PARENTS RECYCLING RESOURCES: TEACH YOUR CHILDREN
My children have been recycling since they could walk. It comes
as naturally to them as brushing their teeth in the mornings
and putting their seatbelts on when they get in the car (ok,
so sometimes I have to nag them to make sure they brush their
teeth). When they visit a friend's home and drink a can of soda
they ask where the recycling bin is. If their friend doesn't
have one, they bring the can home with them. They wouldn't consider
throwing it in the trash. It isn't because they are radical tree
huggers or have an overly high sense of responsibility to the
environment. It's because it's all they know. It is habit.
We teach our children to say please and thank you from the time
they begin to speak. We teach them to brush their teeth as soon
as the first baby tooth pokes through their cute little gums.
We teach them not to talk to strangers, not to hit, not to litter,
and so much more that we don't even consciously think about.
It comes naturally.
Why?
Usually because it is what our parents taught us. And what our
grandparents taught them. We learn by example and we reinforce
it by doing. If we begin teaching our children that recycling
is a way of life, making it as habitual as washing their hands
before dinner (well, I'm still working on this one with mine),
then before we know it, we will have a generation of recyclers.
They will teach their children because we taught them, and the
balance will shift in our world from a majority of people that
do not recycle to a majority THAT DOES!!! This is where parent
recycling resources begin...by example.
We don't need to fill our kids full of facts and figures to
scare them into recycling. Using the parent recycling resources
provided [at http://www.recycling-revolution.com/parents-recycling-resources.html],
we simply lead by example and provide them with a sense of responsibility
to ensure a clean and healthy environment for them, for their
children, and for their grandchildren. And then continue reinforcing
recycling in as many areas of their lives as we can.
Yes, it's important to get our home recycling center setup,
but don't forget that our children spend much of their time in
daycare, in school, in church. We need to expand our parents
recycling resources to ensure that they continue to be exposed
to recycling in these areas also.
"It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail
on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature's
gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.”
Jimmy Carter
"To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and
exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness,
will result in undermining in the days of our children the very
prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them." Theodore
Roosevelt
Reprinted from
http://www.recycling-revolution.com/parents-recycling-resources.html
