Upcycling and Repurposing in Your Homeschool
Though often used interchangeably, upcycling and repurposing are two different ways to reuse items and prevent them from ending up in landfills. Essentially, upcycling is repairing, updating, and modifying old items to be used again instead of dumping them. Repurposing takes advantage of a piece in an alternative—often creative—way and uses it for a purpose for which it wasn’t intended.
There are so many ways these concepts can be used in your homeschool as examples of good stewardship and ways of reducing clutter and waste. Explore some budget-friendly, earth-friendly, and family-friendly upcycling and repurposing ideas in this Homeschool Living.
Upcycling for the Love of Books
We homeschoolers love our books! Junk journals are an excellent example of repurposing old paper materials for use as a newly functioning notebook. Use them as writing journals, lapbooks, art projects, nature journals, and more. The possibilities are practically endless. You might challenge your student to create a themed junk journal corresponding to a particular topic you are studying. Be inspired by these ideas for repurposing and upcycling sometimes mundane items into creative storage solutions that just might be the perfect fit for your homeschool area.
Upcycling Resources
The best upcycling projects for our homeschools are the ones that provide an opportunity for students to create their own learning materials. Check out these upcycled and repurposed STEM activities for kids and let students’ imaginations run wild as they create their own classroom tool with a DIY kid-made abacus, learn some basic engineering concepts with a trash tower building challenge, explore “green” science by building a lemon battery, visualize multiplication with pinecones, and much more. These 28 fun ideas to try with recycled and upcycled resources are some great ways to encourage creative, sustainable play for your littles. You’ll find indoor and outdoor sensory, imaginative, and constructive activity ideas to help your children recognize and take advantage of the myriad fun—and free!—resources right in front of them.
This blog post shares some creative ways to supply your classroom with upcycled and repurposed items. From crafting simple art and cooking aprons from old jeans to storage ideas that make it refreshingly clear that you never need to buy a plastic organizer bin again, equip your homeschool classroom with these creative repurposing ideas.
Upcycling is the New Conscious Consumerism
Practicing regular upcycling and repurposing instead of consuming—and consequently disposing of—items which could be given a new life is a tangible way of teaching conservation and simple living and encouraging creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. What are some ways you’ve repurposed or upcycled items in your home? Are you already thinking of a new cool project to work on with your family?
Megan Mora Fuentes
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