And it’s completely understandable. There is so much happening in parenthood that adding another thing—getting young kids to care about the environment, no less—feels pretty impossible. You can continue the learning online with Happy Baby’s digital storybook and video, both of which feature Terry, a little mound of soil, who teaches kids the journey of regenerative farming. Stories like these can help teach kids that people, like farmers who grow our food, are also doing a lot to take care of our planet and keep it as strong as possible. So, when they’re ready to learn more about the particulars of climate change, they already understand that farmers like the Stewarts are part of a team that will help save the planet. All you need is a large plastic bin, basic potting soil, pots, shovels, and toy veggies. For an added arts-and-crafts activity, break out the paints and markers to create critters and bugs out of smooth pebbles and pollinators like bees and butterflies out of construction paper. They’ll love getting their hands dirty while learning that the soil is how we get healthy food. You can do the same thing at the grocery store, showing your toddler that you’re picking organic products with the USDA Organic seal. Once they’ve got the concept down pat, you can start mentioning how regenerative farming is a really cool kind of organic! In addition to the amazing weather books out there (we love The Weather Girls By Aki and Greta and the Giants by Zoë Tucker), there are plenty of fun experiments you can conduct together right at home. One of the best, and simplest, is the rain cloud in a jar. All you’ll need for this is a large jar, shaving cream, gel food coloring or washable watercolors, and pipettes or droppers. In a small cup, mix the food coloring with some water. Take your jar and fill it with non-colored water until it is about ¾ full. Spray your shaving cream on top until it is just above the jar and get the kids to use a dropper to squirt colored water on top of the shaving cream cloud a few times. Soon enough, your cloud will be raining!
