What is the most "purchasable" environmentally useful products to buy?

Question

I am teaching 3-5 yr olds. So, I am looking for simple, helpful items they can remember forever...like bamboo for wood...recycled paper....you know? I want to ingrain in their heads this item=good for Mother Earth! Thanks for any knowledge I can utilize with our future generation!

Answer 1

A bike .     @x`@`

Answer 2

Here are some tips from this great website.

Bring bags to the market, either cloth ones or your old paper and plastic ones.

Buy the new light bulbs and dispose of the old ones.

Discard plastic beverage rings ONLY AFTER cutting open all of the loops

Encourage adults to drive at posted speed limits

These are just some of the examples from the kids section.

Answer 3

It is not what you can purchase to teach someone to be environmentally concerned but rather your actions.  By doing things like recycling and composting and gardening with out chemicals, this is where you should start.  When it comes to purchases children will absorb what you do on a day by day basis so even the little things like compact florescent will help them learn how to be responsible citizens.

Answer 4

Plant a tree with them.  Explain some of the wonderful things that trees do for the environment.  They help control erosion, they help clean the air, etc...  If it is an on going class, use organic methods to nurture it.  If you can instill in them a love for gardening and nature at an early age, they will see why taking care of the earth is so important.

Answer 5

A great item that is good for generations and also better for your health than anything modern is cast iron cookware.  It is very inexpensive especially when you consider that it can be used for a couple hundred years with no real show of wear.  Just take care of it and don't let it stay wet and rust, but even if that happens a wire brush and a little elbow grease will make it good as new.  You can get everything from griddles to tea kettles.  I even have a fondue pot that is cast iron.   What a great family item to pass on to little ones is a great pot that lots of family meals were prepared in.

Answer 6

Mmmmm using clay items (toys, pottery etc) instead of plastic ones.  And maybe a fun class where they can visit a pottery.