How to teach children respect for nature

The environment in which we live has been undergoing major changes for years due to exploitation by the entire population.

In this regard, it is the responsibility of every parent towards their children to try to convey the importance of protecting the environment that surrounds us, nature with its balances that are indispensable for our subsistence.

It might seem like an arduous task, but in reality children learn quickly, especially if the gestures and behaviors of the reference figures are educational and teaching since they are very young. Teaching, on the part of families, however, should be continuous and gradual and above all it should become something that belongs to us and not just done like this, so much because they must be put into practice.

Children are sponges and learn easily, for example, to do separate collection, children like bins of different colors and while they are taught to be autonomous, then throw a cardboard in the appropriate bin, they are taught to differentiate the different waste and materials.

There are also songs to listen to during the day and fairy tales to read before going to sleep about recycling, respect for nature, the vegetable garden and taking care of the land.

Children should be involved in many ways to allow them to be more respectful towards nature.

For example, the choice of bicycle is a more ecological choice than that of the car. It is not always possible for the distances that you have to travel daily and the schedules that are always tight, but someone could certainly review their way of making the movements. However, in your free time, choosing the bicycle to ride around the city allows you to discover places never seen before, to capture the beauty of a countryside landscape and be able to stop and see the trees that are blooming or a lizard that runs away.

Even walking through the green areas of the city , playing with the earth and fostering contact with animals will certainly help children develop a privileged approach to nature.

Most children like being out in the open air, playing in the meadows, having small tasks and responsibilities  that make them grow up independent and proud of themselves, so it would only be enough for parents to have the will to have fun creatively with their children, and a little more eco-sustainable, for a better future for them.

Small ideas to teach respect for nature while having fun

• in the home garden or simply in a large pot on the terrace with a little earth, children can be taught that some damp household waste can be transformed into a natural fertilizer for plants:
• children really like  playing with waterbut it shouldn’t be wasted, so it’s better to avoid using continuous jets from tires or taps that are always open, but fill a basin with some toys and some small bowls from the kitchen to play at decanting. If no type of detergent has been put in the water (it is better to use those of vegetable and natural origin) the water that remains in the basin can be used to water the seedlings; even the water that remains in the carafe after meals is a waste to throw away but it can be used to fill the coffee machine for example; among the daily precautions regarding the lower consumption of waterwe certainly find turning off the water while brushing your teeth and opening it again when needed and so in the shower, while you are soaping, the water should remain closed.
• walking through the streets of the city and in the parks allows the child to learn to have respect for nature: who would want to play if there were waste on the ground?
• Often at home we have printers that we use for work or other and not infrequently a copy is bad, we are wrong and so on, these sheets from the unprinted side can be used to make drawings ;
• even food should not be wasted so it is very important to finish what everyone has on their plate and every now and then propose recipes, empty the fridge and invent them with the children so as not to spoil food that had been bought;
• creating a home garden even if only in the garden with small aromatic herbs allows the child to touch what nature is, its cycles and will facilitate their understanding of the value of all this and it will also be easier for them to eat fruit and vegetables;
• building small games with recycled materials is very educational and ecological, with rolls of toilet paper you can make so many objects, from pen holders, to animals, binoculars, etc., just as with plastic bottles you can obtain many objects of use common hiochi dovertenti. With cork stoppers you can make Christmas decorations and so on. Games that grow up and are no longer used shouldn’t be thrown away, but if they are in good condition they can be donated to younger friends or to those who really need them and willingly accept them, giving them a second life;
• Another small attention that it is right to teach children from an early age is to turn off the light every time you leave a room. Light pollution and energy waste are the norms of the day in our society.

Being able to grow with the awareness that everyone in our small way can do something to improve reality is something truly extraordinary.