Planet-friendly Parenting - Teaching Your Child Important Lessons

14th August 2024

While most of us want to make more environmentally conscious decisions, it can be difficult to know where to start, and how to teach these important lessons to your children.

To make the process a little easier, Legal & General is diving into their top tips on how to teach your kids about the planet and lighten your footprint in a kid-friendly way.

Teaching your child important lessons:

Create Features: Introduce your children to animals - and help them identify the ones that are most in need of protection. By watching documentaries and listening to podcasts, you can teach your kids about endangered species such as polar bears and penguins in a more easily digestible and enjoyable manner. If there's an ethical zoo or wildlife park near you, you could even take your children along to see some of these animals for real.

Get them involved in recycling: We all have things that need recycling - and getting your children involved can be an interactive and fun way to teach them about the process. Your children can help you put items on Freecycle and trashnothing, which are both excellent recycling resources.

Plant a seed: Learning how food is grown is such an important part of learning and appreciating our planet. Visiting a sustainable farm or going fruit picking are a couple ways to teach your family where their food comes from.

Share stories: Telling stories to your children can get them thinking about the planet can be a fantastic way to show them the positive difference we can make. You could join a library or start a local book sharing scheme. To start, many titles touch on the subject, there are classics like Elizabeth Beresford's Wombles books and Michael Foreman's Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish.

Lessening your footprint:

Care and repair clothes - Extending the life of your clothing instead of buying new can significantly reduce your family's environmental footprint and save money. Embracing slow fashion—by sewing patches on worn-out clothes or repurposing old items into something new—offers practical benefits. As well as passing down clothing to siblings.

Embrace nature - Even without a garden, you can easily introduce your children to nature. Take them for walks in local parks to foster a connection with the outdoors. Night walks and stargazing ignite curiosity, while exploring undergrowth can spark interest in insects. With just a pot and some seeds, your kids can even start their own garden.

Preserve energy - Involve your children in monitoring energy usage by making them responsible for turning off lights in empty rooms, avoiding standby mode for electronics, and deciding when to use the heavier flush. Encourage them to hang clothes to dry instead of using the dryer. Create fun stickers for switches and plugs with reminders like "Off is the new on."

If you’re interested in learning more about being a planet friendly parent, please visit here: https://www.legalandgeneral.com/insurance/life-insurance/family/planet-friendly-parents/