The Feeding Family

Our Sunday Fun-Day posts feature fun, easy, food-related activities for you and your family to enjoy. These include ways to explore new food textures or flavors outside of the pressure of a "mealtime". We hope that this "food-play" will allow a new opportunity for your little ones to learn to love food.

This Sunday we continue our multi-week feature on ways to encourage food education and exploration at the grocery store. For picky eaters or children who are hesitant to try new foods, the grocery store can be a broad landscape of new experiences that may lead to new food choices at home. Other children with sensory aversions or sensitivities may have a harder time with the overwhelming sights, sounds, and smells at the grocery store. Think about situations that may be challenging for your child and modify these activities as needed. (For example, try "shopping" in your very own pantry or fridge as you are preparing for a meal)

Today's Grocery Adventure is great for children in the early elementary-school years or children who are learning about categories. The grocery store offers us endless options for food in a relatively organized fashion. Next time that you are shopping with your kids, point out the way that foods are grouped together. Challenge your little ones to describe the ways that the foods are similar or different. Here are a few examples.

Produce: Fruits and veggies are the primary foods found here. How are they grouped? Round foods together? Leafy foods together? Is there a section for produce that is from another part of the world?

Dairy: What kinds of foods make up the dairy section? Cheeses, yogurt, milk, and maybe a few other treats. Talk about why these foods all belong in the same category (made from milk, cold, etc.)

Canned Goods: This section takes a little more detective work. What kinds of foods come in a can? Look for pictures to find out! Are there some foods that are not in a can? Cucumbers? Bread? Berries?

Meats/Fish: It's always important to know where our foods come from. The best place to see these foods might be the butcher counter. What foods are red, pink, white, gray, or even black? What animals do they come from? Be careful, you might end up with some little vegetarians on your hands! 

Our Sunday Fun-Day posts feature fun, easy, food-related activities for you and your family to enjoy. These include ways to explore new food textures or flavors outside of the pressure of a "mealtime". We hope that this "food-play" will allow a new opportunity for your little ones to learn to love food.

This Sunday we are starting a multi-week feature on ways to encourage food education and exploration at the grocery store. For picky eaters or children who are hesitant to try new foods, the grocery store can be a broad landscape of new experiences that may lead to new food choices at home. Other children with sensory aversions or sensitivities may have a harder time with the overwhelming sights, sounds, and smells at the grocery store. Think about situations that may be challenging for your child and modify these activities as needed. (For example, try "shopping" in your very own pantry or fridge as you are preparing for a meal)

This week's adventure is a Grocery Shelf Scavenger Hunt. This activity teaches children about following directions, listening skills, letter/number/color recognition, and best of all about FOOD!

1. As you are shopping, challenge each child to find something on the shelf nearby. 
2. Give clues like, "find a food in a blue box" or "find a food that is round".
3. Teach your child to ask questions if they are having trouble, for example: "Bobby, you look like you are having a hard time finding that food, I wonder if you could ask a question to get another clue?"
4. Always give your child praise when they bring back a food item. This activity is not meant to have a "winner", only to engage children in the process of selecting and purchasing food that will later be prepared and eaten.

Children respond well when they are given choices in many day-to-day activities. This includes eating and mealtimes. Giving a child choices when they are grocery shopping gives them a small amount of control over their mealtime experiences later. It can also help children feel more comfortable trying new things if they are exposed to new foods in a "non-mealtime" environment like grocery shopping. 

When preparing new foods at home or when serving a meal, talk about how your child helped you shop. This will help to associate that new food with feelings of pride and success. Encourage children to explore the new foods, even if they are not quite ready to taste them.

Our Sunday Fun-Day posts feature fun, easy, food-related activities for you and your family to enjoy. These include ways to explore new food textures or flavors outside of the pressure of a "mealtime". We hope that this "food-play" will allow a new opportunity for your little ones to learn to love food.

Easter is a time to appreciate new life and new beginnings, so what better than a seedling project? Planting a garden is a wonderful way to teach your children about food and where it comes from. This Easter Veggie Garden project will help you start your seedlings indoors and then replant them outdoors.

