Find the fun in nature
As we entertain and teach our children at home there are many fun, nature activities and experiments we can do. Encourage your kids to plant something or race around the garden looking for items for a nature scavenger hunt. Check out this cool transpiration experiment and a second one that involves dying celery! Make your own seed paper or build a bug hotel from found materials.
Reuse household items for crafts
You could make your own bird feeder or upcycle broken crayons to make cute new shapes. Or enjoy a morning building a colorful miniature village from old milk and juice cartons.
Cut back on plastic
Reduce plastic by opting for reusable bags, water bottles, and cups. Kids love straws but they are rarely recyclable and the fifth most frequent form of trash picked up off coastlines. Why not try stainless steel or compostable ones instead? Rather than buying plastic toys that break quickly, opt for good-quality wooden toys that are more sustainable.
Ditch the fast fashion
With 80 billion items of clothing consumed across the world annually, fashion has a huge carbon footprint. The trend for cheap, fast fashion means more non-biodegradable clothing heads for landfills, where it releases harmful gases and toxins into the environment. You can combat this by choosing sustainable clothing for your kids. Download the Good On You Ethical Fashion App to find fashion retailers with a sustainable approach. Instead of constantly buying new, check out online stores such as thredUP or Kids on 45th which sell good quality, second-hand clothes.
Compost at home!
When food goes into landfills it takes ages to rot inside trash bags resulting in higher amounts of methane – a gas 21 times more destructive to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Instead of throwing out your food waste, you could learn as a family, transforming food scraps into compost to nurture your backyard or garden.
Swap the fruit pouches for reusable ones
Food pouches are awesome for snacks on the go for our little-ones but there’s no escaping they are difficult to recycle and often head to the landfill. Thankfully BooginHead’s reusable food pouches are a game-changer as you can fill the pouch over and over with homemade purees or apple sauce. They are also very easy to clean with a baby bottle brush.
Think eco for future kids parties
Swap balloons, straws and disposable plastic for colorful bunting and compostable plates, cups, and straws. Ask children’s party venues to provide eco options as the more they are asked the more they will consider it. Buy compostable wrapping paper and decorate it. Ask guests to bring a previously loved toy as an eco gift.
Nurture the natural world
Backyards and gardens are a sanctuary for many of us right now. Consider planting a pollinator garden with your child to aid the butterflies and bees that pollinate our crops and flowers. Talk about animals and habitat and how every creature has its own important place in a functioning ecosystem. By teaching our kids to love and respect the natural world we help them grow up to be considerate, empathetic, and happier.