HRM Parent Blog

April from Nurtured is holding a free cloth diaper workshop where she will demonstrate all of the many different styles of snazzy cloth diapers available these days. Wednesday, March 12 at 6pm in the Community Room of Uncommon Kids Gear in Halifax. Seating is limited to 15 people so register now! Email april@nurtured.ca or call 405-4367.

Make sure you enter our new contest for a chance to win an Alphabet tees from bioME 5. These t-shirts are made with 100% certified organic cotton in sweatshop-free facilities and promote respect and appreciation for nature's beauty and diversity.

The winner will get to choose the letter of the alphabet and size of t-shirt that they'd like.

Oh, and my little guy loves playing with the alphabet and animal sounds on bioME 5's website - check it out!

Value approx. $32. Contest ends March 31, 2008.

Click here to enter!

The 12 lucky winners of our February contest will be announced soon.

Encouraging a respect and guardianship of the environment in our children can be fun, and certainly not just a chore to add to the endless list of things you have to do. Here’s a few ideas to get you started:

Get outside

One of the best ways to encourage environmental awareness in your children is to nurture a love of the outdoors and natural world. Simply walking around your neighbourhood and taking time to watch the ants can be the start of developing connections with the natural world. Meghan Berrigan from Clean Nova Scotia suggests letting “young children explore forest floors and small ponds—supervised for safety, of course—and encourage them to observe the behaviours of wild plants and animals.” Most kids love getting dirty, so this is sure to be a hit. Grab a magnifying glass and then the adventure really starts! Mow your lawn less often (it’s actually good for it) and search for bugs in the grass. Help your kids take photographs or draw what they see.

Once kids get pass the putting-everything-in-their-mouths stage, they can have a go at gardening—organically, of course—even if it’s just digging in the dirt while you garden alongside them at first. Growing fruit and vegetables is a great way to develop a child’s understanding of where our food comes from and our dependence on the earth, as are visits to your local farmers’ market.

Make it second nature

Make caring for the environment a normal part of your family’s life. “Ensuring that composting and recycling is common behaviour in the household is another important thing parents can do to encourage their children to adopt socially and environmentally responsible practices,” comments Berrigan. Teaching kids what goes where for recycling, garbage and compost can start at a young age. My son delights in telling me that banana peels go in the compost and even makes a game of pretending to put them in the garbage. He’s just under three years old, so I don’t pretend that he understands the ins and outs of environmental waste management, but it’s a start.

Overall, modelling good environmental behaviours like choosing active transportation as much as possible, using healthy, organic, local foods, cutting down on the number of toxic products in the home, and showing enthusiasm and respect for wildlife and nature, is the best way to ensure that your kids grow up green.

Clean Nova Scotia publishes Planet Action, a newsletter describing environmental issues in an approachable, fun format for children of all ages. Free. Call 420-3474 or register online at www.clean.ns.ca.

(First published in Peninsula Parent, February 2007.)