Materials:
Cardboard egg carton
Potting soil
Various vegetable seeds from a garden store
Water
Spoons to scoop soil

1. Cut the egg carton in half, separating the top from the bottom. Set the lid aside. It will be used as a “base” for your seedling garden later.
2. Saturate the bottom half of the egg carton with water and allow excess water to drain.
3. With a pencil or screwdriver, punch holes in the bottom of each egg “cup” to allow water to drain through.
4. Fill each cup with loosely packed potting soil and sprinkle with water to make soil damp.
5. Poke a finger into the center of the soil and place 2-3 seeds in each cup. Cover the seeds loosely with soil.
6. Place the planted seedling tray into the egg carton lid to provide a dry base for your garden.
7. Place the seeds in a warm, partially sunny spot. Make sure that the soil remains damp but not soaking.

Over the next few weeks, watch for green shoots to appear! With older children, you can discuss the way that plants use the sun for energy, just like we use food for energy to help us grow. Once sprouts appear and begin to grow larger, cut apart the individual egg “cups” and plant into an outdoor garden or larger planter. Follow the instructions on the seed packets for specific sun and water recommendations (they will vary based on the types of seeds). Hopefully you will grow some delicious veggies to enjoy!

Today’s Sunday Fun-Day post is a little late, so let’s call it Monday Fun-Day! Given this cold, slushy spring morning, we certainly need a little fun. Today’s activity is Hot Dog Art, an homage to spring and America’s favorite pastime. Being a native of Boston and a transplant to Chicago, I love my Fenway Franks and Chicago-Style Dogs. What really make a hotdog great are the bright and flavorful condiments; red ketchup (unless you are at Wrigley), yellow mustard, and electric green relish. These condiments are great for exploring new flavors, smells, textures, and colors.

For this activity you will need:

1 large sheet of butcher paper to cover the table and create your art
Small ramekin cups for different condiments
1 hotdog per child for “painting”
Sliced hotdog “rounds” for stamping
A variety of condiments to use as “paint”

Some other examples of “paints” might be BBQ sauce, mayonnaise, or even jelly. Spread the paper over the table and hand out the hotdogs to each child. Encourage exploration of colors and textures of each of the “paints”. Let their creativity run wild!

For children with sensory aversions or who have difficulty getting messy, offer paintbrushes instead of hotdogs to spread the condiments. Other options include offering rubber gloves to wear while painting.

Our Sunday Fun-Day posts feature fun, easy, food-related activities for you and your family to enjoy. These include ways to explore new food textures or flavors outside of the pressure of a "mealtime". We hope that this "food-play" will allow a new opportunity for your little ones to learn to love food.

This week’s Sunday Fun-Day activity can actually be completed over several days to a week. For the An Apple a Day activity, you will need one apple per day of the activity or per experiment. These experiments may be completed in any order and even with other foods if you wish. The purpose of the activity is to take one food and manipulate it in many ways, showing your child how the food changes with each preparation, while maintaining some of the same properties.

Day One - Here Comes the Sun: Slice open the apple into 4-6 pieces. Observe the seeds, stem, leaves, and any other parts of the fruit (see last week’s seed activity). Talk about what color the fruit is on the outside versus the inside. Place the slices on a cookie sheet or in a pie pan. Leave the pan on a sunny windowsill and check each day to see how the food changes in the sun and warmth.

Day Two - Start Your Engines: Chop the apple into 1 cm chunks and place into a blender or food processor. Add water or juice if necessary and blend. What happens with the skin on versus no skin? How is the apple the same and different?

Day Three - Does it Float?: This activity is a good one to incorporate several foods. Fill a bucket or soup pot with about 6-10 inches of water. Choose a variety of whole fruits or veggies and try to guess which ones will float and which will sink. This makes a great, simple science fair project as well.

Day Four - Chips and Dip: Slice the apple into thin “chips” and arrange on a non-stick cookie sheet. Bake on a low temperature in the oven until browned and somewhat crisp. Let the chips cool on a wire rack until they are able to be handled. Offer both raw and baked chips and compare the similarities and differences between the two. Store the chips in a sealed plastic bag to keep fresh for a few days.

How was your Apple a Day experience? Did your kids show you something new? Did you create any new activities? Please share in the comments section for our other readers! Happy exploring!

Our Sunday Fun-Day posts feature fun, easy, food-related activities for you and your family to enjoy. These include ways to explore new food textures or flavors outside of the pressure of a "mealtime". We hope that this "food-play" will allow a new opportunity for your little ones to learn to love food.

This week's Sunday Fun-Day activity is all about food exploration with a little dash of science. For those of you with kiddos home on spring break, Springtime Seeds is a great way to keep those minds active.

