Blog Action Day: Our Kids Are Turning Green - From Awearness
Originally posted at AWEARNESS
And I love it!
I have a six-year-old daughter and she's been quite the green cop for the past couple of years. It started off innocently enough when recycling was implemented in her day care. The teachers always included the kids in their activities. It really is a hoot to see 2-year-olds toddling down the hall pulling a garbage bag. So when recycling came to daycare, the kids were asked to rinse out plastic items and told why they were doing it. Soon the kid started to tell us to rinse our plastic and ask why we didn't recycle at home.*
Then came Happy Feet with its tale of overfishing. A peek at viewer comments and you see that some people thought that Happy Feet went overboard with the environmental message.
I can only imagine what they thought of Wall-E and its literal message that we're throwing Earth away as we sit on our La-Z-Boys getting fat. Last weekend my husband took our daughter to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs which has its own climate change message.
Don't think that kid's movies are the only place where they are getting the "Go Green!" message. In the past week we have read Judy Moody Saves the World and Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew - Earth Day Escapade, both obviously with green plots.
Last night as we read Nancy Drew, the mystery partly unraveled in the girls restroom when a character flushed the toilet three times, used a wad of paper towels and left the faucet running. The horror!! And for a six-year-old with a budding sense of the environmental justice it was a horror. Her face got that "OMG" look. It was pretty cute.
I know there are people out there who will complain that we are allowing schools and entertainment to brainwash our kids about climate change. But you know what? Climate change is real, it is happening and they will be the ones who will have to truly deal with the ramifications. I do worry that by teaching her so young, she'll come to me one day and ask why i didn't do more to stop it all. Keeping her ignorant might buy me a few years, but that's not how I want to raise her.
The best part of the greening of my daughter? Each time she leaves her bedroom light on, I get to say, "If you're going to be green, you need to turn off your light!" It's a twist on the old "You're wasting energy" line. She still keeps us on our greening toes by reminding us to rinse out plastic and asking if this or that is recyclable. And I really love that.
For a list of great environmental websites for kids, check out more4kids.info.
*We live in Chicago and didn't have any real home recycling programs until this past February. We did paper recycling because we had a collection site nearby, but not much for glass and plastic.
[Image: Moreforkids.info]
And I love it!
I have a six-year-old daughter and she's been quite the green cop for the past couple of years. It started off innocently enough when recycling was implemented in her day care. The teachers always included the kids in their activities. It really is a hoot to see 2-year-olds toddling down the hall pulling a garbage bag. So when recycling came to daycare, the kids were asked to rinse out plastic items and told why they were doing it. Soon the kid started to tell us to rinse our plastic and ask why we didn't recycle at home.*
Then came Happy Feet with its tale of overfishing. A peek at viewer comments and you see that some people thought that Happy Feet went overboard with the environmental message.
I can only imagine what they thought of Wall-E and its literal message that we're throwing Earth away as we sit on our La-Z-Boys getting fat. Last weekend my husband took our daughter to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs which has its own climate change message.
Don't think that kid's movies are the only place where they are getting the "Go Green!" message. In the past week we have read Judy Moody Saves the World and Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew - Earth Day Escapade, both obviously with green plots.
Last night as we read Nancy Drew, the mystery partly unraveled in the girls restroom when a character flushed the toilet three times, used a wad of paper towels and left the faucet running. The horror!! And for a six-year-old with a budding sense of the environmental justice it was a horror. Her face got that "OMG" look. It was pretty cute.
I know there are people out there who will complain that we are allowing schools and entertainment to brainwash our kids about climate change. But you know what? Climate change is real, it is happening and they will be the ones who will have to truly deal with the ramifications. I do worry that by teaching her so young, she'll come to me one day and ask why i didn't do more to stop it all. Keeping her ignorant might buy me a few years, but that's not how I want to raise her.
The best part of the greening of my daughter? Each time she leaves her bedroom light on, I get to say, "If you're going to be green, you need to turn off your light!" It's a twist on the old "You're wasting energy" line. She still keeps us on our greening toes by reminding us to rinse out plastic and asking if this or that is recyclable. And I really love that.
For a list of great environmental websites for kids, check out more4kids.info.
*We live in Chicago and didn't have any real home recycling programs until this past February. We did paper recycling because we had a collection site nearby, but not much for glass and plastic.
[Image: Moreforkids.info]
