On Earth Day, we are sharing some of the easy yet fun and beneficial ways we help Mother Earth through work and play. For young children, the first step is to instill a sense of stewardship. This begins with teaching children to notice everything about the world around them.

1. Compost — A way to reduce waste and demonstrate the cycle of life.

2. Tend a Garden — A way to build a sense of responsibility and reward in hard work.

3. Grow Something for the Kitchen — A way to connect gardening and health in the kitchen.

4. Watch Something Sprout — A way to build genuine appreciation for and awareness of the magical events happening in nature all around us. These are caladium bulbs, but lima beans in wet cotton balls or paper towels are a good one to start with.

5. Plant a Lime Tree — A small-scale project that will bear many fruits, including the fruit of togetherness…from planting to making fresh limeade and other treats.

6. Make Cardboard Pizza — A recycled materials craft made from used cardboard boxes, paper grocery sacks, and magazine clippings (a challenge to find the colors!).

7. Build a Puppet Show Theater — A highly creative, interactive, battery-free, plastic-free, long-term project that will create a finished venue for many original and expressive plays. (This one is being renovated and expanded from last year, inspired by Caine’s Arcade.)

8. Get Lost — In corn mazes, pumpkin patches, strawberry patches, garden stores, the hill country, and any new terrain.

9. Let Them Get Their Hands Dirty — Child-sized tools and gloves help allow hands-on activities. Experience is everything.

10. Check the Weather — A little meteorologist lives inside every child. 

11. Make a Collection — Nature walks, hikes, beach combing, and fossil hunting provide many spontaneous opportunities for learning about the world through observation, gathering items to examine closer, and journaling about findings.

12. Play Outside — Leisure time spent outdoors and connecting with nature is priceless at any age.

Hope you make every day Earth Day!

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