How to Keep Your Kids Happy (and Green) This Summer

It’s a balancing act: keeping your kids occupied with summer games, while making it all clean and green. But a little planning makes for happier children.

Rethink the kiddie pool

With the warming weather, my daughter (almost three) has one thing on her mind: the hose.  If she had her way, she would be in the water, or in the spray of the hose, for every waking moment of every day above 50 degrees.  I’d be happy to oblige her if I wasn’t more aware of the cost of water, both to my checkbook and the planet.   What’s a gal to do?

First, take a lesson from your kids — bigger or greener isn’t necessarily better, and they don’t need much to have fun.  Instead of filling up our inflatable pool all the time (and really, it’s not 90 degrees out there yet!) I fill up a plastic tub or old soup pot once a day and let my daughter play in it.  This gives her ample water to dump into the mud, onto the dog’s back, into the sandbox … you get the picture.  And she knows that when it’s gone, it’s time to play another game.

Another game is often a request to “help mommy water the garden” which is one tactic (of many she possesses) to get wet after her tub of water is depleted.  The solution?  Hand watering instead of the sprinkler.  Yes, this takes more time, but if your garden only needs spot-watering in the early season where certain veggies or flowers are just sprouting, let your child share the task with a watering can of their own, or let them run their hands (or head, or feet…) under the spray of your can as you direct it onto your growing peas or onions.  There are endless bonuses to this method: you and your children are outside, sharing a fun task — rather than sitting inside watching TV while the sprinkler runs — the garden gets watered only where it needs it, and your kids are learning valuable conservation lessons.

All this isn’t to say that there is anything wrong with filling up a pool for your kids when the sun is beating down, but as the season progresses, you can help teach them how to use water responsibly around the home, and even dump that scummy pool water onto lawn or garden after a few days instead of onto the driveway or sidewalk.

Is the grass really greener?

I’m prepared for opposition here, but the next issue you may want to tackle is your lawn.  Depending on where you live, keeping it green from March through October could take some serious watering.  But should this be the case?  Do you need a green lawn?  If your neighbors didn’t care, would you?   Our ideal of green lawns historically comes from our ancestors in England and similar environs, parts of the world where a steady supply of rain kept the front and back yards green without any problem.  But now many of us live in drier parts of the USA where we have to use copious amounts of water (as well as fertilizers and pesticides that are harmful to our health and that of our children) just to keep up this image.

Last August when rain was sparse, my neighbor chastised me for my brownish grass.  I was already struggling with the money spent on water for the garden, but felt a little better about it since I was at least getting good clean veggies out of the deal.  But his criticism was interesting because it bothered me so much.  Why, I asked myself, did I care?  I came to conclude that the pristine lawn is an idea so ingrained in our culture that I easily felt guilt about not living up to this standard, even if I felt I was doing right by the planet in the process.  I’m hoping to have a better discussion with our neighbor this year if it comes up again, and maybe I can offer him a juicy tomato across my crunchy brown lawn, just to drive the point home.

I’d like to hear from you!

Do you have some wonderful low-impact summer activities or questions about summertime planet fun that you can pass on for a future article?  If so, submit through the comments section and we can broaden the discussion.  Happy growing to your entire family!