The real pictures are tomorrow but I had to share the outfit our kindergartener said he wanted to wear. (Yes, I vetoed it.)
School Pictures 2013
Reply
Category Archives: Life
Cooking, Nutrition & Getting Kids to Eat Healthy
We’ve been asked several times recently how we get our kids to eat salads. It was not easy! But it’s now been a couple years and our kids will consistently (all six!) eat salads, ask for salads, & make their own salad creations. They get quite elaborate!
We went meat-free five years ago (and I went vegan, as I was nursing a dairy & egg allergic baby.) We knew that it would be crucial for our kids to have a diverse diet if we were going vegetarian. It took some menu shifting and some adjustment on all our parts but I went from frustrated meal time battles to being THRILLED at how fantastic our kids are with eating a variety of foods. If we could do it (there use to be tears at least weekly at our dinner table) then I know you can, too!
First, get your kids involved in the kitchen. Even our two year old helps put away dishes. Though you will need to supervise closely – our helpful little ones also put the groceries away, including the lettuce in the cupboard. And lower your standards – they won’t mop as well as you, and doing dishes will involve way too much soap, bubbles, splashing, and potential floor flooding. But they are enthusiastic at a young age to help so maximize on that excitement before they get older and decide chores are no fun!
Second, get your kids involved in shopping and meal planning! Let them pick the menu one day (anything goes, but it must have at least three food groups.) Have them write up the shopping list for that meal, take them along to look at prices and brands and talk about marketing and shopping the perimeter of the store. There are so many lessons for life in cooking and menu planning and shopping: nutrition, healthy foods vs. “sometimes” foods, budgeting, etc.
Third, get your kids involved in cooking. Buy some kid sized utensils, bowls, even knives. While you may hover anxiously and bite your tongue a lot, little ones CAN cook and be taught safety skills. Also get kid sized clean up – aprons, broom & dustpan, etc.
All of those things combined increases the chances that when those healthy and beautiful foods make it to your dining table your children are going to be excited to try what THEY helped plan, shop for, and create. (Gardening is a whole other fun level of involvement for another post!)
Our deal was when introducing salads we did it almost EVERY night. We picked kid friendly and colorful foods, spread them all out (after the kids helped wash and prep them) and told the kids go at it! By allowing them to explore the foods with no pressure they were able to try (and sometimes reject) the foods. But after awhile they sometimes tried again – and again, and again. And previously rejected foods became favorites! Our most “selective” (we try to not use labels like “picky”) eater just this morning asked if we could go buy some asparagus for dinner! Our six year old asks for artichokes and olives, our two year old asks for her favorite lettuce, our eight year old routinely asks after dinner if he can have another salad! Believe me, I would NEVER have imagined this was possible! It feels HUGE!
Some kid friendly menu ideas:
– baby spinach (they dip it in salad dressing)
– butter leaf lettuce
– romaine (they make salad “boats”)
– sweet peppers: red, yellow, orange, green
– carrots: waffle, grated, baby, etc
– cucumbers (our kids love them salted, peppered, with parmesan cheese)
– tomatoes: cherry, grape, or roma are great for kids
– sunflower seeds (ours prefer honey roasted, of course!)
– croutons
– craisins or raisins
– chopped boiled egg
– chunks of cheese
– sugar snap peas
– slivered almonds
– candied pecans
– diced apples
– salad dressings: honey mustard, ranch, balsamic vinaigrette, and cesar are our kids’ favorites
I hope that helps get you excited about trying salads and getting your kids involved in the kitchen!
Spelling Girl
I’m giving the big kids their spelling word and Miss O is laying on the table writing her “words” and saying “Next!” when she wants a new one. 🙂
Little Chef
Our little chef has become quite excited about her restaurant, menu, and new cooking skills. I am all for it as we are her math, writing, science, cooking, and marketing all at play! 🙂 She already has plans to open another location when visiting the grandparents.
Another TED Talk from Ken
Books We Love
We’re sorting through our shelves today and after some recent talks with friends I wanted to post a photo of some of the books I especially love to talk with kids about a variety of topics – cultural and religious differences, race & ethnicity, gender, strong women role models, etc. I’m not linking to all of them because there are lots. 🙂 But these are some I enjoyed enough to own (and collected a lot through the library used book store and Paperback Swap.)
