Journeyer’s Chronicles

Image by macg3 via Flickr

The school and preschool my children attend integrate environmental awareness into many of their classes. The Thinker and I also do our best to tell the kids about our impact on the world and the importance of our natural environment.

I’d never thought too much about the actions we put to our words. Of course, we all know, actions speak louder than words. Generally, we do the “right” thing - we recycle, turn off lights, save water and so on. These are easy things to do.

Yesterday I was confronted with one of the more unsavoury aspects of being environmentally aware.

Returning home from a bike ride, The Engineer (6) skidded to a stop and jumped off his bike. I wondered what on earth he was up to. He was focused intently on something off to the side of the path.

As I approached I saw what he had been on a mission to retrieve. A revolting, dirty, old cigarette pack! I opened my mouth to tell him to throw it away, and he bent down to pick up another piece of rubbish.

“I’m collecting rubbish, Mum,” he proclaimed proudly to me. “I’m going to tell my teacher about this when I go back to school.”

I was torn between telling him to throw the germy stuff away, quashing his proud moment, or letting him continue on his mission. I decided that we could have a good wash when we got home, and even let Cinderella (5) get in on the act. By the time we were finished, Cinderella’s bike basket was full of litter.

I realised it is so important not only to tell our kids about our environment, but to show them and let them become involved as well. If I hadn’t let The Engineer and Cinderella collect the trash yesterday (as much as it made me cringe), they might never try again.