Taking Care of the Little Things
The year is coming to an end, and this December has been a time to reflect on many things, including our sustainability as a nursery. There are many things we do at Inspirations to be as sustainable possible, not only to save our planet from harm but also because it is essential for human well-being.
With 1 in 6 of the world’s species facing extinction, a growing pollution problem, and a pandemic jeopardising the health of loved ones we are reminded how important it is to teach our younger members of society how to help us take care of our planet.
Taking care of the little things helps the big things fall into place.
Children often mirror behaviour of their adults or carers, so what do we do at our nursery to help save the planet?
- Recycling– We have a recycling bin in all of our rooms and staff room, and in the older rooms we teach the children which bins they can put their rubbish in. Helping them get into the habit of considering which bin things should go into will stay with them in the future.
- Use less paper– This is a tricky one at nursery as we would never want to limit a child’s creativity. Recently we acquired paper from a local company that was scrap and headed for the bin. We also use white boards, blackboards, chalks, digital drawings, and transient art using loose parts. All of these help to reduce the amount of paper waste.
- Outdoor learning– Our pre-school setting is primarily outdoor, with outdoor play being a huge part of the younger age groups also. “Playing in natural spaces supports a child’s sense of self, allowing children to recognise their independence alongside an interdependence and connectedness with their ecological worlds.”
- Reduce and Reuse- We said goodbye to plastic toys a few years ago, and swapped these for more natural ambiguous resources. We repurpose old cable reels throughout, and will always aim to acquire our resources second hand or from SCRAP.
Read more about where we shop- http://simonr30.sg-host.com/news-and-blog/loose-parts-in-the-community/
- Wormery Composting- The children in pre-school take great pleasure in putting their wasted fruit and veg into our wormery. About a third of household waste is organic, so by recycling this as compost we are reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill.
- Water Play- We teach our children that water is a precious resource and that it should be used wisely and reused where possible. To support this we discourage water play from the sinks and taps and instead use purpose build water basins for them to explore water in, and use this to water the garden after use.
- Growing Fruit and Veg- We grow fruit and veg from potatoes to strawberries, our children can learn the pleasure and reward from growing their own food at nursery.
- Care for living things- From bee hotels to worm houses, from night-cams capturing local wild life to having our own nursery dog, it is instilled in our children from a young age to treat all of our insects and wild life and with love, care and respect.
Striving to Improve
There’s still so much more we want to do at Inspirations to be sustainable and are constantly growing and developing. We are currently in the process of building a nature reserve with a pond behind our yurt- updates to follow.
Please share with us how you at a home or in a nursery setting help to create a a more sustainable environment, maybe you can inspire us here at Inspirations. This Christmas why not consider second hand books or toys or gifting experiences rather than material possessions.
That’s a wrap
As we wrap up our blogs for 2020; the year we will always remember, let’s make sure we wrap only with paper that can be recycled with brown paper tape, and remember that taking care of our environment will help us build a brighter 2021 for ourselves and our little ones.
-Nathalie