Play :: 8 Fun Earth Day Activities

 

Tips to Celebrate Earth Day:

 

Earth Day is on April 22^nd this year. This day is a wonderful opportunity to share with our kids the beauty of nature, and the importance of preserving and respecting our environment. It’s so much fun to get our kids involved in the natural world, or even bring a bit of nature inside. Here are 8 fun Earth Day activities to enjoy with your kids.

 

Grow some seedlings:

This is really fun and something I do regularly with my children. At the moment my son has a little pot on his bedroom windowsill with baby carrots growing in it. He started by filling a container with soil, sprinkling in the seeds, and about 7-10 days later to his great delight, tiny seedlings sprouted. Now we are looking forward to tasting his baby carrots. Last summer he grew some cherry tomatoes on his windowsill!

 

Make your own milk carton bird feeder:

This is a fun way to encourage more birds to your home. Where I live in Sydney we are lucky enough to have many rainbow lorikeets, cockatoos and kookaburras. My kids had a ball creating this recycled bird feeder and it’s super easy. Simply wash out an old milk carton, cut a hole in it, fill with bird seed, and hang it in the garden. Voila! Now you can relax and wait for the birds to visit.

 

Try going vegetarian for a day:

The production and farming of beef and livestock takes up an enormous amount of land and water use. In honor of Earth day you could try doing something different like having a fun vegetarian dinner such as spaghetti pesto, chunky vegetable soup, or margarita pizza – your kids probably won’t even notice there’s no meat!

 

What’s happening at school?

Is your child’s school doing something to celebrate Earth Day? If not, why not offer to help with a special program? You could start a kitchen garden, or if a herb garden already exists, offer to come in and cook something with the kids. You can show them how you can take something fresh from the garden and turn it into something good to eat. My daughter’s preschool recently made savory feta and spinach muffins using spinach the children had grown. The muffins tasted delicious and the kids loved the whole process of growing the vegetables, picking, washing, cutting and cooking them.

Get outdoors:

Have a picnic outside, go for a bushwalk or hike, hire a rowboat and paddle down a stream. On this Earth day make sure you do something outside!

 

What’s happening in your local community?

See what events are planned in your local area. Where I live, the local community got together to show a movie on a big screen in a park powered by. . . pedal power. That’s right, a bunch of fit and fun people pedaled on their bicycles to power a generator to screen the movie. It was a fantastic event and it also demonstrated to kids that power has to come from somewhere.

Make Earth Day every day!

Many of the things we are reminded of on Earth day should really be things we do all year round. By making an effort to re-use, reduce and recycle we can take positive steps to help our environment. Instead of just tossing something out, see if you can re-use it, maybe in a whole new way. Reduce waste by turning off the light when no-one is in the room, and recycle your bottles and containers, otherwise they just end up in landfill. Children are great imitators, so let’s give them something great to imitate.

 

Recycling photo: https://flic.kr/p/9uDMLx

What are some ways you like to celebrate Earth Day?

 

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