Who says it's not easy being green? You can help make your home (and the world outside of it) a better place to live by following some simple, earth-friendly tips.

Just go to

www.timeforkids.com/
TFK/ecohouse/
index.html

and click on items in each room to see how they can help YOU save the Earth without leaving home! Then write down in English or Swedish what you learned from that!

But don't stop there! Be a class act and check out below on how you can make your school more enviro-friendly:

Seven Steps to Making YOUR School Energy Efficient (courtesy of the Alliance to Save Energy (ASE)

1. Turn off the lights. Since lighting makes up 50 percent of the electric bill in most schools, this simple step can really pay off. Turn off the lights even if you're out of the room for a minute or more.

2. Turn off computer monitors. Monitors account for 80 percent of the energy used by a computer.

3. Ask your teacher who you and your class can work with to come up with a good temperature-control strategy for your classroom. (Opening windows to cool down an overheated room isn't the best way to control temperatures.) Your strategy should provide just the right amount of heat or cooled air to your classroom. When everyone works together, the building heating and cooling system will work more efficiently.

4. Avoid wasting water. Use a timer to see how much water is wasted when you leave the faucet running while washing your hands. Scary, eh?

5. Recycle. There's no better way you can keep track of how usage of products and packaging affects the environment.

6. Involve your entire school community. One person or even one class may not make a big difference in your school's energy usage. But simple, day-to-day, energy-efficient practices do add up to REAL savings, meaning thousands of extra dollars for most schools. To make the most out of these dollars, why not . . .

7. Find out how your school can invest its energy savings back into its own classrooms? Get your school district to donate a portion of the money saved from its energy bill for use in buying books, computers, science equipment and anything else students need. Its a win-win situation!

For more information, visit www.ase.org/greenschools.