How cool is that?  When I was his age I thought litter was a group of newborn puppies!  I think it’s great that children of all ages are becoming more aware and are concerned about the environment.  I also think it’s our responsibility to help keep them motivated and to help educate them since our generation is partly responsible for the mess we are in.  The thing I love about their ideas are that thye are simple BUT make sense, so…

Start simple and lead by example but more importantly explain why!  Tell your children why you have changed to CFL light bulbs, why you recycle, why you buy organic pasta, why you bought a Green Path Organic cotton tote bag (ha, ha), why you do whatever you do to live a greener lifestyle.  They are smarter than we think and they learn from our actions and they will learn faster when we tell them the reason for what we are doing. 

Another thing you can do to help them Grow Up Green is to take them to a Farmers Market once a month.  All you have to do is do a Google or Yahoo search for Farmers Markets in you area and I’ll bet you can find one near you.  You can probably even find an Organic Farmers Market close by and you are not only helping the local economy but also cutting down on carbon emissions by buying local.  Plus it will be fun!

You can also help them start a garden or plant flowers or a tree.  It’s a great way to teach them about the benefits of growing their own food or how flowers help bees make honey or how trees help clean the air.  We have a two year old granddaughter and she loves being outside at our cabin in the mountains and loves strawberries so we are going to help her plant her own strawberry plants over Memorial Day weekend. 

There are so many benefits to getting kids involved the least of which is that we spend time with them and maybe we can learn something from them.