How to raise young ecologist?
Creating positive ecological models is very important for effective educational influence on children. Ecological habits should be developed from early childhood. That’s why we should develop a caring attitude towards animals and plants and teaching how to take action to protect the environment already during preschool period of child’s life. Kindergarten age is characterized by a large jump in intellectual development of the child, so it’s the best time to introduce elements of environmental education.
Ecology begins at home. The family home is the first and most important place for development of skills and behaviours favourable to the ecology. Children in natural way learn and examine the different behaviours in everyday life and shape the habits of caring for the environment. Because of the large pollution of the environment in which we live, we have to pay attention to awaken in children environmental sensitivity and teach them a sense of responsibility for the environment. Small children are very open to the world. They gain knowledge through experiencing and exploring the environment around them and at the same time they greatly enrich their vocabulary. Therefore, we should use a few rules:
Show good behaviours. During the walk with child outside, draw its attention to the nature around you. Talk about interesting plants, show natural monuments, talk about cleanness of lakes and streets in the park.
Sort the garbage with your child. Teach at home how to segregate waste. You can together with your child do the puppets, toys with plastic bottle or paper rolls.
Attend ecological events. Inform the child about Global Clean Up the World Day, Day of the Earth, etc. and about importance of these actions for life on the Earth.
Talk. Educate your child about the dangers threatening the life of people, caused by pollution and devastation. Watch together movies about nature, ask your child some questions and let him answer.
Save and teach how to save. Make some rules - saving water during washing hands and teeth, turning off unnecessary light, turning off unused electrical devices, etc.
Avoid the use of plastic. Draw the child’s attention to the fact that reusable wrappings are better for the environment.
Do not throw away, but repair. Do not teach the child that if something is destroyed, then it should be thrown out just because buying new things is easier than repairing the old ones.
However, the most important thing is to teach children only what we believe and what we practice because convincing children to behaviour which is not observed in their own homes, completely misses the point. On the other hand, the child's interest in ecology is the perfect chance for a revolution in your own home. If so far we were making one eco-crime after another, it's time to change it. For good decisions it is never too late.
