Kids have a wild imagination, but something that you would never imagine happening is a world without energy. Energy has become one of the most used and relied upon supplies that us humans need to power pretty much anything. If you’ve made a slice of toast, played a video game or watched TV, then you’ve been using electric energy powered by an energy supply like Ampower. While these things are technically classed as a luxury, they have become a way of life for many of us Brits, and the thought of giving them up can be a little daunting. As the younger generation will be ones facing the raft of our actions, why not encourage your children to learn about energy conservation and ways in which they can create a brighter, greener future? Here is an energy conservation for kids guide to help you teach young ones about the importance of making energy-saving changes to our lives.
Ways To Learn & Educate Energy Conservation For Kids
Our homes use a lot of energy, and a lot of the time, it’s from where we leave our devices and appliances on standby, or walking away from a game to have dinner with it still playing in the background. What you may not realise is that this can have a big impact on not only your energy bills but also the planet. Unfortunately, especially if you have younger children, things like money and protecting the environment are hard to understand. However, children are always excited to learn new things, making it the perfect opportunity to teach them about how their favourite devices are powered.
There is a lot to learn about energy usage, from where it comes from to how it can affect the environment, so creating ways in which your children will engage with the information you give them can be tricky. To lend you a helping hand, we have come up with some easy ways you can teach your children about energy:
- What Is Energy Conservation?
- Teach Kids About Gas & Electricty
- Teaching Platforms for Kids
- How Kids Can Save Energy
- At Home Energy Saving Games
What Is Energy Conservation?
The first step to teaching is to understand the subject yourself. In simple terms, energy conservation refers to the prevention of wasting energy to ensure that we can protect it for future use. Unfortunately, fossil fuel energy, which is the most common energy form, is non-renewable, which means that we have a limited supply, and when it runs out, we can’t produce more. This means that one day, we will eventually run out of fossil fuel energy, which can cause a dark world, literally. Without energy, we can no longer power our lighting, heating and devices that require plugging into the electricity mains.
The limited supply of energy means that it is more important than ever to ensure that we are not wasting energy in our homes. This is where teaching your children to turn lights off as they leave a room and fully power-down TVs and games consoles when not in use can be beneficial. In fact, not only can it help the environment, but it can also help to reduce your energy bills. According to uSwitch, households in the UK collectively waste around £277m of energy just by leaving our appliances on standby.
There are many ways in which we can protect our plant, reduce your energy bills and preserve energy. For example, switching to renewable energy is a great way to keep your home running and powered without harming the environment. You can either choose to have Ampower supply you with a green home energy plan that uses wind and solar energy, or you can produce your own renewable energy by installing solar panels to the roof of your home. The National Geographic has a handy article on renewable energy, including everything you need to know about the different types and how they can be used.
Teach Kids About Gas & Electricity
One of the best ways to help kids to understand more about why it’s important to preserve energy, is to teach them about what gas and electricity actually are and how they power your home. So, let’s take a closer look into the two and how they are produced and used; don’t forget to take a look at the YouTube video below, which you can show to your children to help explain the two energy types.
Gas
Gas usually comes from ‘natural gas’ which is sourced from fossils deep under the earth’s surface such as methane. These fossils are used for many things, not just for energy. For example, it’s used for materials and chemicals for other uses, which means without it, we’re not just risking our energy running out. The natural gases are made from millions of years, if not longer, of animals and plants that have been buried under thick layers of the earth which are all compressed to change into coal, and in some cases, oil.
Electricty
In simple terms, electricity is the flow of electrons, and can be produced using friction, and that’s why you might get an electric shock after rubbing your feet on the carpet or get static hair after rubbing a balloon on your head. Electricity is produced through an electric generator, where two magnets rotate to produce an electric current. This is what powers pretty much anything that you plug into your sockets. An electric generator can also produce electricity through wind turbines, where nature simply turns the windmill to produce a current.
