mother nature has a big influence over us and most importantly how our actions affect this beautiful planet.
For example, when we go on walks or ride our bikes on a path, she keeps a lookout for snails that could be too close to ‘danger’ of the moving bikes and people’s footsteps. Whenever she would spot a snail, she would stop or get off her bike and picks up the little snail and moves him into the grass – away from the path. She’s been doing this ever since she was 2 years old I think…. kind of a cute thing to watch and appreciate. I love it that she knows these are little living creatures too and even though they are helpless in where they go, we humans can always reach out and help our little living creatures, after all we do share this planet with them.
Recently, we were picking up some sushi for dinner and the woman was packing some chopsticks, soy sauce dishes etc. and I told her that we don’t need them as we’re going home and have chopsticks and sauce dishes at home…. the woman was pleased with that that we are being eco friendly and offered us a free bottle of water as a thank you for saving them money, I suppose. But then, my daughter spoke out that we don’t drink from plastic bottles! Ha! She was so cool, and I was so proud. She of course got a little shy after she said it too so I filled in the reasons why we also don’t want the free bottle of water. I explained that we use reusable bottles that are stainless steel or glass and fill them up at home with filtered water. I lightly threw in the fact that there are toxins in plastic too that leach into the water and then we drink these toxins and how plastic is so bad for the environment…. The lady was a little weirded out at all this ‘information’ coming at her! My daughter was so on board with me! My girl!! ;)
So of course I’m proud of my girl and enjoy teaching her more about our planet and the changes we make that should only affect it in a positive way.
We actively recycle, reuse bags and packaging for food and snacks, and try to make natural eco crafts from paper or other natural fibres to create something fun. (there are so many kids crafts that just reuse items but end up still being unfriendly to the earth.) I often say no to certain crafts because I don’t want her incorporating plastic or other crap just to make something that kids enjoy for 20 minutes. By now she understands that not all materials are created the same. And she’s used to choosing materials that don’t end up being garbage in the end. We still have fun and get creative – without harming the earth in the process.
Maybe these are small things…. but they do add up and they do shape the way a child thinks and makes decisions for themselves later on in life. As a parent, I do my best to set a good example also so she learns from actions not just words.
Here are a few posts from around the blog about Earth Day!
Sweet Seedlings with Chocolate ‘Dirt’ (a dessert recipe)
How do you make our planet more green?
Why I’m totally against bottled water!
Be Kind to Our Earth (ads and posters)
I hope you enjoy a beautiful day and do practice a few good ways to be good to our beautiful planet.
Do Tell : How do you live an earth-friendly life and how do you teach kids to respect the earth?
