With the weather turning chillier by the day, staying inside after work and school can be the perfect time for some creative, and energy-saving, fun! These easy projects are fun for the whole family and can teach kids how to make their homes more comfortable and efficient without the need for fancy tools!
Make a Draft Stopper Snake
What you need: An old sock or pant leg, dry rice or beans for filling, a few rubber bands or string, and markers or stick on googly eyes for decorating.
What to do: Fill the sock or pants leg with the rice or beans, tie off both ends, and decorate it like a friendly snake. Place it along the bottom of a drafty door or window to block the cold air from circulating through the room.
What you learned: Stopping drafts keeps warm air inside and helps your heating system work more efficiently.
Create a "Lights Out" Reminder Sign
What you need: An 11x17 piece of cardstock or cardboard, assorted markers, some tape, stencils and a bit of creativity.
What to do: Tape the stencils to your cardboard to say something like "Flip the switch to save energy!" Then, design and color the sign in whatever theme you choose. You could even make it superhero themed. Once complete, hang next to often used light switches in your home.
What you learned: Turning off the lights when you leave a room is one of the simplest ways to make your home more energy efficient every day.
Become an Energy Detective
What you need: A notepad, pencil, and sticker badges for each "detective."
What to do: Go room to room searching for clues like lights left on, chargers plugged in, windows cracked open, or drafts around doors and windows. Every fix earns a "case closed" sticker!
What you learned: Finding and fixing small sources of energy waste adds up to big savings for your home.
Build a Sunshine Suncatcher
What you need: Tissue paper, clear plastic wrap (feel free to recycle what you have laying around), scissors, school glue, and string.
What to do: Cut fun, cute shapes from the tissue paper, glue them onto the clear plastic, and hang your creation in a sunny window. Watch how the colors glow as they catch the sunlight filling the room.
What you learned: Natural light is free energy! Using sunshine during the day reduces the need for electric lights.
Start a Family Energy-Saving Chart
What you need: Poster board or a whiteboard, markers, and stickers.
What to do: List your family’s daily energy saving goals, such as turning off the lights when leaving a room, closing curtains at night and opening them during the day, unplugging chargers and other electronics when not in use, taking shorter showers, and reducing the temperature. Give a sticker for each task completed. When you hit a week of full stars, celebrate with a family reward like a movie night (lights off, of course).
What you learned: Saving energy is a team effort, and every small action helps to create an efficient home!
Energy efficiency can be fun, creative, and even a little messy in the best way! Try one project at a time, or make a weekend of it, and see how many ways your family can save energy together.
