The saying ‘our children are our future’ is one we’ve all heard before, but think about, if we don’t educate our children about their environment and the difference they can make they may have no future!

More than anything we need to teach them that going green can be fun and part of everyday family activities.  Children are quick learners and will learn through following the examples that we set for them every day.

Here are some great ideas that you can do as a family:

·          Recycling.  This is the first step in teaching your children about their environment.  Teach them to put paper, plastic, glass and metal in separate containers for the rubbish collectors or to be taken to recycling centres.

·          Just think recycling one glass bottle saves enough electricity to light a 100 watt bulb for four hours and the great thing about glass is that it never wears out and can be used forever.

·          Plant a tree with your kids.  Find an indigenous nursery (www.gisa.co.za) near you and have fun picking up the tree and where to plant it. 

·          Start a compost heap.  Show the family how food waste from the kitchen combined with garden waste like dried leaves and twigs makes great compost.  This serves a dual purpose of helping your soil and saving the environment.

·          Grow your own herbs.  Whilst at the indigenous nursery choose a few herbs that you’ll enjoy cooking with and teach your children that they don’t always need salt to flavour their food.  Herbs grow easily and make food taste great.

·          Depending on where you live, maybe try and walk to the shops or school a few times a week to reduce the pollution from our cars.

·          Instead of being glued to the TV screen or computer and using electricity why not have a games night once a week, which can really be fun, especially for the competitive members of the family.

·          Teach your children to turn off the taps when they’re brushing their teeth and encourage them to take showers instead of bathing. 

·          Simple things, like turning off lights when you leave a room or switching off plugs at the mains when going to bed are easy lessons to learn.