Teaching our kids about the environment is part of our every day lives. We limit packaging in the kitchen, recycle where we can, walk to local stores, compost our food scraps so it makes sense to teach them about saving energy too!
When BC Hydro contacted me to share about their newest challenge, Team Power Smart, where you can sign up to see if you can reduce your home’s electricity use by 10% (they’ll reward you with $50 off your bill!), I thought it would be a fun way to get the kids involved in thinking about saving energy in their daily lives.
Kids love to feel useful (and we are lucky ours love to help) so if you teach them how their actions can help our beautiful planet, it encourages a caring attitude and starts the conversation about how small changes they make can help shape their future.
Here are some easy ways to encourage your kids to save energy:
1. Use a nightlight instead of leaving the hallway light on:
Little ones can be scared of the dark and a nightlight is a great way to help them feel more comfortable going to sleep.
2. Use blackout curtains (helps babies sleep better too!):
It’s surprising how much warmer / cooler your home will seem with quality blackout curtains. You can start using these from Day 1 in a baby’s room and teach little ones that their curtains are helping to keep their room the right temperature so you don’t have to change the thermostat. A dark room is perfect for encouraging a good night sleep too!
3. Close the fridge door:
“Shut the fridge!” can be heard multiple times a day in our house. Anyone else’s kids open the fridge door and leave it open?!! It’s a simple step to help in keeping the energy in.
4. Turn the lights off when you leave the room
We are all guilty of this but it’s so simple to quickly flick the switch when you leave the room you are in and teach kids to do the same. Quick reminders seem to do the trick for us.
5. If they use electronic devices, teach them to turn them off when they are finished
Whether it’s the TV, an ipad, laptop or other device, teaching kids to turn off what they aren’t using helps to save the need to power up so often.
Interested in learning more about the BC Hydro Power Smart Challenge? Sign up here!
*This post was sponsored by BC Hydro, all words and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting our partners!