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The Green Generation

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With growing awareness about how our daily decisions impact the earth, it’s important to teach our kids and teens to care for the environment and show how it affects their lives.

@ YOUR LIBRARY

  • Check out your library’s website or Facebook page for scheduled programming at the library on topics such as saving energy and water, composting and more.
  • Connect to the natural world with help from the library. Ask a librarian for recommendations for print and digital media that help children and teens learn about nature and the environment. A dedicated section for kids or teens on the library website might also link to suggested resources.

AT HOME & IN THE COMMUNITY

  • Live green at home. Create a chart so kids and parents can keep track of the items they throw away. See if your library has a home energy monitoring kit you can borrow to monitor home energy use.
  • Check out how-to resources from the library on creating an edible garden to help kids understand where food comes from.
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Bee and flower

It doesn’t matter if you’ve achieved master gardener status, or if you’ve just killed your tenth African violet. Gardening is a forgiving hobby. And happily, it’s one that most of us, with a little bit of know-how and a willingness to get our hands dirty, can easily learn.

Tips to Green Your Routine
Farmer's market tomatoes.

Green living has become a trendy phrase in recent years, and while the spotlight on this issue has made many of us more aware of what we should be doing, let’s be honest.

For many Americans, it’s challenging enough to get everyone up, dressed, fed, and off to work and school, let alone to try and remember if it’s Recycle Bin Pick Up day.

Maybe we’ve even gone so far as to buy reusable grocery bags, and that works well … when we remember to take them to the store. 

Take Your Family Camping
Campground

With the arrival of National Camping Week on June 21, there’s no better time to plan a family camping trip steeped in old-fashioned fun. The National Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds reports that despite the recession, private campgrounds and RV resorts are collectively moving ahead with plans to spend millions of dollars on capital improvement projects in 2009. That means families heading out to the great outdoors will find more entertainment options than ever before.

Make Your Family More Environmentally Friendly
Mother and son recycling

With more than 40 percent of national energy consumption coming from homes and offices, there has never been a more important time for families to reduce, reuse and recycle in the home.

By thinking of your house as an eco-friendly organism, families can take steps to improve the overall health of their homes, which will also improve their overall personal health, says Charlie Szoradi, a certified green architect and founder of energy-saving consulting firm GREENandSAVE.