You Are What You Eat

School is out for the summer, and although the kids have plenty of activities to occupy their time, I'd hoped to squeeze in a few basic lessons before we began to homeschool in earnest. One of which is about nutrition, for one very sneaky reason that I'm hoping the kids will be able to prepare their own healthy (being the operative word) lunches once I'm in the throes of lesson planning. The other reason being that I know they are perfectly capable of doing so, and what better practice for making good eating choices, with a little guidance and preliminary supervision. Not to mention, we are pretty well-steeped in the Montessori philosophy, and they are both accustomed to and happy about doing things for themselves.

First, we read and discussed these two books I purchased from Amazon:



Next, they colored, cut, and pasted examples from the food groups onto these worksheets I copied from a science-themed cut-and-paste book (also purchased from Amazon):

Then, they labeled these sectioned plates I'd purchased from Target for this purpose, with the names of four of the major food groups (the "fats, oils, and sweets" group was omitted because they are "sometimes" foods), and sorted some more examples into them I'd asked them to color. I know the lesson stuck because they instantly recognized that the cookie (at bottom) didn't belong in their plates!

Finally, armed with knowledge, they giddily made their own lunches. The 4yo vascillated on his choices a bit -- healthy ones, such as peanut butter or turkey for protein (he set up his plate for one, but then put it back and took the other), but the 8yo found it easy. The only assistance I provided was helping to open packages when necessary.

It was a successful first run, and I hope it becomes routine as the year progresses. My older son asked to be allowed to cook his own dinner as well, which is certainly something to aspire to, but not really safe or practical at the moment, so we'll stick with lunches (and breakfasts) for now. I wanted to add that the Monster Book of Health had a section on reading food labels that we merely perused, but I intend to discuss more in-depth once the kids have had more practice putting together their lunches. I think we'll attempt an exercise in which the kids look over our pantry items and decide which, of several choices, is healthier, based on their labels. Also, which to avoid, based on their ingredients. I hope we don't have too many of those!