Green Day Care by Fiona Lohrenz

Both my day care and personal abode have seen my attempts at being as green as possible in recent years. Before the advent of curbside collection I was dividing my waste and making the fun filled fortnightly trip to the recycling center for offload. My feeble attempts at preserving the environment were, I felt, the least I could do as a polluting, wasteful human.

Running a day care has been a great opportunity to try to educate the next generation in environmental awareness. The kids are aware of, and involved in, the daily routines that make up our recycling efforts and thats in addition to incorporating same into their class lessons. They know what the different bins are for (paper, plastic, glass etc), are aware of our compost heap and how it works and are constantly reminded not to waste water or electricity.

We use various fun learning games to instil this knowledge into the kids (where does paper come from, which bin does the waste paper go into) and it is a lot easier than you might think. New concepts and ideas are absorbed by the kids in a sponge like fashion. Their enthusiasm is infectious and goes a long way towards changing more rigid mindsets outside the day care. I have had quite a few parents tell how they got into trouble at home for not recycling! Music to my ears.

Parents send in lunches for the kids at our center and we encourage them to consider the packaging they use / purchase. We offer information on choosing more environmentally friendly options e.g. buying yogurt in large, cardboard pots instead of the small plastic ones, getting raisins in bulk instead of small cardboard boxes, reusing juice bottles etc. Plus, the kids help make up charts, sticking on pictures of recyclable containers.

Every day care owner knows how many batteries are required for all those annoyinger educational toys!! You can save money and reuse your batteries when you buy a battery recharger. If you do have a cache of old batteries lying around take them to a local battery recycling depot (there are lots around).

It takes a little extra thought and effort but, with a combined effort involving all those small changes we can make a huge difference. As day care operators we have a fantastic opportunity to mould little minds, to make environmental awareness second nature to kids. Besides, you don't want a telling off from a preschooler!!

Copyright 2008 Fiona Lohrenz. Owning and operating a day care for 10 years provides Fiona Lohrenz with lots of material for her child care articles. Not to mention her childcare website and DVD guide to Starting a ChildCare business: www.startchildcare.com. You can find her at her website: http://www.childcareonly.com