When your child is young, it’s a wonderful time to teach them about why it’s so important to take care of our planet. You can help establish environmentally-friendly habits with your child that will last a lifetime. Inspire your child’s love for the environment and educate them about our limited resources early with a few simple additions to your normal daily routine. Here are a few tips on how to teach children the importance of recycling.
Read About It
Head to your local library to check out a few books discussing recycling in a fun way for your children. Learn about recycling from different perspectives and the journey of recyclables.
- Don’t Throw That Away! A Lift-the-Flap Book About Recycling and Reusing by Betsy Snyder
- Look Out for Litter by Lisa Bullard
- I Can Save the Earth! One Little Monster Learns to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle by Viviana Garofoli
- The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle by Allison Inches & Pete Whitehead
Make Recycling Bins
Let your little ones decorate a few different bins for recycling. As they are embellishing the bins with some “upcycled” art materials, teach them that each bin will have a specific duty for items such as paper, plastic, and cans. Have them place pictures of items on each and give them recyclables to sort out. This helps the local recycling center process recyclables more efficiently once at the facility.
Talk About the Other Two “R”s
When talking about recycling, we should also discuss “reducing” and “reusing” to make sure that we hit all three “R”s. These two are so important in the discussion of recycling because while we make recycling a household habit, we should also be focusing on reducing our unnecessary waste and reusing what we can. To talk about reducing and reusing with little ones, look for some household items that you would normally throw away (e.g., egg cartons, boxes, fabric, etc.) to set up crafts and make them into something brand new.
Donate Household Items
When talking about reusing, we can teach our children to donate so that others may get more use from them. Stuffed animals, outgrown clothing, shoes, household items, and so much more can benefit many charities. Encourage your children to select which clothes or toys they wish to donate. Donating your old goods will not only help clean your house of unnecessary clutter, but it will also establish a giving habit in your children.
Here are a few donation centers to consider:
- Goodwill Industries
- Volunteers of America
- Habitat for Humanity
- A local clothes closet or service organization
We Love Teaching Children About Our Planet
TGS teachers love to show our students that the world around them is precious and share ways that we can all pitch in to take care of it. We teach about the “three Rs” and use nature as a learning tool as often as we can. Our world is full of wonder, and The Gardner School makes sure that we show our students all of the adventures waiting for them in the great outdoors. Want to learn more about our teaching philosophy? Head over to our website or contact us today to schedule an in-person or virtual tour of the TGS nearest you!
