How the club works

One of my goals with the eco club was to have a fixed template for each get together.  Having a template makes it easier on me as I'm not re-inventing every time I need come up with content for the meeting, and its good for the kids because they know what to expect from one gathering to the next thereby promoting anticipation and patience.  Here's what the template looks like:

• Secret hand shake
• Planet Check
• Sharing between club members
• Environmental news
• Outside observation
• Monthly theme
• Introduction/Learning/Discussion
• Activity
• Game
• Action Box (optional)
• Secret hand shake

The secret hand shake is always a fun part of belonging to a club.  When you meet members outside the club and you give the secret hand shake, you feel special and other kids might notice and ask what is going on, which is good marketing for recruiting new members.  Our secret handshake (it's not secret anymore!) starts with making a fist and saying "our planet", then wrap around your fist with your other hand and say "we care for it", and finish with a fist bump and say "together!".

The planet check portion is where members get a chance to share environmental related news and experiences with the club.  Next I share some news tid bits that I gathered from sites like National Geographic, New Scientist, or local papers.  You don't have to look too hard to find bad news about the environment soI try to keep that pretty light and balance it off with good news such as scientific discoveries, technological advances, or newly discovered animal species.  I'll sometime bring pictures and videos using my tablet or laptop.

Next comes the outside observation where we all go outside, rain or shine, hot or cold, and simply stay quiet for 1 minute and *experience* our environment.  We close our eyes and focus on what we're hearing, feeling, and smelling and then take turns to share.  This short meditation was a bit of a gamble for young kids but they seem to really enjoy it!  The goal here is not to intellectualize too much about the environment because its right outside our door to experience.  Sometimes in our busy lives we get distracted by thinking about what's going on in the Amazon, or in Australia or Africa and don't even pay attention to our immediate surroundings so this observation pulls us back to our small part of the world, at least for a few moments.

The more time consuming part of the gathering is the theme section.  This is where we explore in more detail the theme that was chosen for the month.  This can be a mix of interactive learning, books, videos, or pretty much anything else you think would be fun, educational, and stimulating for the kids.  You'll get ideas for themes in upcoming blogs posts.

Finishing things off we'll play a game of some sort and perhaps discuss the Action Box (more on this in a future post).  And that's the pattern we follow!  It's pretty simple but provides a good framework to each meeting to build on.

Remember that just because you start with a certain template in mind, doesn't mean you have to stick to it no matter what.  If there's something that doesn't resonate with the kids after a couple of tries, let it go and replace it with something else that might.

An eco-club is born

Starting a local eco club was a long time in the works.  It was easy once the decision was made but it had been a long time that I had wanted to do "something" active towards helping our planet deal with the mess that humans are making.

I've had a strong sensitivity to environmental issues for as long as I can remember.  Whether it be an affinity towards animals, an awareness of pollution and of polluters, of class differences and injustices, it's always there in back of my mind.  Top it off with a sense that 'if we keep on the way we are at some point the sh*t will hit the environmental fan and we'll all look back and finally see with clarity how ridiculous we've been acting towards our planet' and you have a desire to do something about it.

Awareness often brings along a sense of responsibility.  If you can see problems that others can't see, you feel that you must act on them somehow or at least try to create the same awareness in others, otherwise carry a feeling of guilt.  But at the same time, you have to live and can't feel like you're a bad guy every time you don't recycle a piece of paper or leave the bicycle at home.  Quite the balancing act.  I've been wanting to do something significant towards this sense of responsibility for quite a while but just haven't been able to do anything major on my own.

Now, in my mid-forties, I realize that something needs to happen and I need to band with more people in order to do it.  What better than to surround yourself with eager and energetic kids to charge yourself up with can-do energy and get something done!?  So that's how Le Club de la Terre de Ste Anne got its start one year ago.

Starting an eco-club with kids has many advantages.  Kids have boundless energy, they are eager to learn and eager to act and do things, they have an innate connection with nature and the environment, and they haven't yet been cursed with the adult mind which can reason itself out of pretty much anything it wants to.  There are some minor disadvantages, such as toning the energy back a bit when it runs out of control, but the plus far outweighs the negatives.

So far the club is a hit with everyone involved and so this blog is born!  I'll be blogging about what we have done and will be doing at our club meetings with intent that it might inspire and guide others in doing the same in their part of the world.  I hope this might be useful to someone out there!