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By Kylee
A 2024 survey by YPulse has revealed that around 81% of teens worry about climate change, and a significant percentage of them stress about this matter daily. However, many feel frustrated about not being able to implement sustainability efforts in their daily lives. High prices are one perceived problem, since sustainable products are often more expensive than their eco-unfriendly counterparts. When it comes to embracing a green lifestyle, homeschooled teens have a glaring advantage that their school-educated counterparts typically lack: the chance to learn hands-on and live what they learn rather than rely on textbooks for most of their knowledge. By incorporating sustainable strategies into your child’s home study routine, the sky’s the limit when it comes to effecting real, actionable change; the kind that won’t cost you the earth.
Embracing Permaculture Principles at Home
If you have a garden, then one great way to teach your teens about botany is to grow a permaculture background at home. Permaculture principles are simple and everyone with a garden can embrace most of them from day one. Key strategies to embrace include creating a home water recycling system, using renewable energy, creating a home compost system, producing no waste, and obtaining a yield from your garden. Placing plants wisely in your garden so that water-needy plants are located at the bottom of a gentle slope, for instance, is just one way to improve your yield and reduce the need for watering. Teens who sow, tend to, and harvest produce can feel a huge surge of confidence in their ability to live off the land while reducing their carbon footprint in a dramatic way.
Calculating Their Carbon Footprint
Teens can learn to research and comprehend mathematics through practical calculations of their carbon footprint. Aim to calculate your family’s annual footprint, taking into account factors such as transport, air travel, energy use, and goods consumed. If your child is into cars, look up different electric vehicles and calculate their respective energy expenditures. See how they measure up against hybrid cars and take factors into account such as battery efficiency, interior materials, and power. Use your calculations to define ways in which you can lower your carbon footprint. Set sustainability goals and ensure there is a reward to look forward to if you achieve them. To aid them in their task, introduce them to apps like Commons, Klima, and CoolClimate to easily measure their carbon footprint and find suggestions for food, transportation, and lifestyle changes.
Discovering the Value of Sustainable Purchases
Boost your teens’ awareness of the big difference they can make by shopping wisely. Start by setting them a project in one chosen area. For instance, if your child is into fashion, they can write a report about how different fashion companies stack up in terms of eco-friendliness. Find your own companies to discuss and share the information you find. Show your child how sustainable fashion involves much more than zero-energy consumption. It extends to the ethical treatment of workers, the source of materials, and the extent to which companies embrace the zero-waste philosophy. Brands like Patagonia, Eileen Fisher, and Beyond Retro all recycle materials used for garments. Eileen Fisher, for instance, accepts worn garments, recycling them into new ones and exchanging them for store credit.
Encouraging Critical Thinking
Host a family debate; one in which differing perspectives (for instance, that of an entrepreneur vs that of a climate change activist) can be shared, discussed, and debated. Ensure your child takes on different roles, so they can find excellent arguments and learn to rebut valid arguments from their opponents. Doing so will ensure they have useful facts and knowledge, for when these discussions take place in their everyday lives.
Considering the Future
For older teens, consider factoring sustainability into their career considerations. Whether your child is interested in environmental science, sustainable business, or engineering, help them find specialties of interest that also enable them to make a difference to the planet. Encourage them to think about how their career choices can impact the planet.
Homeschooled teens have a wealth of opportunities to learn the importance of sustainability. Parents can set practical, useful projects for them to fulfill. They can also host debates and factor sustainability into career selection so that teens with a passion for the environment can put their talents to good use.