Springtime is a great time to take a walk outside with your young explorers. Animals are easily spotted in tree branches which are still bare, new shoots are starting to push up through the dirt, and the afternoon sun is starting to get just a little bit warmer. Start this activity with a walk around your neighborhood or even at a nearby park. Talk about how the plants begin to grow taller and stronger with the help of the sun and rain. Look for buds on trees and the beginnings of spring flowers. 

Afterwards, head home for some hands-on exploration. Choose 3 or 4 fruits, vegetables, or legumes with seeds. Some good examples with different types of seeds are:

• Apples
• Kiwi
• Peas
• Peaches
• Cucumber
• Oranges
• Squash

Lay the whole fruits and veggies out on the table. It might be useful to put down a plastic tablecloth or some newspaper if you are worried about mess. Let your kids explore the food. What do they think the seed will look like? What size or color will they be? Will there be many seeds or just one? Cut each food open and talk about what you see. Is the food a different color on the inside than it is on the outside? Was the food hard or soft? Many fruits and veggies can be easily cut with lettuce knives, which are safe for younger children to use when cutting.

Tasting of the fruits or veggies makes a great end to this activity. A fruit salad or stir fry of vegetables might be on that night's dinner menu!

Our Sunday Fun-Day posts feature fun, easy, food-related activities for you and your family to enjoy. These include ways to explore new food textures or flavors outside of the pressure of a "mealtime". We hope that this "food-play" will allow a new opportunity for your little ones to learn to love food.

This week's activity is Oobleck, a well-known messy-fun activity that is wonderfully easy to set up. To make Oobleck, you only need two ingredients: corn starch and water. Mix the two together in equal amounts to create a weird and fun mixture that firms up solid when manipulated, but "melts" back into a liquid when held in a warm hand or simply left on the table.

Here are a few new ideas to make Oobleck a great learning experience about smells, colors, and textures:

What's that smell?: Instead of water, mix your cornstarch with fruit or vegetable juice, vinegar, or even chocolate milk. This will add a subtle scent and color to your Oobleck. Have fun guessing what each one smells like.

Tie-Dye Oobleck: Once the water and cornstarch are mixed, drizzle food dyes over your Oobleck. See what happens when the dyes are mixed or swirled. Talk about the colors and how they change to build vocabulary.

Buried Treasure: Hide 3-4 small beans, nuts, raisins or another small hard food in the Oobleck mixture. Encourage your child to help you find the "buried treasure" within the mess. This will help build texture awareness and fine-motor skills. Don't use this activity with smaller children who might put the bean or nut in their mouth. It could be a choking hazard!

While Oobleck is completely edible and non-toxic, this is not an activity to focus on eating. This activity is meant to encourage your child to explore a new food-like item through the senses of sight, touch, smell, and even sound! All of these experiences can help your child feel more comfortable about food with these same sensory properties. Have fun!

Ah, Sunday afternoons... it's the end of the weekend. One last chance to relax and have fun before the work-week or school-week starts again on Monday. This Sunday is the start of another new feature at The Feeding Family - Sunday Fun-Days! (See our other new feature on Wednesdays - Hump-Day Treats)

Our Sunday Fun-Day posts feature fun, easy, food-related activities for you and your family to enjoy. These include ways to explore new food textures or flavors outside of the pressure of a "mealtime". We hope that this "food-play" will allow a new opportunity for your little ones to learn to love food.

Grilled Cheese Puzzles
Today's Sunday Fun-Day activity is one that I'm borrowing from my own childhood. My mother is a teacher and therefore a super-creative mom! She used to make this for my sister and I, and we always had fun with it.

1. Explore ingredients: Offer 1-2 kinds of bread and cheese. Try English muffins, dark rye, or cinnamon-raisin breads for something different. If your child is easily overwhelmed by many different choices, only offer a few options that aren't too radical. You can offer new items gradually when you repeat this activity in the future. Allow each child to touch, smell, and taste the different ingredients if they want. Talk about what is the same and different about each one. This is a great way to build language skills by talking about color, size, texture, temperature, and smell.

2. Build your sandwiches: Each child (or adult!) can choose their ingredients and build their sandwich. An adult should take each sandwich to the stove or table-top sandwich maker for cooking. Talk about how the sandwich changes when you cook it (bread turns darker, gets warm, cheese melts, etc.)

3. Puzzle time! This was always my favorite part! Instead of cutting the sandwich into regular halves or triangles, an adult should cut the sandwiches into a "puzzle". Place the puzzle pieces on a plate for each child. Now have fun putting the pieces back together!