Tips on how to teach children about the importance of recycling and our environment

We can no longer pretend to ignore the situation that the earth is in anymore. Environmental risks have made it harder for the earth to survive and now it's time for us to start taking care of the planet. As we raise the next generation, we need to understand why it's so essential to teach our kids to take careof the environment. A healthy planet is after all going to make their future brighter, better and happier. It's time for each one of us to stop simply trying to do something and instead take necessary steps to help our kids learn about how to protect the environment. In this article, let's talk about some tips that will help you teach your kids to recycle and save the environment. 1. Kids learn quickly by watching what you do. You can't teach your kids about anything unless you, yourself, are passionate about that topic or want to learn more about it. Your kids will find it easier to learn about the importance of the environment once they see their parents doing the same. Whether you make an effort to recycle as much as possible, or you plant more trees around the house, your kids are going to notice every little thing. Your constant behavior is going to help them feel motivated or at least curious about saving the planet through their actions. Thus, it's definitely a step in the right direction if you start caring for nature first.

2. Books are the best helpers. Books about the environment might seem boring sometimes, but they are one of the best resources to learn about how to take care of nature as part of your daily routine. Plus, most kids tend to love books in general. You can find several kid-friendly books online as well as in-stores that can help you teach your kids about the environment. These books are sometimes filled with images as kids often learn quickly through visual tools. You can also find several online videos and classes that help them learn about recycling with practical examples and situations. Books can make your task a lot less difficult by helping you teach your kids about the importance of the environment in a way that they will surely understand a bit quicker.

3. Educational toys make the entire process a lot more funfor kids of any age.

If you have toddlers or young kids, you might be worried about them not really grasping difficult concepts, like specific environmental issues. But you don't have to start them with difficult topics to learn about the importance of the environment. And that is exactly when buying educational toys can come in handy - these days, you can find toys that teach your kids to care about the environment and animals in a subtle way. These toys can also help thembecome more interested in saving the planet and help them find ways to become friendlier with nature and its other components. Therefore, you can also try to find educational toys that will help your kids learn about the environment.

Your kids are never too young to start learning about recycling. The VTech® Sort & Recycle Ride-On Truck™ is a great way to teach kids ages 1.5 to 3 years old about the importance of recycling in a funway. This will help to establish good lifelong habits while they are still young. Here are some fun facts about this VTech® Ride-On Truck:

• This recycling truck is made from plastic that is 90% reclaimed; using reclaimed plastic means less waste goes into landfills. Not only are kids able to play with this toy, but they are also already doing their part by using a toy that is good for the environment.

• Beginner recyclers will love hopping on this lean, green recycling machine and driving around while learning about recycling things like plastic and reusing everyday objects. There are so many fun facts that teach them all about recycling.
  

• Load up the red heart, yellow hexagon and blue circle play pieces that represent plastic, metal andpaper. Practice makes perfect. They can learn from a young age how to correctly recycle.
  

• Sort items into the correct bins, just like at home. Kids love being like mom and dad and learning to sort helps them to follow your example.
  

• Kids can also explore ways to repurpose everyday items or take a quiz to reinforce what they’re learning. My kids loved taking the quizzes and learning about new ways to recycle that they never thought of.
  

• Reuse and remix the included melodies by inserting a block into a bin, to add sound effects thatmake each melody sound new. The music and melodies make it so much fun for kids to play along. You can learn more about VTech®’s eco-friendly products here:https://www.vtechkids.com/cares

4. Start meaningful conversations about this with your children. Talking about things will help you understand how easy or difficult it's going to be for you to make your child interested in a topic, like taking care of the environment. Plus, it also makes it easier for kids to come and ask you a question in case there is something they don't really understand on their own. Make sure that you talk to your kids regularly about the importance of the environment and why you are sopassionate about this topic. Ask them what else you can do to help them so that they can also find interest in the same topic. Solve their doubts frequently and involve them when you are doing something that can potentially help nature. This continuous conversation will bring you all closer, and together, you can learn about the environment.

