If you haven’t already done so, Earth Month is the perfect time to start teaching your family about living a more eco-friendly life. But it can sometimes be difficult to find an age-appropriate and fun way to motivate them to do so. That’s why we’ve decided to create weekly tips specifically for Earth Month. Each week, we’ll be sharing engaging ways you can involve your whole family in your sustainability efforts.
Here are some ways to get started:
Make “lights out” fun.
- Teach your kids the importance of turning off lights when they’re not in use by starting an “energy savings” jar where each member of the family will have to put in a dollar each time he or she leaves the lights on – you included! At the end of Earth Month, use the money for a family treat – whether a pizza dinner or a night out at the movies.
- Follow #WinItWednesday participant @Jeneric10’s lead and foster some friendly competition with a family race to see who can turn off the unused lights the fastest. The first one to succeed gets to choose a special treat – the front seat, their preferred dinner, or the chance to plan the next family outing with you.
- Host a “lights out” story hour and give each member of your family a flashlight to share stories in the dark. If you have a backyard, take the family fun outside and camp out to show your children how much fun you can have without being plugged in.
Power down together.
- Ask older children to help you unplug phone chargers and other electronics when they’re not being used. Remember, even if your cell phone, laptop, or other small electronics aren’t attached to that charger, as long as it’s plugged in, it is using energy.
- Teach kids how to change the settings on their laptops so that the display screen shuts off after 5 minutes of not being used and the system shuts off after 10 minutes of not being used, both of which save energy. Tablets and smartphone settings can also be adjusted to get more usage out of one charge.
- Reducing the number of lights on in the evening can also help improve your quality of sleep. Get the whole family involved by starting a countdown to reduce the number of lights on in each room in the hours leading up to bed time. 3. 2. 1. Go!
