When a preschooler breaks a rubber slipper at The Early School, it doesn't get thrown into the trash. Teacher Lisa Yamura cuts it up and and adds it to the soft-rubber clippings that carpet the playground.

Here and across the Islands, parents are making sure little ones are being coaxed down the green path while they're just still toddling. They know the earlier the head start, the more likely the message will go the distance.

When Early School director Frances Dote is asked about the eco-friendly habits her young charges have, she goes blank momentarily.

"It's so much a part of us, it's hard to pull out any one thing," she said, standing amid the playground that others might mistake for a keiki wonderland.

In one direction is the worm bin, where scraps of apple peels and other biomatter are being composted. In the other sits a play area bounded by recycled tires donated by Lex Brodie's — "not steel-belted," Dote is quick to add.

Across the way are the recycling cans, which parents help fill with their own castoffs. And in the neat cottage that houses the older children, there are signs that all of Jack Johnson's "three R's" (reduce, reuse and recycle) are being put into effect.

But school isn't the only place to preach the message, said Lisa Stewart, who brought her family to East Honolulu from their environmentally friendly home on the Big Island, where there was space to "cruise," as she puts it.

"I feared moving to big-city O'ahu," she said with a laugh. "I worried it would dissolve (her eco-resolve). It didn't."

She recalls her husband, Mike, taking their son, Anela, now 4, outside when he was just a week old.

"He'd stare at plants, brush his feet against the leaves, feeling different plants," she recalled.

Her daughter Kaimana, 7, loves to learn about bugs and tells her mother how "most are good and are good for the soil." Still an appreciator of nature, little brother Anela is a big fan of birds.

The family is raising chickens — "so we know where eggs come from," said mom Lisa — as well as cutting back on waste and eating organic as much as possible.

"It's all not just for environment, but for kids to embrace this lifestyle," she said. "If they start it now, it's something they'll cherish for their entire life. ... I see so many kids who are not connected to biology."

Her child attends Waldorf School in Niu Valley, where teacher Geri Ihara, who also chairs the early-childhood education department, said teaching keiki to be green is just as much a part of the curriculum as breathing.

"We do it the subconscious way," Ihara said, such as using cloth instead of paper napkins.

"If it's a part of life, the children will gravitate towards that. My adult son automatically grabs cloth napkins. When it's ingrained as a youth, they are better habits."

Many preschools today have worms. Waldorf does, too. The Early School's apple peeling from the day's first snack time sit destined for the worm bin, next to compost-bound coffee grounds.

Both schools also encourage reusable containers for lunches, and The Early School was recently honored for its efforts to have on-site lunches be more environmentally friendly. It's served family-style and students bring their own plates.

At Waldorf, Ihara even has a mother who asks that her child return plastic sandwich bags — a request she's delighted to grant.

"At this age, children learn from the adults around them," said Ihara.

At The Early School, it would be hard to unravel the string of green, all right: The deck is accented with recycled plastic edges; boxes are filled with donated playthings and the sand toys are recycled pots and pans.

It's adorable, too, to hear a tiny charge explain to a visitor, very seriously, how he wouldn't litter. Ever.

"You don't throw away recycling," said Cable Kronen, 5, careful to pronounce every syllable.

Pigtailed Sophie Bender, 4, adds her house has "all different trash cans outside. ... My mom puts the trash in them." But she couldn't think of what Dad did.

As playground time slipped into composting time, 3-year-old Luke Tobin jumped up, ready to "do water worms." (Translation: Composting worms are given fresh scraps as a water-brigade line moistens the bin.)

Asked where the worms might be, 3-year-old Matthew Loui eyed the questioner, who surely was a few CFLs short of full wattage.

"Underneath the food!" he said, as if the word "silly" was still stuck in his throat.