5. Set goals that are doable for both you and your children.

Setting goals is another proven way to encourage your child to help the environment. But you have to ensure that you set goals your kids can actually achieve with constant hard work. These goals don't have to be anything extraordinary - they can be something simple like wasting less foodaround the house, making use of the dry and wet waste cans wisely, or anything like that. These goals are easy for kids to understand and achieve with a little bit of help and guidance from their parents. 6. Find fun games to make this process exciting for children. Kids adore playing games with their parents - they are always trying get their parents to play with them throughout the day. Games can thus be one of the ways in which you can teach your kids to respect and care for the environment. You can always create your own games based on what you think your kids will enjoy. Otherwise, theinternet is there to help you find games that teach about the environment with age-appropriate activities.You can play these games once in a while instead of letting your kids use electronics, and therefore practice caring for the environment around the house. 7. The more you practice, the better your kids will learn to carefor nature.

There is no denying that this is not a one-day task for you or your kids - it will probably take months to getinto the habit of protecting the environment in any way possible. And at times, your small efforts might feel like they are not making any impact. But you and your children have to believe that it's all for the future - if you learn about the importance of the environment now and start caring for it, the future will benefit from it. With a lot of practice, you will surely start to see the impacts of your daily efforts and know that you are doing something right. So, keep practicing and teaching your kids to help the environment.

Conclusion:

In this article, we talked about some ways to help your kids understand the importance of caring for the environment and recycling process. Right now, is probably the best time for you to start your family’s journey towards becoming more sustainable and more loving towards mother nature.

We hope that these tips help you get your kids on-board with this journey Then you can also start becoming more environmentally friendly along with your kids as well!

How To Encourage a Love For STEM Activities

I'm a huge fan of incorporating STEM toys and STEM learning into my home and I have been doing so from very early on in my children's lives. What better time to encourage a love for STEM and to develop fun STEM activities at home than when they are young and excited to learn? STEM education is a fun and engaging process that a child's curiosity is naturally drawn to.

But first, what is STEM?

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.

Why is STEM important?

STEM concepts are an active part of our daily lives, whether you realize it or not. By encouraging creative thinking and analytical skills early on in a child's life, we can easily help our children become confident and lifelong learners.

How To Encourage a Love of STEM Activities

Since I have kids of all different ages, it can feel challenging at times to find activities that are educational and engaging, and age-appropriate at the same time. STEM activities are actually great for children of multiple ages to do together. Older children can work together with younger children. Children can incorporate their own ideas and suggestions on how to make something work. They can also learn from their elder peers to see cause and effect.

What I also love about STEM toys and activities is that when purchasing toys, not only do I want a toy that helps to teach my kids, but I want one that will withstand hours of play and wear and tear too. STEM toys activate a child's mind and brain, so that they can problem solve and work on something over and over again.

I also really love STEM toys that promote quality time together so that we can all work on and complete tasks together.

How To Encourage a Love of STEM Activities

What I've found throughout my years of being a mom is that kids genuinely love STEM learning. But the biggest way to foster that love for learning is to be active and a part of the process.

Some simple tips to encourage a love of STEM learning include:

• Explore together. Have fun studying new topics and lessons and be "present" and in the moment with them.

• Buy STEM toys that encourage your child to practice their STEM skills and that excites them.

• Have hands-on learning. Reading from books is great but let's not overlook the fact that kids love to learn with their hands as well.

• Think outside the box. Some of the greatest inventions in the world were made because people thought a bit differently. Encourage your child to have this mindset when it comes to STEM learning.

• Ask them what they love about STEM. If you ask your child what they love about STEM and what they want to do with STEM, it will help them share their experiences with you and love it even more.

• Hypothesize with them. Ask them what they think will happen or to help problem-solve. Making those tall magnetic tile towers looks amazing, but how high can you really go? What happens if you remove one piece? Will it all fall down?

Tips for Developing STEM Activities at Home

One of the biggest ways that we work on STEM in our house is that we have STEM toys and learning tools that the kids love to create with.

The two STEM toys that my family is currently enjoying right now are:

1. VTech® Marble Rush™ Ultimate Set™

The moment my children saw the VTech® Marble Rush™ Ultimate Set™ box at home, they could not wait to open it. I love that STEM toys have no age limit. My 14-year-old was just as excited as my 7-year-old. I loved seeing my children put on their thinking brains while they conversed with each other and discussed how to fix a piece that wasn't working with the overall layout and design.

