Teaching our children to live greener

(Image by Stuart Miles/FreeRangeStock.com)

Recently, my daughter asked me where paper comes from. The question seemed out of the blue, so I figured she probably already knew the answer, probably something she learned while watching YouTube.

"Trees," I said. "I don't know how they do it, but they make paper from trees."

After a short pause, she told me that she didn't want to color anymore because coloring on paper would mean that trees would be cut down.

But then she qualified it. "Well, I don't want to do a lot of coloring."

Her concern for the trees made me smile. I don't think her motivation had anything to do with living greener, but rather was nothing more than a brief feeling of guilt about what happens to a tree in part because she enjoys drawing and coloring.

But I like that she thought about it and felt the need to take action.*

As I make changes for a greener lifestyle, I've toyed with the idea of explaining to her why I stopped using regular shampoo on my hair or why we have bags of tin cans out in the garage. But explaining climate change to five-year-old who kind of scares easy just doesn't seem like a good idea.

So for now, I've opted to try to teach her by example -- turning out the lights when I'm not in a room and not putting any more water in the bath tub than is necessary, along with the handful of other changes I've made. My hope is that living greener than I did as a kid will be second nature to her.

And hopefully, when she is my age, eco-friendly living will be commonplace, with most, if not all, new products being made with green living in mind.

That's my hope.

*I admit I felt a little sad that I might be getting fewer drawings from her if she follows through with her "less coloring" plan.