Earth Day 2012

Every year I am amazed at how little attention Earth Day receives in the United States. We are one of the world's worst offenders when it comes to the environment. Yet when it's time to raise awareness it seems people prefer to ignore the issues.

This year, I decided to get my young daughter involved in a small way. Recycling is not something new in our household, so my 6 year old is used to separating glass, tin, plastic, etc. But I wanted to do more. I wanted her to understand why we do those things and more importantly, I wanted to give her a sense of empowerment. I want her to know that every effort counts, that every paper we recycle makes a difference.

We started by reading "How to Help the Earth- by the Lorax". It is a Step into Reading level 3 book which was perfect for her to read by herself. Then, we talked about what we do at home to help the Earth. She noticed that there were more ideas in the book that we currently don't do, but would be able to easily incorporate into our daily lives. I loved the fact that she was proactive about suggesting changes.

The following day, we read the book once more and then we made our own Help the Earth chart to remind us of all the little things we can do. I wrote the list and she cut out pictures from magazines that illustrated our "to do's". We had great fun and since the poster has been up, we've talked more about what we're doing and she is also helping me to remind the other family members to "comply" as well.

Do you do anything special to help the Earth? I'm always looking for new ideas, I'd love to hear your comments!