September 04, 2017 · Written by Foodtolive Team

Fun Eco-Friendly Activities to Enjoy with Your Family

Engaging in various eco-friendly activities with your family does not only help the planet. It gives you some bonding time that carries the extra benefit of being truly good. You also get a chance to teach your children the value of work and nature.

5 Eco-Friendly Activities for Families with Kids

1. Grow your own garden
Today you can grow a garden even if you don’t have a backyard. If you have some land, give every family member a small patch to grow what they want. This will add a bit of competition, which is good for kids. You can also include other eco-friendly activities in home gardening, such as making 100% organic compost.
If you live in an apartment, you can use hydroponics or start with teaching your kids how to sprout at home.

2. Make toys out of recycled objects
Teach your kids the value of recycling and not adding to the garbage mountains poisoning the planet. Use plastic bottles, boxes, wrappers, and other stuff that would usually go into the bin to create something nice. You can find dozens of online guides on how to turn this stuff into decorations, toys, and various useful containers.

3. Build a mud house
Make some mud bricks and let your kids (and yourself) loose in building all kinds of crazy houses. This is fun, teaches your kids both survival and techniques of eco-building, and it saves you from buying plastic blocks.

4. Make a birdfeeder
It’s one of the eco-friendly activities that combine many ways to help nature. One is that you get to feed birds. You also can make the feeder out of recycled objects. Finally, you can make several feeders and enjoy a walk through the park or nearby forest to hang them. After that, you can make a weekly habit of such walks as you refill the feeders.

5. Go on a berry-picking expedition

Turn your daytime hike into an eco-friendly adventure by searching for berries, nuts, and herbs. It’s an educational experience for everyone and adds motivation for the hike. You will also be able to use the edibles you find to cook with your kids.

How Eco-Friendly Activities Help the Planet

Eco-friendly activities don’t have to actively promote the health of the environment, like bird feeding. However, even ‘passive benefits’, such as reducing the use of plastic (mud bricks) help by not harming. To make those activities truly eco-friendly, you need to accompany them with explanations.

Teach your kids, siblings, spouses, cousins, and even parents about the importance of protecting the environment. You can even make a roster and have each member of the family research a topic and share it with the rest.

It will also help to tie these eco-friendly activities to practical skills. Cooking is best in most cases as food and climate change are closely connected. Eco-friendly activities that progress from growing or collecting foods to cooking dinner show your entire family how reliant on the nature we are. This teaches respect and highlights the importance of protecting the environment.

Try to imbue this lesson into every eco-friendly adventure you have. Everyone must understand why exactly the things they do are not merely enjoyable but good for the planet.