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Big Energy Saving Week 2022 – get children involved!

Posted on by Claire Hewson

Big Energy Saving Week runs from 17th to 23rd January 2022. Here we share some fun ways you can teach your child about the importance of saving energy and what they can do to help. By saving energy they are looking after our planet and also lowering your household bills.

What is energy?

You could kick off Big energy Saving Week 2022 by drawing your child’s attention to the ingenuity behind energy production. This may help them to appreciate the energy we all take for granted and to be more committed to saving it.

You might share books about how renewable energy is produced, such as:

Renewable Energy Sources – Wind, Solar and Hydro Energy Edition by Baby Professor

How Does it Work? Solar Energy by Baby IQ Builder Books

Wind, Rain, Hydro and Renewable Energy by Baby IQ Builder Books

Renewable Energy Sources – Wind, Solar and Hydro Energy Revised Edition by Baby Professor

If you type ‘how energy is made’ into YouTube you will find a wealth of free films on everything from nuclear power to how energy reaches our homes. Always watch films all the way through yourself before sharing them with your child.

On E.ON’s Energise Anything website you will find lots of activities you can do with children aged 5-18. They can even make their very own lightning storm!

Life without electricity

Show your child how much we rely on power by turning off electronic devices for a couple of hours (or a day if they would really like a challenge).

Ask your child to help you carry out household jobs by hand instead of using the washing machine or dishwasher. This helps them to appreciate how much we rely on energy and they may think twice before putting clothes they have worn just once into the washing basket.

Your child could watch A day in the life of a regency servant from BBC Teach shows which shows what life was like for people before electricity.

Save energy in the house

Each day you could play a game where your child races around the house turning off lights in empty rooms and devices nobody is using. It is important not to leave machines on ‘standby’ as it is a potential fire hazard.

You could turn this race into a family competition to see who can turn off the most unused equipment. If you have a smart meter at home, you could use this to show your child how their efforts are really saving energy.

For an overview of how saving energy protects the environment and what we can all do to help, we recommend watching Protecting our environment by conserving energy from BBC Teach.

Go outside

Playing games outside in the garden or in the park is a great way to save power in the house. Show children how they can warm up outside by running around or cool down in hot weather by sitting in the shade and enjoying the breeze rather than switching on a fan.

Stuck for games to play outside? Read our blog post 10 equipment free outdoor games for ideas.

Save water

A major part of saving energy is using less water. To find out why it is vital to save water you could read Why we should all be saving water from the Energy Trust. Water is a scarce resource and supply in the UK is already struggling to meet demand. People often think our rainy climate means water supply here is not a problem, but this is far from the case.

There is plenty we can do at home to save water. Showers are the biggest water users in the home, and we also use lots of energy heating them up.

You could turn water saving into a game for your child by keeping a tally. Each time your child saves water they could give themselves a point on the tally.

Here are some easy, water-saving ideas:

  • Take showers instead of baths and keep showers short.
  • When brushing your teeth turn off the tap.
  • Use cold water instead of warm water when possible. According to Unicef cold water and warm water are equally effective at killing viruses such as Covid-19 as long as you wash your hands for 20 seconds, use soap and dry your hands completely afterwards.
  • Only use washing machines and dishwashers when they are full.

Did your child enjoy Big Energy Saving Week 2022?

Our specialist science tutors at TutorMyKids can build on your child’s interest in the environment to extend their science skills and knowledge.

All our tutors are science enthusiasts who have a strong academic background and proven track record in teaching. They will adapt their teaching to your child’s learning style, boosting their confidence, which in turn drives achievement.

To find the right science tutor for your child today, please contact us on 01223 858 421 or hello@tutormykids.co.uk

Fun ways to teach your child where their food comes from

Posted on by Claire Hewson

World Food Day is celebrated on 16th October every year, even in these unprecedented times. The aim is to raise awareness that everybody – food producers and consumers alike – have an important role to play to ensure nutritious food is available to everyone across the world.

As consumers we can influence what food is produced by making healthy, sustainable choices. To learn about how our daily choices can have a positive impact visit the United Nation’s World Food Day website.

For children, the first step in making the best choices is understanding where their food comes from. Advances in technology mean that with every generation we become further and further removed from the source of our food.

Here we share some enjoyable ways to teach your child how food gets from farm to fork.

Grow your own fruit and vegetables

Children love sowing seeds, looking after plants and eating what they have grown themselves.

To begin with choose food that is quick and easy to grow such as herbs see ‘How to make a herb garden’. Once interest is sparked your child could grow courgettes (these are very easy to grow), tomatoes, mange tout, green beans, butternut squash, strawberries and raspberries. Even in autumn and winter there is plenty to grow!

Involve your child in picking and preparing their fruit and vegetables. They could make a pizza from home grown tomatoes and basil, or pies and smoothies from strawberries and raspberries. Your child might eat some of their produce straight from the plant or in a salad.

Pick your own

This is an activity to save until late summer. Pick blackberries – remembering not to pick blackberries from near roadsides or near to the ground. Apart from blackberry crumbles and pies your child could make summer pudding, ice cream, jelly and sorbet or eat blackberries as they are. There are lots of recipes online.

Pick-your-own farms are a fun and cheap day out. You can pick strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, redcurrants and more – depending upon your closest farm. Type ‘nearest pick your own fruit’ into Google.

Read food books

There are some fantastic books that spark children’s interest in the connection between nature and food, and the importance of healthy eating.  These are our favourites:

How Did That Get in My Lunchbox: The Story of Food by Chris Butterworth

Looking at all the food in a child’s lunchbox and how it got there. Where did the chocolate in the biscuit come from? Who made the bread for the sandwich? This book looks at the steps involved in producing some foods e.g. planting wheat and mixing flour into dough to make bread. There are also healthy eating tips and an introduction to food groups is included.

I don’t Like Salad! by Tony Ross

The Little Princess does not like salad, especially tomatoes. She changes her mind when she is given some tomato seeds to grow and sees the first shoots appear.

Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle

Jack wakes up very hungry – he wants a pancake! But first his mother needs flour from the mill, an egg from the hen, milk from the cow, butter churned from cream and firewood for the stove. Will Jack help his mother and get his pancake?

See Inside: Where Food Comes From by Emily Bone and Peter Allen

Children lift flaps to find out what food is produced in greenhouses, on farms and in the sea. There is a map with flaps showing where chocolate, tea and other things we enjoy come from. Children discover the importance of corn, rice and wheat around the world.

Encourage your child to look at the labels on the food they eat to see where is has come from. They could find places on a world map and use the internet to research the journey their food has had from source to plate.

Visit farm shops or markets with your child to find out what is seasonal and talk to them about what ‘seasonal’ and ‘sustainable’ mean.  The World Food Day website is a great source of information.

Visit a Farm

Whether you visit a city farm or a farm in the country this is a great way to show your child where their food comes from. Some farms allow children to feed lambs, collect eggs, stroke sheep and even to see cows being milked and cheese being made.

There are farms that offer overnight stays so children can really experience life on a working farm. It is also worth keeping an eye out for farm open days near you.

One-to-one science tuition

Is your child interested in science and nature? Our experienced science tutors build on children’s enthusiasm introducing them to many areas of science in an engaging, hands-on and creative way, motivating them to pursue sciences throughout school and beyond.

If your child isn’t enthusiastic about science at school and finds a particular area challenging we can also help. Our tutors tailor their teaching to individual children’s needs, making sure learning is both fun and relevant to them.

To find out more please contact us on: 01223 858 421/hello@tutormykids.co.uk