Guest Post: Easy and Fun Ways to Teach your Kids about Saving Money and Conserving Energy

Hi, here’s another great guest post for you. In this special post Mariana Ashley shares some great tips for how we can teach our children about money while at the same time teach them about energy conservation.

I know you will enjoy this post and the funny, and educational, youtube videos Mariana shares with us in her post.

Enjoy! ;o)

Cheers…Amanda…Excited Life Enthusiast! ;o)

P.S. If you would like to share your own post with us on my blog, just email me at amanda (at) teachingchildrenaboutmoney (dot) com and let me know what topic you would like to blog about for me to review.

SPECIAL NOTE – WARNING: In the guest post below Mariana mentions some fun games that parents can do with their kids to teach them about conserving energy that I personally don’t recommend with small children. Please always be careful with children when it comes to electrical outlets. Please use your own parental common sense. My children are old enough and wise enough that they are alright to do this activity but please to take the special care to teach your children how to be careful around power points before considering this game with your own children. Thank-you for reading this warning and taking it seriously.

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Easy and Fun Ways to Teach your Kids about Saving Money and Conserving Energy
by Mariana Ashley

It’s not a shocker— conserving energy is a green initiative that not only contributes to sustaining the environment, but also helps keep some precious ‘green’ in our pockets as well. So what better way to reduce your child’s carbon footprint and get him and her in the habit of saving money than by shedding some light on the importance of energy? Below are some fun and simple ways you can teach children how to save energy and in-turn save money.

Educate Kids

The first thing you want to do is explain to your child the importance of conserving energy. They may have heard you say numerous times before, “We need to conserve energy,” but if they don’t know why, they can be less inclined to help with the mission. Explain to them that we can’t use too much energy because it makes the bills skyrocket through the roof and it depletes the earth’s natural resources.

A fun way to educate your child is to take him or her to your local library and check out some fun books on the subject. You can also rent some videos on the subject or find some fun, animated videos online that discuss energy-saving practices and techniques, like this one:

Here’s another great video from the popular 1970’s educational animated series School House Rock.

Create Games.

There is no better way to get your child hyped about conserving energy than by turning a learning experience into a game. First explain to your child that idle appliances that are plugged into an outlet are still using energy. Also explain to your child that even if he or leaves the room, if the light is still on energy is still being used. Then challenge your child to scout around the house and unplug as many idle appliances as they can, such as cell phone charges, laptop chargers, and videogame counsels.

Tell them to keep track of what they unplugged and when. If they meet a particular weekly quota for example you can reward them with a small treat. If you have more than one child, siblings can compete on who can unplug the most appliances—just make sure you warn them to avoid appliances that need electricity all the time like the refrigerator. With this game it’s probably best to show your child an old pre-game electricity bill and then compare it with a new post-game electricity bill so that he or she can visually see how much their effort “pays off.”

Another great game is to play “I Spy” with a twist—when roaming around with your child on the road or the streets, challenge your child to look for both energy-conserving and energy wasting materials.

Make Projects.

Another great way to get your child gung-ho about saving energy is to let them get some hands-on experience. Meaning, if you are remodeling the house or are making some small changes to be more energy efficient, then let them help. Children can do all sorts of simple projects like swapping and screwing in incandescent light bulbs to light-emitting diode bulbs (just make sure lamps are unplugged), help with caulking windows and doors, or switching energy-conserving air filters.

Conserving energy can also be accomplished by letting your child do simple ‘fun’ chores like watering the plants, manually washing the car, and air drying the dishes.

By-line:
Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031@gmail.com.