The kids love this set because it not only allows them to build with over 128-pieces, but it also has a spinning Ferris wheel and color-coded blocks that make it easy for them to construct, which helps to quickly build their STEM confidence.

Once they built their masterpiece, they were able to drop the marbles and complete the challenges along the way. I love that this is geared towards kids ages 4+ so it's a fun learning tool that the kids will play with together and have a blast. This set is pretty large, and I loved listening to my 14-year-old and 12-year-old brainstorm some of the challenges they saw when building their own designs and how to solve those challenges.

2. VTech® Marble Rush™ Launchpad Set™

The VTech® Marble Rush™ Launchpad Set™ includes 75 building pieces and it has a light-show rocket ship as well as launchers, and more.

This set has color-coded blocks as well for easy-to-follow construction and it makes it simple for the kids to branch out and create something new and unique too.

Whatever they create, they just drop the marbles and love watching the path that they take!

The VTech® Marble Rush™ toys explore the global rules of physics:

• Rule #1 - Gravity. Gravity pulls things down.

• Rule #2 - Slope. Slope affects speed.

• Rule #3 - Random. Random is unpredictable.

• Rule #4 - Force. Force is a push or a pull.

• Rule #5 - Friction. Friction is everywhere.

Once your children have built the courses that are provided as examples in the book, try to extend the activity. Have them build their own courses, or even better… ask them to find a way to merge both sets together for an even larger marble run course.

You can also find more build ideas here.

Don’t forget to incorporate a lot of other open-ended supplies and items in your kids’ play space as well. Have building blocks, train sets, magnetic tiles, and other supplies openly available for playtime.

Did you know that Slime is also a STEM activity? My kids are a bit older, so I am able to leave out all the Slime materials at home. My children love creating slime from glitter, clear glue (or white glue) and our slime activators. STEM is a natural part of our daily afternoon playtime.

Why STEM Learning?

STEM teaches children real-life skills that they'll continue to use, even as adults.

STEM teaches them how to be creative, how to critically think, how to read and comprehend directions, how to create hypotheses and test them out, and how to be okay with trying something and altering it as needed.

Those STEM skills are ones that can't be taught from a textbook but only with real-world hands-on learning.

This is why in our house STEM toys and family STEM time are essential and something that we'll continue to keep doing day in and day out. And with the help of our VTech® toys, learning time is something that the kids look forward to every single day!

Nadia is a mom of 4 and the face behind Fun With Mama. She loves the magic of childhood and loves connecting with her children through educational and fun activities. Her blog is filled with fun kids’ activities, educational printable activities, travel experiences, and family-related topics.

Magical Slumber Party

Creating childhood magic is one of my favorite parts of being a mommy to my three little ones! Over the years I have found that all it takes is a little imagination and love to create the most magically memorable moments. Recently, I surprised my 7-year-old, Harper, with a fun-filled slumber party. The sweetest dreams are made of these memories!

Special delivery!

For me, the magic is in the details. Little things like an invitation and a new pair of pajamas can make an experience extra special. Ivy the Bloom Bright Unicorn™ and the Glitter Me Kitten™, two magical new robotic friends from VTech®, arrived at our home to invite Harper to a slumber party that night- right in our family room! These two cuddly, colorful, and interactive friends joined our slumber party to make the night even more magical!

Here are some more creative ideas to throw your own magical slumber party; sweet dreams, guaranteed!

Decorate

Set the scene for a magical evening by transforming a space in your house especially for the occasion! I set up our slumber party in the family room; you can choose anywhere- but believe me, your kids will get extra joy out of “camping” in a room that is not typically used for sleep!

Get the look by hanging a variety of sheets or blankets (even curtain panels or tablecloths will work!) between furniture to create a tent. To create the high-pitched “circus tent” look that I envisioned for our slumber party, I tied sheets so that they would hang down from our ceiling fan! By draping and layering several pieces you can make a really dreamy little space!

Add a layer of comfort to the floor using couch cushions, a blowup mattress, or even an outgrown crib mattress! Now, fill it with cozy pillows and fluffy blankets; it is the perfect spot to cuddle up with the Glitter Me Kitten™️ and listen to her purr.

