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To celebrate Earth Day I’m sharing 5 Ways to Help Children Live a Greener Life. Plus how to make a mini greenhouse.

I have a habit of saving things I think might be useful someday. It often drives my husband crazy. I believe things can have a second life and even a third.  There are so many useful and clever things that can be created when we recycle. The most important thing to me is that I pass this on to my grandkids. They mean the world to me, and I want them to have the best planet to live on. We are all responsible for our earth’s condition. We are her keeper, and we all must do our part in keeping our earth healthy. So today I am going to share 5 ways to help you help your children live a greener life. It’s easier than you might think. The rewards are great and you can make it fun!

1.  Recycling: Making crafts with the grandkids is a great way to teach them how to recycle. I save buttons, magazines, fabric, containers, and I’m always looking for craft items at yard sales. I teach my grandkids to use items that are eco-friendly and that are made with recycled products like the new and unique EcoAdvanced batteries by Energizer. They are the first battery on the market to use recycled batteries/materials. It’s their longest lasting alkaline battery ever! It seems like we always change batteries in one thing or another. Now we have guilt-free energy.

2. Conserving water: I remind my grandkids when they are brushing their teeth or washing their hands not to let the water run the whole time. It is wasteful and it costs money. We also take small hikes and they learn they only have so much water to drink so you don’t waste what you have. The kids love the challenges I give, we make a game out of it.

3. Energy conservation: I teach both of them to turn off the lights, TV, and computer when not in use. We plan a no tech time for the whole family, even Papal turns off the TV, we play board games or cards with the kids. Remember playing war, go fish, and crazy 8’s?

4. Green Adventures: I love to take the kids on scavenger hunts in the park. You never know what you might see. I remember the first time I took them to our local nature park for their first hike. They were so excited, we packed little lunches and took the dogs. When we entered the park and started walking in a bit, they both looked at me and said “what no swings?” They had never heard of a park without swings. Now they love it. We walk and identify the different trees and flowers. Sometimes we even get lucky and find a frog in the creek or a deer watching us. I’m not sure who was watching who.

5. Gardening: Ever since my grandkids were born they have helped me in my garden. Growing your own food is so rewarding.  They love watching the first sprouts from their planted seeds. To me, this is a big one. Almost anyone can grow something, even if it’s just some basic herbs to keep on a windowsill in the kitchen. It doesn’t take much. You can easily start some seeds inside. To show you how easy it is the grandkids made a mini greenhouse using all recycled items. things that I already had in my house. They had so much fun doing it, and so did I. 🙂

Making this Mini Greenhouse is an easy way to teach kids to be more green. Everything you use except the soil is recycled.

Mini Greenhouse:

12 toilet paper tubes
1 plastic salad container
potting soil
marker
scissors

You can write the names of the seeds you are planting on the toilet paper tubes. Katie is in kindergarten and is learning to spell so that was her job. We also cut about an inch off of the tubes so they would fit better in the salad container. Tyler loved this part, any scissor time makes him happy. He’s very good with them.

I love watching the determination on their little faces. Next, line them all up in the salad container.

Fill the tubes up with potting soil. We put dirt around the tubes so they wouldn’t fall over.

Everyone gets a turn.

Place a couple seeds in each tube and mist with water. We planted basil, cilantro and thyme.

Close the lid. Make sure you place it near a window so it can get light. There will plenty of moisture inside. Watch your little sprouts come up. When they get too big for this container transplant into individual pots and set them on the windowsill, pretty soon you’ll be ready to start cooking with the kids!