Express Yourself!

This week is Children’s Mental Health Week with a theme of Express Yourself!

Expressing yourself is about finding ways to share your feelings through creativity and to find a way to show how you see the world. To fit in with this theme we wanted to tackle the issue of eco-anxiety.

Watching the news is a fairly dismal affair at the best of times. Especially when it comes to the topic of climate change. Ice caps are melting, large swathes of the Amazon rainforest are on fire and mass flooding impacts millions each year. It can be overwhelming for adults let alone the children who will inherit this planet.

Eco-anxiety is having an impact on many young children as they start to feel disheartened about the future. They are afraid of what will happen to the planet and often feel at a loss to what they can do to help. That feeling of helplessness can be very overwhelming for children and adults.

Our mission at Earth Cubs is to teach kids, parents and teachers to Learn the World. We’ve always wanted to make this a positive experience; very much championing awe and wonder, introducing concepts such as deforestation with key points on how Earth Cubs can make positive and fun eco-friendly changes to their lives.

We’ve come up with some key tips to help Express Yourself. We hope these tips will help to empower children and encourage their creativity.

Top tips

1. Enjoy nature walks and see what wildlife you can spot. Why not take a litter picker with you to clean up where you live? In our experience, kids LOVE this. 
2. Reduce your plastic intake. Only 9% of all plastic ever made has been recycled. It also takes over 500 years to break down. We need to reduce how much we use. Get yourself a reusable water bottle. Why not think about using bars of soap instead of plastic shower gels?
3. Why not use litter to make art?! With our old lids activity you can make some amazing environmental pictures!
4. Take a look at local volunteer groups on your council website. From tree planting to looking after hedgehogs; you’ll be guaranteed to find something of interest.
5. Growing your own food is very satisfying! If you have an outdoor space you can make your own small vegetable patch. On a window sill you can grow herbs or even tomatoes or strawberries!
6. Eating less meat is great for the planet. It means less trees are cut down for cattle and for the crops that feed the cattle. Experiment with some delicious plant-based recipes.
7. Why not check out your own carbon footprint? Pawprint has a nifty little app which allows you to measure and reduce your carbon footprint!
8. Finally, talk to your family and friends and don’t beat yourself up. Very few of us can live perfect eco-friendly lives. Discuss how you’re feeling about the environment and come up with an action plan to impact change, however small that may be. 

Greta Thunberg, "You’re never too small to make a difference"