If small gestures do not serve to stop the climate change because companies and the rich contaminate what you do in several lives, then the efforts you make at home without family collaboration are also worthless.
The idea of fighting against emissions is collective, and that is why when we recycle garbage but our neighbor does not, we lose capacity for action. The same happens with the topic of electricity ; whether for environmental ethics or simply money.
If at home you are the only one who turns off the lights all day, at the end of the month you will see how all the efforts you have made are not reflected in the bill. Why are we telling all this? For the little ones in the house .
They learn from us and therefore multiply the negative and positive effects of our actions. If you’re a hatchet efficiency with appliances, your child will probably be too in the medium and long term.
The question is how to achieve that. Is what they teach you in school enough? The reality is no. That is why in this article we want to explain how to teach children to save energy ; from the most basic to the most complex already in more advanced ages.
Ways to save energy for children: it’s not work, but play
The question is not what but how. The little ones do not understand the causal implications to such a great magnitude of the energy consumption and that is why it is useless for you to explain to them the seriousness of the climate crisis. What is the solution?
A good way to raise awareness and build commitment is to think of games to teach children to save energy ; turn boring explanations or daily “homework” into fun activities. They are worth both known and invented.
The objective here is that you think of games that adapt both to the reality of your home and to the clearest savings needs . The list is almost endless but here are some ideas.
Make it a guardian
Make him believe that he is the great savior of electricity and that he must ensure that all devices that are not being used remain turned off. You will be giving him a goal that he can easily stick to and he will feel responsible.
Boy Scouts
Bring wilderness survival into your home. Generates game dynamics by turning off the lights and forcing the children to use flashlights and other strategies to achieve certain objectives. They will associate the lights on with accessories and not needs.
bike sundays
Instilling in children a passion for cycling goes beyond particular taste. Create playful and familiar routines around this transport and the little one will end up associating it with happy moments. In the long term, the goal is prefer the bike to other means of transport.
recycling basketball
Cube colors not working? Turn the trash can into a basket and play basketball with your child while he learns to recycle . The bond in the future will thus be positive.
Saving Olympics
There is no better way to teach children to save energy than by challenging them to do better . Place a clipboard in the bathroom and record the time it takes to shower or wash your hands with a stopwatch. It will try to improve it by saving water.
How to teach children to save energy as a family
Teach him that the obligation to save energy is not a particular punishment; that everyone at home also does it and, most important of all, that it is “normal “. Come on, it is not a special activity or a utilitarian tool.
That’s why it’s important that if you order him to turn off the lights, do not waste water and keep the windows closed, also involve the rest of the family and include yourself in these activities. The child will adopt the habits that he understands are normal and will internalize them.
Think of specific activities to teach children to save energy
Although it is often overlooked, it is not possible to talk about how to teach children to save energy if you do not pay attention to their age. A 5-year-old is not the same as a 10-year-old. Understanding the psychological development of children is more than fundamental.
We say this because it is not until the age of 3 when children begin to be aware of their behaviors and feelings towards others. Between the ages of 2 and 7 they go through what is known as the preoperational stage of development, in which they will lose self-centeredness.
Be careful, because empathy does not mean absolute goodness. The child will learn to save energy if he believes it is important to you, but he will not internalize it if there are no real motivations for him . “Am I saving? But I’m not saving anything.” Well, it materializes.
In other words, associate saving with good energy habits. Give him a piggy bank and put a coin in every time he does something right. You will learn to strive because there will be a reward behind it.
Saving is a thing for adults: the best way to save energy for children
The safest thing is that at home there are more older people than little ones. If the child sees that those trying to save energy are adults, she will believe that this obligation is something for adults . And what do the little ones want most? Exactly, being older.
Even if it’s only by imitation, you will be able to teach children to save energy by keeping a few responsible consumption habits. Needless to say, modeling/observation/imitation learning is one of its first resources.
The child will copy your efforts to save energy because he will see a use in it; It does not have to be material, but intangible. He will feel part of the family and understand that he is following acceptable standards of conduct.
Courses to teach children to save energy
It is not necessary that they be curricular courses of many hours. It is enough with workshops or specific activities organized by the council of your city/town. And there is no more useful way to teach children to save energy than through socialization .
That your friends also save? What teachers and parents reward? If you manage to make showering instead of bathing a way for the little one to link the day to day with the games in the workshops , you will have taken a critical step in cutting future bills.
To show a button. Between 2007 and 2011 the institutions of Bremen and Bremerhaven (Germany) developed the Ener:Kita project; an education program that aimed to save energy in schools in the area through learning and awareness.
More than 1,000 children between the ages of 6 and 7 participated in the activities; they had an hour and a half a week to familiarize themselves with energy concepts and savings. After that they were invited to act as detectives to observe the consumption of water and electricity in their schools.
What was achieved? In the second edition of Ener:Kita, the energy consumption of the 22 participating schools was reduced by up to 9%, thanks to the involvement of the workers and the children themselves.