Some of these were birthday gifts for the kids from us, friends and family as well. Oh, and Scholastic book sales!
Obviously there’s some overlap, there are religious books about strong women (Miriam’s Cup) and a book with a female heroine but it’s about segregation in the south so I’m just lumping them all together into wonderful books for your family library. I left out some books like our biographies book that has a really good split of female and male figures, but these were just the ones that jumped out at me as coming from lists we liked for cultural and gender teaching to kids.
What books would you suggest?
(Oh, Olivia & The Fairy Princesses is included because she goes through strong female role models she could be and different careers she could pursue and ends with deciding even better than a princess is the queen – because she rules. 🙂 )
Sunroom Lessons
This is where we spend our days when doing lessons, with the kids spilling into the yard when they are between lessons or I am distracted. The two year old naps though the noise – I think she naps better with noise, quiet seems to confuse her. 🙂
I was on top of the fort to get this view.
Great Books on Food
Confessions & Updates
I’ve not been good about posting, in large part because I’ve not been good about giving homeschooling the focus it deserves. I told myself after a VERY busy fall with work that I was going to only take 1 doula/photo client a month and limit my work shifts at the birth center and teaching childbirth classes. That didn’t go quite as planned. 🙂 I am doing better about setting work limits, but there are so many different roles I’m in right now that I’m not giving homeschooling the attention it deserves. We’re doing the bare minimum, and I’m striving to repent!
C: He’s in the transition to scholar stage, which means we’ve given him a calendar and he’s responsible for a lot more of setting his own schedule and determining what he’ll work on. He’s completed the SWR (Spell to Write & Read) program entirely – his spelling is fantastic. He’s a voracious reader, his handwriting needs a bit of help (but he is only 11, I don’t think a lot of young boys have great handwriting.) He’s in Saxon 87 math and will start a pre-algebra type book next… Saxon 1/2 I think? He writes a blog post each week, has memorized most of the Articles of Faith, and is loving Story of the World 4. My only concerns with his academics are writing – I need to really focus on the Institute for Excellence in Writing materials with him. I want to also be better about his piano lessons but otherwise I feel great about the direction he’s going.
He’s also a lot more independent and able to ride his bike to friends’ homes, which is nice for him to have more quiet play dates without being the oldest of six kids. 🙂
M: She’s looking more like she has some auditory processing issues so we’re looking into that. She’s doing great in Saxon 3 and is almost done, then will start Saxon 54 (no more workbooks, just text.) She’s loving Activity Days, and did a ballet class on Saturdays this last month that we’ll probably continue after my trip to see my sister. I’ve also gotten her a massage from Amber (my massage therapist) which I think did great things for helping her muscles relax. She’s been begging to go back ever since! My concern with Mo is her reading and spelling, so we’re going to spend some focused time on that having her read aloud and doing more creative writing with penpals.
B: He’s in Saxon 2 and really growing in leaps. His reading has taken off, he read the entire Percy Jackson series and is now racing through Harry Potter. His handwriting has dramatically improved this last semester (after a year of me thinking he would have to become a physician because of their stereotypically horrid and illegible handwriting.) My biggest concern with him working on his writing – both the handwriting AND the creative writing aspect. We’re also talking with a private VI instructor to get more ideas for helping him visually.
E: She’s in Saxon 1 and also a crazy reader these days. My focus with her is handwriting and writing as well, as her vocabulary and desire to write surpass her spelling and writing skills. 🙂
J: I want to start working more on his ABCs (writing them out, he can do them but not always neatly) and he’s been doing some math worksheets from a pre-K workbook.
SO, in a nutshell:
C: writing (IEW)
M: spelling, writing
B: handwriting, writing
E: handwriting, writing
J: ABCs
I’m noticing a writing theme! 🙂 They are great about doing their math, history, art, spelling, and literature. We need to be better about writing, handwriting, music, and science.
Two Books You Should Read
I am really loving both of these and it’s launched a lot of great discussions between Kit and me and with our kids. The daughter book is also applicable to boys, and has a special section for dads (though ideally they can read the whole book, not just the moms!)