Tomorrow (March 20th) is the day that the United Nations & many other countries mark as Earth Day. Although here in the U.S. we don't actually celebrate Earth Day until April 22nd, I thought I'd share a quick post on how we can reduce & reuse all year long! I have a few other Earth Day art activities that I'll post as we approach April 22nd. But for now, let's celebrate with the others.
Here is a fun way to reduce kitchen garbage by reusing all kinds of things in your child's pretend kitchen. Above are a few pictures of M and M's play kitchen with all of their "stuff" in it. All great examples of how to reuse daily household garbage & add to your child's pretend play at the same time.
1. In an attempt to keep things somewhat organized, I reused shoe boxes to keep all of their small food pieces together & create a home for all of the dishes. I reinforced the boxes with pieces of packaging tape, which has extend their shelf life & kept them from coming apart from daily use. I printed the words "food" & "dishes" on the boxes so M1 could keep things in their place & it helps make it easier to find things.
2. I also kept a bunch of "garbage" from the kitchen so the girls would have some real-looking food items to play with. Obvoiusly some of them had to be washed out & cleaned up a bit before they made their way into the kitchen. Examples include milk cartons, graham cracker boxes, empty spice containers, small cereal boxes, egg cartons, baby food jars, & other plastic food containers work great. Both girls also enjoy grocery shopping in their kitchen by loading up their big plastic shopping cart.
3. Larger plastic containers, (like the yogurt one seen above) also double as great utensil holders. And an empty dish soap bottle for doing the dishes!
Do you have any fun ideas for reducing, reusing & recycling that includes your children? Share them by leaving a comment below. I look forward to hearing your ideas. Maybe some new Earth Day blogging opportunities?
Enjoy! s.b.
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