The environment is everything around us, it keeps us alive and is vital for us all – we only have one earth as our home, and it is important that we all play our part in looking after and protecting it. There are many ways in which we can celebrate nature and help to educate the next generation on ways to conserve the planet, by learning how plants, natural materials, ecosystems, and sustainability are all vital for our future. This future depends on building stronger connections between people and the natural environment – in order to achieve this, we need to create greater awareness and acceptance for the need for change.
As the population gets bigger, we use more and more resources, putting our planet under greater strain. There are many ways in which we can help towards a sustainable future and this includes getting our families and young children involved.
How to Get Involved
Creating a greener future and more sustainable future is the responsibility of all of us. Advocating for change, making ethical choices and being greener is something we can all achieve with a more effective impact if we work together. Seeing other people act and recognising that we are not trying alone, can encourage us all to get involved and participate in a greener lifestyle.
National Children’s Gardening Week
National Children’s Gardening Week is an annual event designed to promote a celebration of nature, plants, and sustainability.
The week consists of a range of activities which help to connect young children with nature and provides an opportunity to talk to them about edible produce, flowers and garden arrangements, compost, recycling and how plants and trees provide the raw materials for so many of the things which we all see and use in everyday life. The event is timed to coincide with the warmer week at the end of May, which typically marks a period of rapid growth for plants and flowers, enabling children to enjoy an almost instant result when sowing seeds, planting and watching it grow.
Why Participate?
The week helps to build awareness in children of the association between what we use and consume and its origin. This is becoming increasingly important within society, as there is often little thought or association between what we pick up on the supermarket shelf as consumers, with where the product actually came from, and what was involved in its production.
Another great advantage of participating in National Children’s Gardening Week with your child is the feel-good factor of getting outdoors and reconnecting with nature – something which not only helps to educate, but also cultivates an improved well-being for everyone, both old and young.
National Children’s Gardening Week also supports Green Fingers, a national charity dedicated to supporting children in hospices by helping to create green spaces for them to relax in or have fun as well as offering therapeutic places to rest in.
Make Sustainable Choices
A sustainable product is one which protects the environment and public health over its life cycle, this also includes ethical behaviour which promotes social justice and fairness helping to support local communities and populations, providing them with economic benefits, from the point of raw extraction of the product, to the destination.
Making sustainable choices is vital for the future of our planet – here are some easy ways to support going green.
- Recycle, reuse, upcycle!
- Go digital and help to prevent some of the excessive paper wasted through traditional paper post.
- Ensure that lights, console, computer, TV or anything else which may be left on standby and consuming power, are switched off.
- Try putting on an extra layer if you are feeling chilly, rather than turning up the heating.
- Save water by having quick showers rather than large baths.
- Cut out unnecessary travel and for short trips, use a bicycle or go on foot.
- Avoid takeaways with excessive wasteful packaging.
- Minimise packaging.
- Choose ethically sourced products and check the certifications.
- Check where products have come from – products which seem incredibly cheap, may involve unsustainable production or unethical and unfair labour.
Think Before Buying
With the vast array of options we are presented with as consumers, it can be difficult at times to make the right choice – or indeed to even know what that choice should be. However, if we endeavour where possible to shop sustainably and make ethical choices, then we can all work together to support a healthier and more sustainable planet.
Our Toys
The following range of ethically and sustainably produced wooden toys, can help encourage your child to connect with nature.
