Inspiring your children to be environmentally friendly is a great gift to give them. To encourage a love for the great outdoors and nature is vitally important in this age that we live in. It helps them to understand the wider world and can really boost their esteem and emotional confidence as they experience and appreciate nature. To motivate your children, here are two exciting hands-on eco projects for you and the whole family to enjoy.
1. Grow your own vegetables
When children can grow their own food, it gives them a deep understanding of where the food comes from, how to nurture it and be responsible. Give each child their own area to grow vegetables, herbs or flowers in. Quick crops such as lettuce and courgette are low maintenance but can yield a great harvest. It will encourage your child to connect with nature and how to care for the environment. Growing their own vegetables also promotes a healthy relationship with food.
Luckily, you don’t need to live on a homestead or have a big garden to grow your own vegetables. Even if the only growing space that you have in your home is the kitchen windowsill, you can still have a go at growing your own edible produce. All you need is a container to fit the space!
2. Attract wildlife
Most children respond positively to seeing wildlife in their garden. Birds, butterflies, frogs and insects are all fascinating additions for the garden and will provide your family with hours of entertainment and your garden with an enhanced eco-system.
Birds are natural predators of the slugs and snails that will attack your plants and vegetables, so introduce nesting boxes to encourage them to your garden. Build a bug hotel to help the insects that are so vital for pollinating your flowers, and install a water feature such as those offered by Water Garden to provide them with the essential water that they need to thrive.
Worms are often the cause of hilarity for children when they are playing in the garden, but they are critical for your garden’s growing success. Worms play an essential role by increasing the air and water that is in the soil and break down organic matter into nutrient-rich fertiliser. You can make a worm farm using recycled materials. The children can collect worms from the garden, and once your worm farm is populated, you now have a place to put all your kitchen scraps. The worm castings and urine that when diluted makes superior plant fertiliser that you can use to help your plants grow.
Conclusion
Spending quality time with your children is an essential part of their childhood, and the values you instil in them at this tender age will stay with them through adulthood. Teaching your children to be environmentally aware needs to be practical and something that they can respond to positively. These two hands-on eco projects are ideal for children to learn about nature from the comfort of their own home.
