How to Teach Kids to be Good Stewards of Their Canadian Community

We are very thankful to be living in such a beautiful country. Canada is truly glorious and free, and my family and I are excited to celebrate our country’s 150th birthday this year! In honour of Canada’s big birthday, I thought it would be a good idea to really remind my kiddos (and myself) how important it is to be good stewards of our Canadian community. We have the honour of living in such an incredible part of the world with so much natural beauty and we need to take care of it. Want to help your kids learn how to take care of their environment too? Here are some tips on how to each your kids to be good stewards of their community. Make sure to scroll to the bottom of this post to learn how you can help keep Canada clean together with GLAD.

Be A Good Example

It’s almost frightening how closely we’re watched by our children. I know we’re not perfect, but I think our example is one of the best ways we can teach our kids. Try not to be wasteful, model recycling to your kids, and show them how you are saving things like water and paper. They’ll slowly catch on and want to be just like you! I also like to be open and honest with my girls when I’m struggling with taking care of our environment. For example, I’ll explain to them that “throwing that piece of paper out wasn’t a good decision and next time I’ll put it in our recycling bin so that it can be made into something new.”

Grow or Visit A Garden

Over the last couple of years, we’ve finally taken the time to plant both flower beds and a vegetable garden on our acreage. It’s a great way to teach kids how things are grown and how we can help take care of the earth. If you don’t have enough space to grow a garden, there are lots of wonderful community gardens or U-picks across Canada that you could visit with your family.

Get Involved

Is there a neighborhood clean-up drive or recycling event nearby? Get involved! Kids love to help a great cause, and even if it’s just two or three families getting together to clean your subdivision or block, that will make a difference. To celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, GLAD Canada is partnering with 10 communities across our country to Clean Canada Together. Challenge yourself and others by taking 15 minutes to pick up some litter in your community this Spring! Packages to help your clean-up are available at Edmonton Public Libraries, while supplies last. Click here for more details and to see where you can get your clean-up package in your city.

By modeling careful use of our resources, growing a garden and getting involved in our community initiatives, I hope that I can be a small part of taking good care of our beautiful country. And I hope my sweet girls will too.

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by GLAD Canada. As always, all of the opinions here are my own.