Saturday, March 28, 2009

earth hour 2009 - we voted!

earth-hour

we started about 30 minutes late but just the same, we voted! and not just lights, we turned off all the electricity at home for an hour. as i said, we didn't start at 8:30, but we made sure it lasted for an hour.

so how do you make 3 kids (aged 8, 5, and 3) vote for mother earth?

after turning off the lights, i brought the kids into the bedroom and i started telling them about earth hour. i began by telling them the age of mother earth (which i found out now is wrong hahaha that's what happens when you don't do your homework). anyway, i tried to make them understand the age by making them count the number of zeros in it. then, i began explaining to them that mother earth is already too old and that she is already showing some signs of aging.

i also told them about mother earth's shield (ozone). since the boys love ultraman and super mario smash brawl, they understand very well the purpose of a shield. they know that though a shield can protect, it can still be broken if it gets too much blows. so, i told them that the shield protects us from the sun's heat and told them what happens if the shield gets "broken". i asked them how they feel during a very sunny day, and told them that it will be much much worst once the shield is broken. i told the kids why we are voting by turning off the electricity. i told them that mother earth is already very old and people are not making things easier for her. the burning of too much energy is a hard blow to the shield.

from the shield, we moved on to the melting glaciers. we talked of what the kids knew about the north pole, everything from the ice, to the cold, and santa claus! (though the melting glaciers may not be limited to the north pole, it's easier to explain the northpole to the kids because of santa). then, i told them that when the ice melts, it becomes water. lots and lots of water. to make them understand the impact of the melting ice, i made a circle with my two hands. first, i showed them how a regular circle looks, and pointed where the north pole would be. then i tilted my circle to the side. then explained to them where the water from the melted ice would go. with this, we talked about the story of noah and the ark which the kids have already learned from preschool. i told them that noah's flood can and will happen again if we are not careful and too bad 'coz noah is already dead. guess what gabie said we should do? call bob the builder! oh yes, we can hahaha

then, i explained to them that since all the water goes to one side, the other part of the earth runs out of water and dries up. that's where the soil dries up, then the trees dies, and then people run out of food to eat, and then, die of starvation.

after talking about everything that's happening to mother earth, i asked them what they think we should do in our own little way to help save her. and here's the list of what the kids came up with:

1. reduce aircon usage. instead of using the aircon every night, we'll try to use it only every other day for 1 month. it's a big sacrifice to the kids because they are so used to sleeping with the aircon on.

2. save water by turning off the tap when brushing their teeth.

3. don't play with water when taking a bath.

4. save paper! to me and hubby's delight, this is a suggestion from gabie. see, gabie loves papers too much. he likes to draw and write and cut. if uncontrolled, he can really waste a lot of paper. we've already hidden our paper supply in a place that he cannot reach and gives him only one paper a day.

5. instead of paper use a whiteboard or blackboard.

i think it was a fun, entertaining, and educational earth hour for us. for more details about earth hour 2009, visit http://www.earthhour.org/home/.

mother earth, you got five votes from my family in singapore!


^_^

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow! you're very good! cool...

Gie's Tidbits said...

that was genius!!! I love most the Bob the Builder part...

inyang said...

thanks, mare ...

me too, i had a ball after hearing gabie say that :D