This was our first year recognizing Earth Day. I checked out some crafts that we could make. But it all seemed pretty silly to me. Because why waste paper and time working on a project when we can be our there cleaning up our environment and learning through experience? Experiential learning is the best way for kids to learn anyway! And, rather than learn about Earth Day for just a day, we took an entire week and learned about our environment and the importance of keeping it clean. We decided to clean up areas where we frequent, beginning in our own neighborhood! We walked around our block, talked about litter, and cleaned up trash that had blown out of garbage cans and recycling bins. The girls really enjoyed this, which might come as a surprise. They each got a bag and happily walked around searching for trash. 
Behind our house is a canal. In this canal we sometimes find things that have blown into it, followed by branches that fall into it, covering up all the trash. We decided to cover our house and the two houses next to ours. These kids worked so hard! And that canal is spankin’ clean!
Even the little critters who live in the canal came out to say “thank you” for cleaning up their home. 
Next, we found a fantastic place to picnic by the lagoon. While we were there, we found tons of trash to clean up and lots of great trees to climb. Sadly, the trash we found at this site ended up being too dangerous for the kids to pick up. It needs some type of long handled device to keep us safe, which we did not have. So, I cut the trip short, but we did get some of it cleaned before we left.
Our next mission was the beach. Ah, the beach. It’s one of our favorite places. And it always needs a little bit of love. Trash washes up on the beach from passing boats, usually tangled in the seaweed. It’s left over from picnics and other fun times on the beach. We try to remember to bring a trash bag with us every time we visit. 
This was a fantastic week and each one of us had a great time cleaning up our world, bringing some order back to the earth. I’m so super proud of these precious little loves for all of their hard work and for continuing to fall in love with our earth the way I have.
