Want to Inspire Your Kids to Go Green At School? Here's How.

  At home, we've taught our kids to turn off the lights when they leave their rooms, recycle cans and bottles, and maybe even scrape their dinner scraps into the compost pile.

But what happens when our children head off to school? Next to home, kids spend more time at school than anywhere else, at least six hours a day and maybe more if they participate in after-school clubs or sports. How can we, as parents, inspire our sons and daughters to continue to practice in the classroom what they've learned under our own watchful eyes?

Consider these three suggestions I made to PBSParents.org. Then let us know what's worked for you!

Comments

[James]

Could it help to give some sort of incentive to children so that they recycle more? One of my best friends is a Junior school teacher and says that her kids get excited by the simplest little rewards. Things like small prizes work well so perhaps something like a competition whereby the class who recycles the most gets rewarded with a trip or activity day?

[Diane MacEachern]

Great idea - and better to reward with something fun to do, or something meaningful, than with "stuff" that promotes consumption1