Did you know that Saturday 25th March at 8.30pm is known as Earth Hour?
Earth Hour is an annual global event celebrating our planet and raising awareness about climate change, and to mark the occasion we’ve teamed back up with our friends at It's Our Planet Too (who you might remember from this piece) to inspire families to talk about sustainability.
Sustainability can feel like a big topic to explore with our littles but, as we found out in our focus on Early Learning and Development: Understanding the World, caring for the planet and the people around us are essential experiences from an early age - helping to develop skills related to observation, investigation, problem-solving, and critical thinking.
Some of our top tips include:
🗣 Talking with your child about their responses to sights, sounds and smells in the environment
⌛ Exploring puddles, trees and surfaces such as grass, pebbles and sand together
🎏Exploring toys such as bubbles and streamers when it’s windy to explore the impact of changing weather on different items
🔍 Exploring different means of viewing things, like photographs or through magnifying glasses
🌼 Planting seeds together to explore natural change
✍🏽 Giving opportunities to record findings by drawing, writing, making models, taking rubbings or photos.
And, because learning with our littles is always more fun when we’re being hands on, we asked It’s Our Planet Too to share some of their fun ideas for how to spend Earth Hour (and many other hours!) together in 2023:
⭐ Go stargazing
⛺ Light candles and pretend you’re camping
🐛 Go on a night time nature walk, and see what new creepy crawlies you might find!
👌🏽 Try your hand at shadow puppets
🛁 Have a ‘glow in the dark’ bath time
👻 Tell spooky stories
🔥 Toast marshmallows on a fire
👀 Play hide and seek in the dark.
Not only are all of these activities sure to raise a smile and bring the family together, you’ll also be opening plenty of opportunities for conversations around nature, change, and the environment we live in.
One of the things we especially love about Earth hour is that it can be an amazing spark for change, and the reminder we need to remember that every hour counts!
It’s Our Planet Too also shared their eight top tips for helping the planet, which can easily be adapted into your day to day routine:
- Turn off the lights (yes, we’re turning into our parents…!)
- Don’t leave electricals on standby
- Put on an extra layer when chilly, rather than reaching for the thermostat
- Turn off the taps when you’re brushing your teeth
- Swaps baths for showers
- Fill the dishwasher and avoid running half loads
- Same goes for the washing machine…
- Try some microwave or air fryer recipes to reduce oven and hob use.
To mark Earth Hour this year, we’re giving you the chance to win:
● 1 x It’s Our Planet Too one-off activity box of your choice
● 1 x Onoco Premium Lifetime subscription
All you have to do to enter is sign up to the It’s Our Planet Too newsletter between Saturday 25th March and Saturday 8th April! All existing newsletter subscribers will also be entered.