Teaching Platforms for Kids
As you may have figured during lockdown, trying to teach kids their school work can be challenging, especially when you’re trying your best to work from home. However, there are plenty of ways that you can teach your children about energy usage through various teaching platforms. These platforms teach children a variety of things about energy, using a selection of games and informative videos to help them learn. Just some of these useful platforms include the following:
- Nico’s Activities - Nico has a variety of workbooks that you can print out, encouraging kids to colour in pictures and complete word searches for a fun and creative way of learning about all things energy, from saving energy to keeping safe from electricity.
- Ingenium Games - Choose from various online games to play to teach children about clean air, renewable energy and powerplants.
- Learning Games For Kids - A selection of games and interactive songs can help children learn in a fun and memorable way, including word searches and matching games.
How Kids Can Save Energy
As you are most likely already aware, children are the biggest culprits for wasting energy, making it even more important to ensure that you encourage them to turn off their appliances. The first step is to think about what appliances that the kids use the most, as this can help you to identify where your wasted energy is coming from. However, remember, that to show kids how to do something, you first need to set an example, so reducing your wasted energy is a family effort, and can become a fun family activity. Here are some ways in which you can help kids to stop wasting energy at home:
Turn Off The TV
There are a number of benefits that come alongside turning off your TV, as it not only helps to reduce energy wastage and therefore your bills, but it can also help to encourage more family time. You can choose to either ensure that children are properly turning the TV off and not just leaving it on standby, or you can create a strict time schedule as to when the family can watch TV. If the latter is of interest, then you can do this in two different ways, you either dedicate a specific time in which they can watch TV, or you find out when their favourite programme is and allow them to watch it before turning off the TV. By doing this, you can encourage children to spend more time being creative or learning something new by picking up a book.
Play A Song At Shower Time
You can choose to set a timer for showers, or you can create a fun shower time with a song. Choosing a song that’s around 3 minutes long can help your family to make sure that they don’t take long showers, which will dramatically reduce your energy bills. Esquire has a list of the eight best shower speakers, allowing you to control the amount of time people spend in the shower. Limiting your baths to once a week and having showers in between will also have a significant impact on your energy and water bills. You can also do this by turning the temperature of your showers down a few degrees, which comes alongside an abundance of other benefits.
Energy Saving Baking
Everyone loves the smell of freshly baked cookies, and decorating some cakes is a great pastime for younger children. However, baking can become costly with the oven constantly running, wasting energy as you bake your Victoria sponge and brownies. One very easy solution to this is to mix up your ingredients before putting the oven on. By doing this, you can ensure that you are using your oven once it has reached the required temperature, rather than leaving the oven on, wasting energy, while you mix up your baking.
Turn Lights Off
Turning the lights off when exiting a room isn’t something that everyone has at the top of their mind, but it can save you a significant amount of money. A fun way to make sure that all of the lights are off during the day is to play a game where everyone runs around the house to see how many lights they can turn off, how many unused appliances they can unplug and more, giving the winner a prize. This not only helps you to keep your energy usage as low as possible, but it can also be a fun pastime for the whole family.
At Home Energy Saving Games
We all know that children just love to play games, which makes it the perfect opportunity to sneak in a little bit of learning. There are many games you can play with your children, some you can complete together as a family, and others are perfect for keeping them quiet while you have an important business call. Some of these games include:
- Energy Bingo - perfect for kids between 4-8, the bingo game has a selection of images such as showerheads and appliances, of which kids can tick off if they’re not on.
- Word Search - you can either create your own, or you can find tonnes of energy word searches on The Word Search
- Spot The Difference - draw out a bright and green future, and then use the same image but remove things that you won’t be able to use in the future without energy.
.
Preserving Our Future
It is important to learn about energy, as it has a significant impact on our daily lives, and without it, we could struggle with simple tasks. One of the main benefits of teaching children, is that it means that they can pave the way to a bright and greener future, protecting our planet and reducing the risks of climate change. Not only this, but it can also reduce your energy bills simply by turning off lights and appliances off standby. If you would like to know more about how you can save on your energy bill or switch to green energy, please feel free to contact the team about our home electricity and home gas plans.