While composting is definitely picking up steam as a household practice, it’s far from being the norm than the anomaly. That being said, to keep the momentum building, we need to turn to our next generation’s attention to compost as a part of their daily lives.

The DailyIowan recently reported such a plan, by Scott Koepke, a native Iowan who handles a part-time schedule teaching students about the practice, joy and gooshy-wiggly goodness of composting. Read entire article here.

It’s not hard to imagine getting most school-age kids interested in digging in dirt and playing with worms. Add to it playing with food, and you’ve just about elevated the action to kids idea of Nirvana.

To teach your toddlers or school kids about composting, get a sturdy bin, layer it halfway with compost materials and worms, then go through the process from table to compost bin that you would normally follow. Let the kids scrape the plates into the compost caddy, dump it into two piles of greens or browns and layer it into the bin for the red wiggler worms to munch.

While they’re following the motions, tell them the purpose of each step, how the worms make the compost, what the result will be and why it’s good for the planet.

Kids live hand on learning, and composting is no exception to that rule. The lesson will stick with them a lot longer than just reiterating “We should compost to save the planet”. If we take the same care in teaching our kids how to compost as to how to play their first video game, we should have a compost revolution on our hands within 10 years.