10 Ways to Help Children Be Green:
1. Praise them for flipping off lights and turning off water. Then reward them by using the money saved from utility bills for a treat.
2. Help them collect fruit peels and other scraps for a compost pile. Then when it's ready, let them dig for earthworms.
3. Encourage them to take faster showers. Kids love hour-glass and wind-up timers. See if they can beat your time.
4. Walk or bicycle with them to school. Bring along a pedometer to see how far you go. Then at the end of the year, add up your miles and reward them with a camping trip.
5. Show them how to sort cans, bottles and other recyclables. Then challenge them to generate as little trash each week as they can by reusing some things and avoiding others.
6. Take them on a hike up a hill where they can look out and see the world, help them plant their own tree or bring them to a flower field and let them look for bees, butterflies and bunnies.
7. Help them grow organic vegetables, fruits and berries. Give them Popsicle sticks and colored pens to make plant markers, and a watering can. Plant marigolds to discourage pests naturally.
8. Ask them to help pack their lunch using reusable containers, and include recycled paper napkins, biodegradable plastic utensils and goodies made from the fruits and vegetables they've grown.
9. Hold an Earth party. Hand out fabric shopping totes to paint, make their favorite animal from old boxes and odds and ends, juice organic fruits to pour over shaved iced, plant wheat grass in eggshells.
10. Walk the block with them to pick up trash, adopt a roadside to clean up or form a Roots & Shoots club with their friends. For more on Jane Goodall's program, click here.
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