6 Excellent Environmental Homeschool Projects for a Cleaner World

Environmental homeschool projects are excellent activities for a cleaner world.

Check out these 6 cool homeschool project ideas with environmental themes. Your kids will have a blast learning about conservation and more - all in your home or in your backyard 🙂

Why You Should Do Environmental Homeschool Projects

As a homeschooler, you get to choose what to teach your kids (for the most part - as long as you still fit in your state's homeschool legal requirements 😉) AND emphasize values that are important to your family.

How cool is that!

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is the opportunity to raise individuals that care about the world around them and be willing to take steps for a better world.

These environmental homeschool project ideas will help your children:

• Take a new look at the world around them
• Reduce waste
• Conserve resources
• Do their part for a cleaner world (all while learning in the process)

 

6 Environmental Homeschool Project Ideas to Enjoy

1. Start a garden

An amazing thing you can do when homeschooling your children is to teach them how to grow their own food and flowers.

These lessons are basic building blocks for a self-sustaining and earth-friendly lifestyle.

Even a small garden can help drastically reduce your family's carbon footprint, simply by reducing how much food you buy that has to be transported to you. 

A garden is a miniature ecosystem full of living things that work together to thrive. Starting and maintaining a garden is the perfect way for your child to learn and explore ecosystems, habitats, and how the earth changes over time in the most hands-on way possible.

Your garden is also the perfect opportunity to discuss earth-friendly practices used in farming, along with the effects and dangers of some of the harsh chemicals used in conventional farming.

While dealing with unwanted garden pests, you can discuss how to do so without harming bees that are already dwindling in numbers. 

 

2. Start your own compost pile or bin.

Composting is a great way to reduce your family's carbon imprint, keep biodegradables out of landfills where they don't break down efficiently, and provide quality nutrition for your garden.

Composting makes a great homeschool project because your children are learning a great way to help make the world a cleaner place. Your kids also get an up-close and personal view of decomposition plus discover how things break down and rot, only to become something new. 

 

3. Create your own water filter

Help your children understand the importance of clean water and more by teaching them how to build a water filter. In addition to learning a skill that may come in handy one day, this science lesson is a fantastic way to get your kids interested in water conservation.

This 4M Clean Water Science Kit is an excellent option if you'd like open-and-go for this science activity 😉

Working to create new filters is a great way to work towards a cleaner world. After learning the basics of how water is filtered, set your child free to see what new filters they can create. 

Oh, and encourage your kids to safely collect trash from water for a bonus environmental homeschool project!

4. Participate in a cleanup

Take part in a community, park, or beach clean-up! It's a great way to get your child out and enjoying the fresh weather while giving them an up-close look at the effects of trash on our ecosystem.

Trash has become such a normal part of our lives that we tend to overlook it, even when it is right in front of us. Joining a park or beach clean-up project allows your child to really see how much trash is present where it doesn't belong.

At the end of the project, when all of the volunteers have gathered their trash findings, it can be both heartbreaking to see how much trash was there and exhilarating to celebrate the positive work done for the environment.

 

5. Create from your trash

Join your area's recycling program to teach your children about protecting the planet. Get your kids involved in learning what can be recycled and have them help you sort materials. 

Another great option is to teach your child to create from trash instead of throwing it away. 

Sit down as a family and brainstorm things you can create from the "trash" in your home before you recycle it. The more lives your items get before recycling helps to reduce the energy used to produce new items. Check out these ideas for upcycling project for kids.

When doing family and homeschool projects, instead of running out to buy items, a great option is to go through the recycling bin and create something new from your trash.

This approach is commonly done in schools where budgets are tight and are great ideas for homeschools, too. When projects are complete, they can be taken apart and recycled. 

 

6. Make your own paper

Making your own paper from recycled paper (and even clothing lint) can be an amazing lesson on how paper is made, as well as how to reuse things in your home.

The homemade paper makes a wonderful personal touch to letters and hand-made cards for loved ones. You can have your child help you find items around the house that can be used to press your homemade paper for a great lesson on reusing and upcycling. If you need open-and-go, this Paper Making Kit makes it easy!

Enjoy These Excellent Environmental Homeschool Projects

Hopefully, these 6 science activities give you inspiration for enjoying these environmental homeschool projects and more.

Chat with your kids about other things you can do in your homeschool to help our planet. And gather for a big group hug to celebrate all that you've learned and done to help the environment.

Oh, and make sure to come back here to share your ideas and experiences!

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