Pre-schoolers are usually bursting to learn and know about everything! One issue that you can encourage them to learn about before they go to school is recycling.
Pre-school age children are one of the keenest groups of learners, with this age group typically wanting to know all there is to know about everything. As a parent of a pre-schooler, you’re likely to find yourself bombarded with questions about who, what, where, why and how. Although it may be hard work answering all of their queries all the time, you can successfully channel their energy and eagerness to learn into learning constructively.
One way in which you may like to help broaden your pre-schoolers leaning is in relation to the issue of recycling. Environmental issues, being green, looking after the environment and doing what we can through recycling as much as possible have become key concerns in today’s society. In schools, children will be taught about these issues, but you can help their understanding before they reach school, by helping them learn about recycling at home.
Learning About the Basics of Recycling
In the first instance, you can help children learn about the basics of recycling – why it’s important, how the environment benefits and the different ways in which things can be recycled. There are some good children’s books focusing on recycling, both fictional stories and non-fiction information, and these can be used to reinforce the message.
How to Learn About Recycling at Home
At home you can help pre-school age children learn about recycling in a variety of ways. If you’ve already got a recycling initiative in action at home, then you can teach your child about what you do and why and help get them involved in sorting out the different items into different boxes.
If you’re not that into recycling, then it’s the perfect time to start and something your child can actively do with you. You could start by thinking about the different items you could recycle – plastic milk bottles, glass bottles, tins, newspapers, cardboard etc – and how you’ll go about recycling them at home. Your child could help you sort out suitable places to store your recycling items, perhaps writing labels to go on boxes so you know what should go where, and helping you sort out all the products for recycling.
As well as giving away your items for recycling, see if there are any ways that you could recycle and reuse things within your own home. For example, if you’re into gardening, you could make plant pots out of old newspapers or use old yogurt pots to plant seeds in.
Learning About Recycling When Out and About
There are plenty of ways in which you can help pre-schoolers learn about recycling when you’re out and about.
Many towns and cities now have litter bins that are separated into bins suitable for certain items, like plastic bottles or cartons, so you could make a point of sorting out any litter and helping children choose which bin they should put it into. If your area has a recycling centre, then you could go along and visit to see where all the different items go.
It’s also good to get an idea of what actually happens to something after it’s been recycled, and helps children gain a better understanding of what they’re actually doing. Look out for details of any special recycling events going on in your local area or perhaps visit shops where they sell recycled products, so your child could look at the end result (e.g. handbags made from plastic bottles or old bottles made into drinking glasses or glass dishes).
Both learning and recycling should be fun, so be inventive, find interesting things to do and help your child gain an understanding of why recycling is a beneficial thing to do!