Remember Mother Earth
Celebrating Earth Day With Your Children
By Teri Brown
But once Earth Day passes, it's important not to forget the lessons learned. Instead, show your children how they can honor the Earth every single day. "We ... like the slogan 'Earth Day Every Day' to highlight the importance of thinking about the environment every day – and not just once a year," says Braus.
For Riggs, it's important that her children understand that it's important to honor the earth in everyday ways, and she tries to make recycling and responsible living a part of her children's daily lives. "Since we do it every day, our Earth Day lessons will focus on how Earth Day tries to get more people to do these things on a regular basis," she says.
By celebrating Earth Day as a family and educating our children about the planet, we show them the importance of taking care of the environment around us: a valuable seed worth planting in our future generation.
| Saving the Earth One Family at a Time Elicia Fritsch, of Earth Share of Georgia, offers the following every day ways to honor the Earth, which also help our children to understand that the way we live our lives can make a difference. Have your children help with the following activities and explain to them the impact of what you are doing: - Skip a car trip each week and reduce your annual emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by nearly 1000 pounds.
- Replace one beef meal each week and save 10 pounds of grain and topsoil and 40,000 gallons of water per year.
- Recycle and reuse containers, make compost, reduce waste and create jobs. Then complete the cycle by buying recycled products.
- Declare your independence from junk mail: Send your name and address (in every variation shown on the junk mail you receive) to: Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, PO Box 9008, Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008.
- Replace standard light bulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and reduce your electricity bills by more than 0 over the lives of those bulbs. Replace them all, inside and out!
- Move the thermostat 3 degrees F and save money and prevent the emission of nearly 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide annually.
- Turn off the water when brushing your teeth or shaving and save money as well as conserve nearly 8,000 gallons of water per year.
- Volunteer. Give a few hours of your time to help clean up a neighborhood park, plant or mulch trees or pick up litter along a roadway or stream bank.
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| Earth Day Celebrations Across the Country Los Angeles, Calif. – Los Angeles is host to countless Earth Day events. Earth Day LA Makes finding and choosing an event easy. Just log on to their Web site and click on the events Calendar. Visit www.earthdayla.org or call 310-390-4366 or 888-295-8372. Chicago, Ill. – The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum holds Earth Day celebrations famous for their innovative and hands-on nature activities and free admission. Check out the Web site at www.naturemuseum.org or call 773-755-5100 for further information. Detroit, Mich. – One year, the Detroit Science Center sent their lucky celebrants home with arts and crafts made of recyclable materials and a seed necklace they could plant at home. For more information visit, www.Sciencedetroit.org or call 313-577-8400. Denver, Colo. – The Denver Zoo honors Earth Day with talks on how the zoo participates in the Species Survival Plan, a national program designed to help ensure the survival of selected wildlife species. Let your children learn about conservation and how they can help. Check out www.denverzoo.org or call 303 376-4800 for more information. New York City, N.Y. – For more information on Earth Day New York, a nonprofit organization, visit www.earthdayny.org or call 212-922-0048. Atlanta, Ga. – For more information about The Fernbank Museum of Natural History celebration, you can call 404-929-6300 or visit www.fernbank.edu/museum. | |
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