Stay at home parenting can be fun and exciting if kids can help out in improving home environment. Household chores are much easier to accomplish if everyone works hand in hand, it is also a great bonding experience for families too. One of the activities that kids are most likely to have fun doing is gardening; here are some tips for moms to make kids enjoy home gardening:

• Kids will definitely enjoy planting flowers and plants that are colourful.
• Find the perfect spot where kids can see the progress of the hard work; this will make them watch the changes happening to the plants or flowers.
• Kids love to play with dirt give them kiddie sized tools to help you with remove the clumps of soil.
• Kids love to play with water too! Gardening would involve watering plants or soil; your little ones would love to do it for you.

Recycling your plastic is one of the best things to do if you want to live green and save the environment even in your own little way.

If you have observed the recycling sign (a triangle made of 3 arrows), it has a raised number in it from 1-7. Those numbers indicates the type of resin use, which means they can be recycled in different ways.

Resin code 1 – these are Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET, PETE) ideal as container for food, beverages, and other items.

Resin code 2 – these are High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), which are perfect as your bottles for non-food items like shampoo, conditioner, liquid laundry detergent and more.
Resin 3 is PVC’s, 4 is LDPE, 5 is PP, 6 is PS, and 7 are others.

To effective recycle your plastic; segregate them according to resin code.

Reuse.

Most of us know the three R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle, but when we work on conserving, we often leave reuse out of the picture. While you can often find tips on how to reuse common products from other people, what you need most is creativity. With a little thought there are many items around your home that can be reused – toilet paper holders can be used to sow seeds for the vegetable patch. And old yogurt containers can be cut into strip to make plant labels. Old food jars can be refilled with homemade foods or can make great impromptu vases.

Use environmentally friendly products. When you go to the grocery store, you probably see more and more “natural” or “eco friendly” products every time.  There are generally two big problems with these products: 1. Just because they’re more natural than regular products, doesn’t mean they’re entirely natural. 2, They’re often expensive.

If you want inexpensive, natural, safe products, why not just make them yourself. Vinegar is a great way to clean and disinfect glass and other surfaces. Need to remove stubborn stains? Just add some baking soda to your vinegar cleaner. Some quick searching online will lead you to hundreds of other natural safe home-made cleaning products.

We all knowing that going green means better for the environment, but it’s also better for you.  Conserving resources also helps save you money, which is something most of us are happy to live with.

Use less energy.

If you don’t have the money to buy a hybrid car or convert your house to solar power, you can make a big difference with small changes.

• Buy energy efficient appliances.  They may be more expensive, but make up for the increased cost in lower energy bills.
• Unplug chargers when you’re not using them.  Cell phone and other chargers use up powers even if there’s nothing attached to them.
• Put devices with remotes, like T.V.s, VCRs, and stereos, on a power strip and turn it off when you’re not using them.  These devices use a lot of power to run the remote receiver even when the device is off.
• Walk or ride your bike for short trips.
• Buy local products. It takes energy to transport food and other products across the country. Buying local not only supports your local economy, it helps them use less energy.

When it comes to saving energy and water, it’s a great idea to get the kids involved. You can even make it a game. Have them track how much water and electricity everyone is using. You can compete to see who uses the least water.  You can often count on your kids to help keep you on track when given the task.

We all want to do our part to protect the environment, but without a large paycheck, that can be seem difficult, if not impossible. But doing your part doesn’t have to be hard. Small steps add up to a big difference, you just have to know which ones to take.

Use less water.

Saving water is all about small steps, here are a few that will help save big.

- Shut off the water while you brush your teeth
- Take showers that are a minute or two shorter
- Only flush the toilet when you need to
- Only run full loads of laundry and dishes
- Buy from sustainable producers. These are farmers, ranchers, and other producers that use techniques that pollute less and use less water. You can do some research online or ask at your local organic market to find these products.