Today is Earth  Day.  A perfect day to talk to the kids about stewardship.  The earth seems so large and so vast, its resources seem endless from the perspective of a small person.  And truthfully, isn’t this why for many, many years everyone abused the Earth?  When I was growing up recycling was something only those crazy hippies down the street did. Upcycling was something done by the old grandmothers who had lived during the Depression.

What is upcycling, you ask?   In a nutshell, it is taking something that would ordinarily be considered trash, or a waste product, and turning it into something new and useful.  Using rags to make a rug.  Old coffee cans to grow plants.  Egg cartons to start seeds for a garden. 

Family Fun magazine has craft projects made from the top 10 recyclables.  You might want to check it out and pull some things out of your recycling bin for a rainy day craft.

DLTK also has some Earth Day activities for your children to do:  prinatbles, puzzles, crafts.

The Huffington Post has a list of 19 environmentally themed movies to watch. (I highly recommend the Planet Earth series that was on the Discovery channel a couple years ago.  It simply amazing and if anything would make you want to save the earth it would be seeing how breathtakingly beautiful it is.  There is also a “sequel” out in theaters starting today!)

You can also join other people in Meatless Monday.  Govegetarian for just one day a week.

For our family, the biggest thing that I try to do to make Earth Day  every day is to cut down on our recycling.  Cut down?  What?  How is that helpful?  Let me clarify.  I examine the things that I bring into the house in the first place.  I try to buy things that do not have extra packaging.  I have been known to not buy things if I think there is too much extraneous packaging.  I don’t put my produce in those small plastic bags.  Why do they need to be kept separate from the rest of the groceries?  There really is no reason.

We use reusable water bottles rather than single use plastic bottles.  We keep our heat turned down low and wear sweaters.  We walk places when we are able to do so.  Those are just a couple of examples that come to mind.  And through it all I am trying to instill in my children that it isn’t a  hardship to do these things.  I want it to be second nature to them.