Teaching Kids About Clean Living with 12 Faith Filled Activities

Children learn best by doing. When we invite them into the process of clean living, they don’t just gain healthier habits—they grow in gratitude and faith. God calls us to care for both our bodies and His creation (Genesis 2:15, 1 Corinthians 6:19), and these lessons can begin right in our homes.

Here are 12 activities you can do with your kids to make clean living both practical and joyful.

1. Plant a Family Garden (Big or Small)

Whether you have a backyard or just a sunny windowsill, planting seeds shows kids how God grows life.

• Start with easy plants like herbs, tomatoes, or lettuce. You can even ficus on growing things for a dinner project (such as making salsa or spaghetti sauce).

• Read Mark 4:30–32 (the parable of the mustard seed) and talk about how small beginnings can grow into something beautiful.

2. Create a DIY Natural Cleaner Together

Show your kids how to make an all-purpose spray with vinegar, water, and lemon essential oil. Let them decorate the spray bottle with stickers.

• Use it for wiping counters or tables together.

• Talk about why we choose safer ingredients for our homes (to protect our bodies and the earth).

• Let them utilize it this week to clean up after meals, in order to encourage the care and cleanliness of our things.

3. Host a “Creation Walk” with Friends

Take a slow walk through your neighborhood or park. Challenge your kids to spot 10 beautiful things God made (a flower, a bug, a cloud). Draw each one on a clipboard or allow your child to take photos in a camera, iPad, or other device.

• Read Psalm 19:1: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

4. Swap Plastic for Reusable Options

Give each child their own stainless steel water bottle or reusable snack bag. Let them decorate or personalize it.

• Activity idea: Have a “no plastic week” challenge and track progress with a chart.

Be sure to check out my children’s book, The Beach Clean Up, and utilize it in your lessons and activities focusing on decreasing waste with simple swaps.

5. Start a Compost Jar or Bin

Teach kids how food scraps can be turned into soil. Even if you don’t have a yard, you can compost small amounts in a jar and watch it break down.

• Connect it to Ecclesiastes 3:20: “All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.”

6. Make Your Own Beeswax Wraps

Use simple kits (or pre-cut cloth and beeswax) to create reusable wraps for sandwiches and snacks. Kids love melting and smoothing the wax.

• Explain how this helps reduce waste and care for creation.

Two DIY kits that work:

Ames Farm

Jenny Joy’s Handmade

7. Cooking “God’s Food” Meals Together

Choose one night a week to cook a meal that’s made entirely of whole, unprocessed foods—fruits, veggies, grains, and proteins in their simplest forms. Let the kids design a menu, or pick a recipe and help with gathering the items needed by visiting a farmers market or grocery shopping.

• Talk about Genesis 1:29: “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth…”

8. Trash Pick-Up & Praise Day

Head to a local park with gloves and trash bags. Make it fun with a timer or “who can find the most” challenge by setting kids up in teams - you can even split items up by trash and recycling, and visit a recycling center on the way home.

• Close the day with prayer, thanking God for His creation and asking Him to help us care for it.

9. Homemade Snack Menu

Teach your kids how to make simple snacks like energy bites, muffins, or fruit popsicles and design a complete menu of items. Compare the ingredient list to a packaged snack. Store each item after making to enjoy throughout the week.

• Show them how clean, whole foods give energy without chemicals, and nourishment for our body is first and foremost.

10. Screen-Free Nature Hours

Designate one day a week where the family turns off all screens and heads outdoors—gardening, hiking, or simply laying on a blanket looking at clouds. Take learning outside!

• Tie in Romans 1:20: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities… have been clearly seen.”

11. Creation Care Chart

Make a sticker chart for clean living habits:

• Turning off lights when leaving a room.

• Refilling water bottles.

• Choosing reusable napkins.

• Saying thank you before meals.

  
  

  Kids earn points or stickers, and you celebrate progress together. They can earn a popcorn party when they’re finished.

12. Family Gratitude Practice

At dinner, let each child lead prayer and thank God for one part of creation (sunshine, rain, food, animals). This teaches that clean living is rooted in gratitude for His provision.

Academic Extensions to Help Kids Learn About Clean Living

Clean living isn’t just hands-on—it can be part of your homeschool academics, too. Here are 5 subject-based activities that bring it into your lessons:

1. Math: Tracking Energy or Water Use

Have your kids help read the water or electric bill each month. Compare usage and calculate percentages of reduction when you conserve (like shorter showers or turning off lights).

• Younger kids: Count how many lightbulbs are turned off in the house.

• Older kids: Create bar graphs or pie charts.

2. Science: Water Filtration Experiment

Build a simple water filter with gravel, sand, and charcoal. Test how clean the water looks after each step. See ideas for a full lesson here.

• Tie in a discussion about why families need clean water and how filters protect health.

3. Language Arts: Write a “Creation Care Poem”

Ask children to write a short poem or journal entry about God’s creation and why it’s important to protect it. This can focus on a specific type of poem, such as a haiku or focus on rhyming words for younger kids.

Example prompt: “Describe your favorite part of God’s creation and how you can care for it.”

• Additional Example prompt: “Write or draw one way you can make the world a better, cleaner place, such as by picking up trash at the beach, hosting a recycling center for your neighborhood, etc.”

  
  

• Additional Example prompt: “Make a poster board that tells a story about the process of trash pollution, and one way you can break that cycle.”

4. History: Research Inventions That Help the Earth

Choose one invention—like recycling trucks, wind turbines, or electric cars—and have older kids write a short report or younger kids draw a picture of how it helps creation, making our earth a better place.

5. Geography: Map Where Our Food Comes From

Look at packaging labels in your pantry and trace foods back to their country or state of origin.

• Discuss the difference between local food (farmer’s market) and food shipped from far away.

• Add a Bible tie-in: “God gives us food from the earth in every corner of the world.”

That’s it!! Adding academics makes clean living not just part of lifestyle, but part of schoolwork too—integrating faith, stewardship, and education into one seamless rhythm.

Final Encouragement

Clean living with kids doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s about weaving small, repeatable habits into family life—and connecting those habits back to God’s Word.

When children learn to care for their homes, bodies, and the earth as part of their faith, clean living becomes not just a lifestyle, but a legacy.