Disclosure: I received a free item, but it in no way influenced my opinion! You can find affiliate links in this article. If you make a purchase, I will receive a payment to help offset the costs of running this website! 

One of the best things about living in the Northeast is the amount of opportunities here, but being close to major cities often comes at the price of a smaller living space. Many families choose to live in townhouses or apartments. To get the children outside, parents take them to nature parks. Even if you have a small yard (or no yard at all), you can still teach your children about going green from your home.

5 Ideas For Children To Go Green From Your Deck With The Go Green Playhouse

To learn about Earth Day, my children enjoyed using a playhouse that showed them how to go green. Without a large back yard, you can use the Go Green Playhouse from Little Tikes to help your children learn about recycling, gardening, and more. Check out my ideas for using this toy to teach eco-friendly living tips to children.

1. Watch solar powered energy in action.

First, teach your children about saving electricity. One of the best ways to save energy in your home is to use solar power. With solar powered features, this eco-friendly home is an educational space for playing house.

Inside the playhouse, you can find a solar powered lamp. Let the lamp charge, and it can help light up the playhouse at dusk! You can also find a solar powered roof (but it doesn’t create light). 

For a science experiment about creating light without electricity, check out the activity book. One of the suggested activities is to place empty water bottles in the holes of the roof. The water bottles can help light up the home!

2. Practice writing letters about Earth Day.

One of my children’s favorite features of the playhouse is that it comes with a mailbox. You can use the mailbox to write letters about why Earth Day matters. Discuss environmental issues that you can write about. To inspire your discussion of endangered animals, take a visit to the zoo. From nature walks in the park to sailing the Chesapeake bay, using real life experiences can help children with their writing. 

Another idea is to decorate and mail posters for your family’s Earth Day celebration. Have a family art contest for the best poster, or work together to come up with an itinerary for your event.

Children can mail Earth day letters and posters in the Go Green Playhouse from Little Tikes. (c) Theresa's Reviews

Children can mail Earth day letters and posters in the Go Green Playhouse from Little Tikes.

3. Collect water in the rain barrel, and pump water in the sink.

If you’re looking for summer water play fun, the Go Green Playhouse offers a unique experience for children. Enjoy splashing in the water, and learn about water conservation at the same time!

One of the neatest features of the playhouse is that it comes with a rain barrel. You can use the spout from the rain barrel to pours water into a watering can. Although we have never owned a rain barrel before, watching my children develop such excellent green living skills was inspirational. You never know when these green living might come in handy! This playhouse does a great job of showing how to collect rain water.

For your children to emulate your earth-friendly actions, make your home green too, and check out this 50 gallon rain barrel.

Children can collect water in the rain barrel. Not only is this fun water play for the summer, but it also teaches valuable green living skills! (c) Theresa's Reviews

Children can collect water in the rain barrel. Not only is this fun water play for the summer, but it also teaches valuable green living skills!

When you collect the rain water, you can pour it into the sink. Unplug the sink to let the water collect below. Then, the faucet works as a pump to pull water back up for children to rinse their hands. Although the rain water isn’t drinkable, it’s fine for rinsing off dirt and mud.

With a sink that has running water, children can play for hours in this playhouse. (c) Theresa's Reviews

With a sink that has running water, children can play for hours in this playhouse.

4. Sort trash and recycling.

With separate trash and recycling baskets, children can see which items are supposed to go in which area. This is a good lesson in sorting recyclables. Children can practice putting different goods – either real items or play food – into the right area. 

This is also an opportunity to talk about different items you can buy that are made from recycled material. My children had no idea that some of the toys they already own are made from recycled plastic!

Sort recyclable materials, and discuss how recycling works in your home too! (c) Theresa's Reviews

Sort recyclable materials, and discuss how recycling works in your home too!

5. Grow plants (no yard needed!).

Finally, a useful feature for families living in cities or families who have small yards is that the playhouse offers space for gardening. Not only can you garden in the area under the rain barrel, but you can even grow seeds on the roof. As the world becomes a more crowded space, knowing how to garden in a small space will be a useful skill to have. I look forward to working on our garden all summer long.

How will you celebrate Earth Day this year? Share your ideas in the comments.

For more parenting tips, follow Theresa’s reviews on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Youtube.

Disclosure: I received a free item, but it in no way influenced my opinion! You can find affiliate links in this article. If you make a purchase, I will receive a payment to help offset the costs of running this website! 

About The Author

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Theresa has been writing since 2010 in magazines and online. Her lifestyle and parenting expertise has been featured in publications, including ShopSmart and Scholastic. She earned an M.Ed in Elementary Education from Vanderbilt as well as a BA in History from Flagler College, and she is a certified teacher.

21 Responses

  2. lindsay

    How cool that they’ve added solar tech to these toys now! This is so important for our kids to know about.

    Reply
  3. K. Elizabeth

    This is such a cool playhouse. I wish this or something similar would have been available when my children were this little.

    Reply
  4. Debbie

    I LOVE this idea! All of the play houses are kind of the same. It’s neat that this one teaches a message and provides fun ways to go green for kids. So cute!

    Reply
  5. CourtneyLynne

    Awwww what a cute play House!!! My daughter has a play house and she’s obsessed with it!

    Reply
  6. Terri Steffes

    I love all these ideas. I used to take my kindergarteners out to the playground and we’d all hug a tree. Lol, it was the cutest thing ever and really made an impression on their little minds.

    Reply
  7. Janel B

    I love that earth day is a cool thing nowadays. In my community they have festivals with vendors and learning activities for the kids.

    Reply
  8. Joanna

    I bet my kids would think collecting water in a bucket was super cool! They are really intrigued with the rain.

    Reply
  11. katriza

    I wish I had room in my backyard to put in a playhouse! I know my kids would love it! This looks awesome and she looks like she’s having a blast! What a great way to do some Earth Day celebration!

    Reply
  12. Journa Ramirez

    Very clever idea! It’s important to get our kids involved in such events. Teaching them to celebrate Earth day will help them build a desire to help our planet at their young age.

    Reply
  13. Charlotte

    This is so sweet! When I was younger I had an outdoor play house and I loved it! I wish we had the space for our little ones now!

    Reply
  14. Reesa Lewandowski

    That is the cutest little play house!!! I miss the days when my kids were young enough for one!

    Reply
  15. Cindy Ingalls

    These all great idea for being more earth conscience. Starting kids off on being green is a vital way to help make our planet a cleaner place to live.

    Reply

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