The central topic of the July workshop was environmental awareness, and perspective change based on environmental protection.
Education for environmental protection should be started as early as possible, as it’s our collective responsibility to create a more liveable and cleaner world for future generations.
It’s proven facts that children, who frequent nature before 11 years old have a higher chance of becoming environmentally aware adults. Furthermore, other research also indicate that smaller children are affected by the teachers and parents dedicated to environmental protection. Their guidance offers higher chance at these children actively protecting their environment for the rest of their lives, as their childhood practice may become a habit.
Another reason making a system that may become a part of everyday routine early during childhood is that they can guide our children closer to an environmentally aware lifestyle one small step at a time.
As a first step, we need to make our children spend as much time in nature as possible.
For example, a five year old child is already capable of quickly and easily identifying the recyclable trash cans denoted with three different tags. Let us make it easier for the child, and denote the top, or side of the container with different colours, or playful vignettes, and explain to them why selective waste management is important.
Even the smallest of children can be shown the alternative solutions to plastic bottles and wraps. In order to do this, the best option is to procure a recyclable lunchbox or water bottle.
When putting the children to sleep, sometimes choosing a picture book or cartoon where the stars are environmentally friendly. We can notify the small ones about how correct they behave, and how nicely they treat their environment, and we can acknowledge and praise our children, telling them how proud we are if they do the same.
One of the most important creeds of PLM is that the earlier the individual realises the advantages of employing awareness, the easier it becomes to balance their everyday lives. By teaching our children to live with awareness and reason, they initiate a self-propelling process that results in a more balanced and responsible adult.