How to Teach Your Kids to Save Energy

Saving energy should become a fun activity for everyone in the family. Kids should also learn a valuable lesson to reduce the electricity bills. Teaching kids about energy efficient is not as easy as it sounds. Here are some simple tips that you can try.

Let them know the importance of saving energy

Your first goal should be teaching your kids about the importance of saving energy. Use a simple story to make them understand how global warming happens and why we should change our habit to help the environment. There are many educational books for kids that discuss the importance of saving energy. They will be a great help to achieve your goal.

It starts from you

If you have kids, you should know that they tend to follow what adults do. Therefore, if you want your kids to save energy, then you should do it first. The habit starts from you. Perhaps you put posters or small notes to encourage kids to save energy, but if you do not follow those notes, your kids will not follow them either. You can’t tell your kids to turn the light off before leaving the room if they never see you do it in the first place. You need to lead by example if you want your kids to change.

Learning new things should be fun

If you want to teach your kids to save energy, you should make the education process fun. There are many teaching materials out there where your kids can learn important lessons to save energy. You should sit together with your kids and explore those educational websites, books, and computer software to conserve energy and save the environment. This is a good method for kids from 5 to 10 years old.

Once they learn those things, you should encourage them to implement the things that they have learnt immediately. Put the lessons into practice and you should keep reminding them of what the right thing to do to save energy.

Pay attention to the age of your kids

Kids with different ages will need different ways to learn about saving energy. For instance, if you want to teach your 6-year old son to turn the light off before leaving the room, you only need to tell him what to do and why it is important to do it. Of course you should lead by example as well.

On the other hand, if your son is 11-year old, then you may want to use different approach. You can show him your electricity bill and tell him that he can contribute significantly by adopting a new habit. Afterwards, you can teach him about the importance of saving energy for the environment. Be creative in teaching this thing to your kids. You should know which method is the most effective and comfortable for them.

Simple habits for your kids

You can start teaching these simple habits to your kids to save energy:

• Turn the light off before leaving the room or the house.
• Turn the computer off after usage or if you leave it for a long period of time.
• Do not hold the refrigerator open for too long. Tell your kids to take what they want from the fridge quickly and close the door immediately.
• Unplug electronic appliances when they are not in use, such as mobile charger, DVD player, stereo, etc.
• Reduce lighting usage and switch to natural light as much as possible.

Saving energy will become more meaningful if you can get your kids involved. They are the future generation that will get benefits from this good habit.