Earth Day 2022: Ways Grandparents Can Teach Children to Respect Their World
Today is both Earth Day 2022…and a Friday! That means lots of kids will be visiting their grandparents. This is a great opportunity to teach kids some powerful life lessons, like how to respect the planet.
Understanding Earth Day 2022
Each year on April 22nd, we celebrate a day of environmental protection. Earth Day 2022 is a day to do what we can to help the planet and our own neighborhoods.
Earth Day was first held in 1970. This global celebration now includes a wide range of themes and events during which all of us can offer a helping hand. It is celebrated by over one billion people in more than 193 countries. The official theme for 2022 is Invest In Our Planet.
To learn more about Earth Day 2022, visit the official website.
Helping Grandparents and Grandchildren Connect
Stepping back to our original theme, a bunch of visiting grandchildren can be a delight for earth-friendly grandparents. There are plenty of ways to turn Earth Day 2022 into a fun day of exploration, safety and environmentalism.
Turn Off the Television and Step Outside
To start, why not turn off the TV and experience nature? This blog has discussed the dangers of too much screen time in the past. For visiting grandkids, this lesson can be a perfect excuse to step away from the screens.
Simply take a nice long walk together. This is a great time to bond and experience nature. Along the way, feel free to pick up some discarded cans or bottles to recycle. Little kids love to feel like they are helping. If you stop by a grocery store, you can even cash those bottles in and share the profits.
Spend Some Time in the Garden
Another fun way to spend time outside together is to do a bit of light gardening. Kids love to play in the dirt. As long as everyone has a change of clothes handy, this is a wonderful way to add some lush vegetation, flowers and more to the yard. It’s a perfect little way to celebrate Earth Day 2022 in your own backyard. Plus, as the kids keep visiting, they’ll get to witness the plants growing and feel pride in their work.
Besides helping grandparents to tend the garden, children will learn some valuable life lessons. Understanding how plants and food grow is vital to our world. Starting early can only help inspire a lifetime love of the green thumb. This will be a cherished memory of their time with their grandparents far into the future, as your grandchildren teach your lessons to their own grandchildren.
Teach Them About Composting
This last way that grandparents can teach children to respect the world is sort of a combination of recycling and gardening. Learning how to make a compost heap reduces waste and can help to enrich the environment.
Far too many homes simply throw away every bit of food scrap when they are done cooking. This is surprisingly wasteful. In a nutshell, any food scraps that can be naturally broken down can be used as excellent compost in the garden. This will enrich the soil and nourish the plants.
Learning about how to build a compost bin or pile is a valuable tool for reducing, reusing and recycling. The kids can learn how to do this while they help their grandparents cook. Best yet, it’s another life lesson that they can take with them for the rest of their lives.
These tips are all fun and don’t need to seem too serious. Besides helping to care for the planet, these are all valuable experiences that everyone will remember for many years. Have a wonderful and productive Earth Day 2022!