There is much you can do as a parent to introduce some green concepts to your children, which will stand them in good stead through their growing up years and which will introduce the concept of being a responsible citizen early in life.
Practice Water conservation to teach it: Water being such a necessary but imperiled resource; it is never too early to teach a child to conserve water.
Turn off the tap while brushing, while lathering with shaving foam, while scrubbing hands and let the child observe and imitate. Repair drips and leaks expeditiously, explaining that the wastage of water is not a good idea.
Go shopping: when out shopping, pick products that have been manufactured responsibly, that don’t have unnecessary amounts of packing material or which use recycled packaging material.
Explain why you are making the choices that you are and how and whom they benefit. Encourage them to pick out things based on the same green principles and concepts.
Recycle: It goes without saying that you can teach your child about recycling as soon as the child is old enough to understand and if possible make it fun for them.
Perhaps you can have a reward point system, so that the greenest person in the family gets a badge or has their name put up on the refrigerator door for a week. There are some great resources about recycling here, such as puzzles, story books etc all woven around the central theme of recycling.
Transform: Encourage and teach your child to use household waste to make new and interesting things, such as craft or hobby items.
For instance you can make a bug mobile using egg cartons, or use tin cans to make herb pots for the kitchen window sill. For ideas such as these and more, you can take a look here.
Compost: Make composting a routine activity for everyone in the family while explaining how great it is that rubbish can give you something as beautiful as a fresh flower!
Let your child decorate the compost bin in their own way, to give them a sense of contribution and even ownership which in turn will give a child some sense of responsibility.
In whichever way you can, teach a child how great it can be to minimize the negative impact that modern life has on the planet and how the responsibility to do that rests with all of us!
