We all have that one little thing that gets us really riled up, don’t we? Maybe you clench your teeth every time someone misuses an apostrophe, maybe you want to chuck a tantrum when your spouse doesn’t hang up their wet towel… again, or maybe you just can’t stand it when someone is texting during a movie.
Whatever it is, everybody has at some time in their life found something that just sends them around the bend, and today I’m going to tell you mine!
I frequent a lot of nature, craft and early years childhood blogs, and I’m always so impressed by what I find there. We are so lucky to have such creative educators at our finger tips.
But every now and again, I spot something that makes me cringe. Can you guess? I bet you can’t. You’ve probably never even thought about this thing before – when people take a lovely piece of nature and then, wait for it…they laminate it!
You’ve seen this done many times for garlands made of leaves and flowers. The garland concept is lovely, but I hate that every little bit of nature is covered with a fine plastic film! I’ve also seen natural items laminated for children to play with, either to sit on a discovery table or to use on top of a light box. I’m all for discovery tables and light boxes, but does the nature really need to be laminated?
Why stop laminating nature?
- Once you’ve finished with your laminated nature and you chuck it in the bin, it’s highly likely that it may never biodegrade! Leaves can biodegrade in weeks, sticks in months, paper in three to five months. See my point? It’s turning something that’s good for the environment into something that’s bad for the environment.
- If you’re using laminated nature for play it’s limiting the sensory component of the activity. Children no longer get to feel the varied textures on nature; they’ll only feel a piece of smooth plastic. Don’t they touch enough plastic already?!
- Usually when you include nature in any activity, you’re encouraging children to discover, explore and connect with nature. You want children to be thinking about taking actions that are in the interests of protecting the natural world. Laminating nature sends the wrong message.
- Finally, wouldn’t you agree that nature looks prettier without being encased in plastic?
It lasts longer, I get it, but there are plenty of ways to preserve nature that’s more environmentally friendly.
Or, just go outside and grab new natural materials each time.
Instead of laminating nature, preserve it naturally
- Press them. It may be old-fashioned but pressing your flowers and leaves makes them last a lot longer and they still look lovely.
- Dry them. Hang them up in a dark, dry place and in only a matter of days they are ready to be used.
- Cover them in bees wax. Buy some bees wax, melt it under a flame and then, with a paint brush, lightly paint it on the leaves.
You rarely need to preserve nature for children to play with it or use it in crafts. Take a look at these nature crafts, there are plenty of examples of nature crafts that are not laminated.
Help save both the environment (and my sanity!), please reconsider laminating nature. It’s only a small change but every little bit helps!
The fact that people even own a ‘home laminator’ is just a little bit ridiculous. x
It really is Bron. We don’t need everything covered in plastic for us to use it. It’s crazy!
You know I’ve never really thought about this… but now that you mention it, it does seem a bit silly to go and collect gorgeous leaves and then sandwich them between plastic! LOL
I love my laminator for keeping printed materials more robust for longer, but even that can be over done I think.
I’m glad I made you think about it Kate. Instead of laminating worksheets, I stick my printableS on the back of recycled cardboard. It works perfectly fine and lasts for ages that way!
I’m a primary school teacher and do have my own laminator, but these days I’m a but more discerning about what I laminate. I have never laminated nature! That just seems a bit strange to me.
It’s strange to me too Kylie. I can’t imagine anything worse than having plastic covered nature around my house. Oh gosh, I’d go mad!
Thanks for bringing this up. It really does remove the opportunity for intimate connections and discoveries and seems to negate teaching others to respect and care for nature. It is definitely worth reconsidering!
Yes, kids touch enough plastic already. I support bringing green inside the home and have kids feel the “real” thing.
Thanks Jossette, exactly! 🙂
I’m all for letting nature stay nature-y! Thanks for sharing your pet peeve with us, I’ve never really thought about it.
And an idea for laminating – if we want a paper to be a little more robust, we will slip it into a plastic page protector. Then when we are done with that specific lesson, the page comes out and goes into a folder for later. Then the page protector is ready to use again. I know it is still plastic but at least this way it gets reused.
Great tip, thanks Stephanie. I also use cardboard, usually recycled from a cereal packet, to strengthen the paper. Just glue it on. 🙂
Let’s get real, lamination is just more plastic. The same material we are supposed to be trying to keep out of our oceans.
Many of us claim to love animals or the natural world and yet we spend most of our time doing as much damage to it as possible. Laminations is an abuse on nature, it completely goes against “saving the planet” or being more mindful of our surroundings.
One school I worked in complained how staff had used over £2,500 worth of lamination pockets in one term. That is crazy because the school only had 300 children and they were all special needs with no access to the stationery cupboard. The teachers laminate everything that stays still long enough. If it doesn’t breath then it is likely to be laminated. arrrghh!!! The finance department was only worried about the cost, not the planet so they made it that each class was given a quota.