Turn up the sparkle by hanging twinkle lights and shimmering star garlands. Wave the wand over Ivy the Bloom Bright Unicorn™️ to add an even more colorful glow to the room!

Plan Activities

From dance parties to spa time to crafts, put on your jammies and get ready for a night of memory making with your little one!

Let’s get the (dance) party started! Turn on your favorite playlist and dance along with Ivy the Bloom Bright Unicorn™️! Harper loved watching Ivy flap her wings and glow along to the music. Keep the party going by asking Ivy to lead a catchy sing-a-long with eight of her own tunes!

Then set up a pretend salon & spa. First, take turns trying out new hairstyles! Harper requested an Ivy-inspired unicorn mane braid, complete with rainbow rubber bands and a colorful faux hair strand woven in.

While I was working on her hair, she was changing the color of Ivy’s eyes, horn, and wings with her magic wand and adding pretty hair clip accessories to her own braid.

Next, choose a fun color to paint your child’s nails. The Glitter Me Kitten™️ would love to place a glittery stamp on your child’s hand to help show off their new mini mani!

Arts & Crafts

Prepare your little one for a purr-fect night’s sleep by making an adorable kitty cat sleep mask together!

For this project you will need: felt, a hot glue gun, a piece of sewing elastic to fit around your child’s head, and any other embellishments that you desire (sequins, puffy paint, etc!).

On a piece of felt, draw a peanut shape approximately the width of your little one’s face. Add two triangle cat ears to the outline. Cut out the entire cat shape x 2. Decorate a side of one of the pieces of felt. I cut various shapes like eyelashes, a nose, ears, and whiskers out of felt to make it look like a sleepy Glitter Me Kitten™️!

Once it has dried, use the hot glue to attach a piece of elastic to the back sides of your decorated mask. Create an “elastic sandwich” by adhering the second, undecorated felt mask to the backside of the first. Hot glue around the perimeter, lining up the edges as you go.

Make a Snack

No slumber party is complete without snacks! Stovetop popcorn is one of my kids’ favorite snacks - I love to listen as they squeal in delight watching the popcorn magically dance around the pot! For our slumber party, we made it even more magical by turning our favorite snack into Unicorn Popcorn!

Ingredients:

- Popcorn Kernels (2 tablespoons per color)

- Gel Food Coloring

- Sugar (2 tablespoons per color)

- Coconut oil (1/2 tablespoon per color)

Step 1: For each desired color, mix 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1-2 drops of gel food coloring in separate small bowls. Set aside.

Step 2: Melt ½ tablespoon of coconut oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add a kernel or two and wait for it to pop - this means your oil is hot enough!

Step 3: Add 2 tablespoons of kernels and give them a quick stir to make sure they are coated in the oil.

Step 4: This next step is a bit tricky (but deliciously worth it!). As the kernels begin to heat up, sprinkle them with the colored sugar and place a lid on the pot. Move and shake the pot as the kernels pop to coat the popcorn in a colorful candy coating!

Step 5: Pour the popcorn onto a baking sheet or a piece of parchment paper to cool. Top with salt if desired and/or our favorite - sprinkles!

Step 6: Clean your pot and repeat with each color.

Once the popcorn has cooled, you can break apart any clusters that are stuck together. Mix all the colors together in a large mixing bowl. Eat it right from the bowl or serve in novelty popcorn boxes or decorative baking cups.

Sweet Dreams!

When it is time to finally go to sleep, find a cozy spot under the twinkling lights of the blanket fort. Tuck Ivy’s legs forward and transition her to cuddle mode. I listened to my daughter and Ivy sweetly chat about their dreams and sing lullabies as she also rubbed her kitten’s back until they all fell asleep!

I hope these tips inspire you to enjoy a special night of making memories with your children at your own magical slumber party!

Jessica Grant highlights a joyful and creative childhood, motherhood, and home through her social media and blog, JessicaEtCetera.com. With a background in preschool education and now a mom to 3 young kids, Jessica enjoys sharing all kinds of fun including crafts, DIY, and learning through play with the goal of creating a magical and memorable childhood!