More and more children are aware of the environment around them from a very young age. Children learn best by example so if you recycle chances are that they will grow up to do it naturally. Most schools also focus on the importance of teaching the adults of tomorrow to respect the environment. Last year one of the teaching themes at Luca’s school was recycling, they had fun competitions such as collecting plastic bottle tops; children are naturally competitive so at the end of the week you would see even the really young ones with bags full of colourful tops to put in the big collector box in the hall. They also made interesting sculptures from empty plastic containers and bottles. This year the teaching theme is water, so all activities are centred on this vast subject focusing on the importance of water, making children aware about the places in the world where drinking water is not available and especially teaching them not to waste it. My 5 year old now doesn’t let the tap run in the bathroom when he washes his hands and he’s been telling us all about how without water you cannot survive and how some children don’t have clean water to drink. Some might think 4 and 5 year olds are just a touch too young to be made aware of such things, I believe you need to be truthful with children, so when my son asks WHY, and like all children his age he asks often, I like to give a real answer.