Teaching Your Kids How to Take Care of the Yard
July 24, 2020 | by carol evenson, guest contributor
Your yard is a great place to plant the seeds of necessary life lessons. Lessons about accountability, responsibility, life, and sustainability are a few of the important instructions that can be imparted upon our children, working side-by-side. Luckily, these teachings can be offered through tasks that we need to complete in the comfort of our own home, making these lessons both educational and efficient. By including them in the care of your yard, you can teach them countless lessons that can help inform the rest of their life, so consider these four key areas.
Greener Energy Sources
Many of us pay little attention to the energy that powers our homes, except for when the bills roll in. You can take an active role in teaching your child about sustainability initiatives and their social responsibility if you buy solar panels and talk to your kids about greener sources of energy. Not only can you educate your child about sustainable living, but you can also help promote a healthier planet, achieving two necessary steps to support their future. These can be important lessons for young children to learn as they think about how to support the planet.
Water Use and Conservation
Water is another resource that we don’t pay enough attention to; however, many lessons can be learned in the care of a lawn. By taking the time to explain water use and conservation, we can help our children learn to live more sustainably. Whether we are watering our lawns, participating in summer water play, or filling up a kiddie pool, there are plenty of opportunities to engage with our kiddos. You can tie this lesson to other aspects of their life, including showers and showing them energy efficiency in appliances. Educating your children can give them a more active role as they get older and build up an understanding of how to reduce their environmental impact and what behaviors can contribute to that.
Cleanup
Cleaning up after yourself may feel like an obvious lesson, but this is even more important when we are outdoors. When we are inside of our houses, clutter and mess may be disgusting, but it is likely not particularly harmful. Teaching your children about litter, recycling, proper disposal, and to always clean up after themselves outside are necessary lessons for a healthy planet. Whether your child is young and you are teaching them not to leave trash outside or if your kiddo is getting older and you participate in a park cleanup, there are many opportunities to be learned about trash. If you want to take it one step further, you can also create a composting bin and teach them about properly composting.
Growing a Garden
Gardening is a therapeutic activity for many, offering time to cultivate new life. Parents may also be missing out on the opportunity to teach their children valuable lessons from gardening if kids are left out of the process. Whether you teach them how to properly weed a garden, water plants or plant vegetables or fruit, there is a lot to be learned when cultivating new life. You can educate them about life cycles, plants, nurturing and caring for life and many other lessons all through a backyard garden. Not only can you educate, but you can also help support a healthy and balanced diet. You may be surprised at the number of lessons that can come from a small household garden.
Children can learn so much at home from household items and tasks. While it may look like just another thing to do, spending time in your yard can present you with numerous opportunities to expand on your family’s knowledge, experiences and understanding of social responsibility. We can help develop our kiddos into more socially conscious, kind and caring human beings through the lessons that we teach them. Instead of seeing your yard as just another area of the home to care for, see this as a learning opportunity to help support the learning and development of your whole family.
