How parents can support learning about sustainability in the home and community

Sustainability is a topic that has been a recurring theme throughout each of my children’s education over the years. Often the children learn about sustainability through their inquiry unit at school and are challenged to build their understanding of how their actions as humans impacts the environment around them. It is an important message they learn in how we can sustain a clean environment for nature on earth to continue to thrive.

Learning about sustainability provides children with the opportunity to not only learn about the environment but also human nature itself and to build their awareness of the flow on effects of the often destructive human footprint on the planet.

The recent documentary on the ABC, ‘War on Waste,’ has highlighted just how much our behaviour impacts the ability for the flora and fauna in this country to remain sustainable. The documentary has provided a great focus for us as a family to build awareness in our own home around the amount of waste we as humans accumulate and the impact this has on the sustainability of our environment.

We often take for granted that we have many parks and wide-open spaces in Australia. We believe these are spaces to be enjoyed by us in our community. My son and I recently took our dog for a walk along our local creek and were able to have great discussions about how much rubbish was being caught by the reeds and trees that had fallen across the creek. The ‘war on waste’ had highlighted the devastating impact plastic bags has on our local fish and wildlife who are trying to survive in their natural habitats with the ever-present threat of human waste and development a constant. As we walked along the creek we discussed how nature has a way of filtering the rubbish as it gets caught along the way but once it rains again, that rubbish will continue downstream and into the bay and eventually into the ocean.

Our conversations are all about engaging in learning and connecting with each other. These conversations enable children to witness what they are learning at school in action in their own communities, to think about their own behaviours and provide an enhanced learning opportunity that is easy for parents to engage in.

Supporting learning about sustainability in the home can also extend to discussions and taking action around what we are throwing in our bins and what we could re-use or recycle so it doesn’t end up in our creeks and waterways. Another way to engage our children in learning is to build awareness of what items can be recycled by purchasing recyclable packaged products when you do the weekly shopping. A simple activity may be for the children to find these in the supermarket then to separate plastics, cardboard and other items to make sure they are placed in the right bins in the home.

Taking action to encourage a sustainable environment can be as simple as this and parents are able to engage in this learning with their children in a way that also supports and extends what they are learning at school. When we think about parent engagement, it is about seizing these teachable moments with our children in every-day life and providing enhanced learning opportunities that also bring our families closer together when we share conversations and learning at home.