Inspire Your Kids with Green Activities
While it can be hard to imagine, today’s children will eventually become the next generation of decision-makers for our planet. The lessons that we teach them today will instill lifelong values that will impact their actions and decisions as adults. That’s why it’s never too early to start teaching your kids about the importance of sustainable living. The earlier you start teaching children about sustainability, the more likely they are to establish sustainable habits that they’ll carry with them throughout the rest of their lives.
Teaching about sustainability doesn’t have to be as straightforward as sitting down with your kids to discuss the impact of their actions. These lessons on sustainability are more likely to be effective if they are taught in an exciting way. Through fun, eco-friendly activities and games, you can start teaching your kids about how to live sustainably while keeping them engaged. These eco-friendly activities are a great opportunity for you to spend quality time with your children while building lifelong habits that help protect our planet for future generations.
4 Fun & Easy Eco-Friendly Activities for Kids
Eco-friendly activities don’t have to be messy or complicated. You can find a whole range of eco-activities that vary from all-day excursions to lunch break activities. Remember that effective sustainability is about creating habits that work for your lifestyle. Be sure to choose activities that fit your children’s lifestyle and interests in order to create impactful lessons.
Go for an Outdoor Learning Adventure
Getting outside in nature can be one of the easiest ways to make learning about sustainability enjoyable for your kids. Ditch screen time for a real-life outdoor adventure. Take them to the backyard or a national park for a daylong adventure!
While wandering around, incorporate interactive activities to keep young minds engaged. Try fun eco-friendly activities like:
- Wildflower hunt
- River cleanup
- Birdwatching
As you're taking part in these activities, teach your little ones about the importance that these elements of nature play in our environment. As they begin to understand the role each animal and plant plays in our ecosystem, explain how our everyday actions can endanger these creatures through plastic pollution, climate change, and other environmental issues.
Have a Zero-Waste Day Challenge
One sure way to capture your child’s attention is through some friendly competition! Create a zero-waste-day challenge for your kids to inspire them to be more mindful about their waste habits. Create friendly competition by setting out to see who can create the least amount of waste throughout the day. Whoever wins, gets a reward!
A zero-waste challenge is an environmental activity for kids that can help shed light on actions we don’t often think twice about. It’ll inspire your kids to think twice about what they’re throwing away and how that waste impacts the environment. As it becomes easier to make it through an entire day without generating any waste, slowly increase the challenge duration to keep things interesting. Extend the challenge for three days, then a week, and so forth. The longer you extend the challenge, the easier it will be for these low-waste habits to naturally develop.
Plant a Garden
Gardening is a clean and green activity for kids that will teach your kids a lifelong skill while also minimizing their impact on the environment. The food production industry is one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions worldwide. Growing your own food is an easy way to reduce your dependence on wasteful, resource-intensive commercially grown foods, ultimately decreasing your ecological footprint.
Planting a garden is an environmental activity for kids that acts as an incredible learning opportunity, too! As they watch the plants grow, you can teach little learners about the science behind how plants grow. Plus, they’ll experience firsthand the natural resources and effort it takes to grow plants, building their appreciation for food.
For bonus sustainability points, reduce your waste production and use food waste and other organic materials to create your own compost! By composting at home, you can teach your children about biodegradation while creating all-natural, nutrient-rich fertilizer for your garden.
Create Imaginative Upcycled Crafts
Spending time creating upcycled crafts can be a great way to give new purpose to everyday household items! Rather than throwing away jars, cans, and old clothes to end up in landfills, repurpose them into fun DIY crafts for your kids.
Not only do recycled craft projects reduce your household waste, they prevent the need to purchase new art supplies, making it an eco-friendly and affordable solution. Use old, worn-out socks to create fun sock puppets. Turn cardboard tubes from your toilet paper into bird feeders. Create recycled planters with old tin cans. The possibilities are endless!
While creating these upcycled crafts with your kids, take time to explain how they’re helping the environment by keeping these items out of landfills and oceans. By the end of the craft, they’ll have a cool new art project, plus they’ll also have a better understanding of how they can rethink waste!
Spark Imagination & Make Lifelong Memories with Eco-Friendly Activities for Kids
Eco-friendly activities, like games and crafts, are a fun and easy way to teach your kids about how to protect our planet. The earlier you start teaching kids about living sustainably, the more likely they are to carry these lessons with them throughout their entire lives.
There’s no shortage of green activities that you can do with your kids! With options for both inside and outside adventures, it’s easy to teach your kids about sustainability all year long. Try one of these eco-friendly activities to get started:
- Go on an outdoor learning adventure.
- Have a zero-waste-day challenge.
- Plant a garden.
- Create upcycled crafts.
You can also inspire kiddos to live sustainably by choosing sustainable everyday clothing. We love using fun ocean characters to help kids get excited about the importance of protecting our oceans from plastic pollution! Each of our characters — Bobtopus, Bubbles, and Finley — has a unique lesson to share about the importance of ocean conservation.
Learn more about how to inspire your kids to live sustainably!
