So, my brother was visiting from Vancouver earlier this week, and Kai, our three-year-old, was over the moon, following him around, demonstrating his dancing skills, showing off his assortment of trucks and toys and generally monopolizing his Uncle John. My brother has a one-year-old, but three-year-olds are currently beyond his scope of experience, and I think Kai was keeping him amused and surprised with his imagination, constant barrage of questions, and quirky commentary. Three is such a fun age. Kai misses nothing, is very intuitive and says the funniest things sometimes. And he is so earnest, tries to be so helpful and loves to tell you about things he’s recently learned.At one point in the morning, my brother used the washroom just off the kitchen, and then returned to the breakfast table. Kai was playing nearby and piped up “Uncle John, you forgot to turn off the light! You are wasting electricity and that isn’t good for the earth.”John just looked at him dumbfounded and laughed. “You’re right Kai, I’m sorry, that wasn’t very smart of me, was it?” he replied, admonished by a three-year-old. I was so proud of Kai, and happy that he is absorbing what Peter and I are trying so hard to teach him: that we need to be mindful about how we live our daily lives, and try to do small things that will help lessen our impact on the environment. Kai also now tells his friends that we often walk instead of taking our car to daycare, or his playgroup because it “helps the earth,” and he insists we turn off the water while he is scrubbing his hands with soap before turning it back on to rinse. These are such little things, but they are easy to teach a receptive toddler or preschooler. And imagine an entire generation of children growing up thinking about how to conserve electricity and create less waste.On the days when the news gets to me and I feel overwhelmed by environmental disasters, world food shortages and global warming, this notion of a more conscientious, greener generation gives me hope. Hope that if anyone can turn this thing around, it will be these children. And my little green star will be one of them.