If I am tired or in a hurry, snack time is usually Goldfish Crackers served in a bowl. But snack time is a great opportunity to add a little fun into the day. An easy way to change things up is to serve snack on a fun paper plate, such as the animal paper plates. You can also serve snack under the kitchen table or on a picnic blanket in the living room. Surprise your kids by serving a food at the wrong time of the day, such as cereal for an afternoon snack.
To get your kids to eat a healthy snack, try giving the food a fun name. My kids refused to eat apple slices until I called them “soldiers” and served them standing up on a plate. You can call broccoli florets “trees” and hard boiled eggs can be “eyeballs.”
If you have a few minutes, you can also serve the snack in a fun way. Make a face with the snack (grapes for eyeballs, crackers for the nose and pretzels for the mouth.) You can also create a “house” out of pretzel sticks and cube cheese. And of course kids are always thrilled by the old favorite of ants on a log (celery, peanut butter and raisins.)
What have you done to make snack time more interesting in your house?
I love the idea of having snack under the table!!! My kids would love that. When my children were younger I got tired of them constantly asking for junk snacks, so I created snack cards. I put a picture of one item (fruit, veggies, crackers, cheese, etc) on individual pieces of heavy paper. Each child had their own set of "cards", and each time they wanted a snack they chose from the cards to determine what kind of snack they'd be having. Once they had that food group for the day, then it wasn't repeated until the next day. The children loved seeing which card they would draw, and I knew they weren't always eating the same things all the time.
ReplyDeleteIt worked well for a long time.
Jennifer, That is a great idea! I love it. I am going to try that with my kids. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteMy kids are a bit old for snacking under the table, :( Okay, I'll stop whining about them growing up. I think this is a great tip and I will be passing it along to my sister I'm sure my 4 yr. old niece would be ecstatic to try this.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things my kids always loved was when I laid out a snackasborg - I would put different fruits, veggies, crackers and dips on the table (in small quantities, because no double-dipping was a hard concept to learn). Still at the table but the kids loved it.
Diane, Great idea on the small portion. The double-dipping issue has always been a problem in my house. But I thnk that they would love the snackasborg idea.
ReplyDeleteI really like this idea, the kids will think it's great. I'm going to try to convince my wife to serve a whole meal to all of us under the table.
ReplyDeleteEven though my 5-year-old son loves cucumbers, serving them the same 'ole way can get old. So I made cucumber chains. I cut out the inside and sliced the cucumber up into 1/2" pieces. Then I cut a slit in every other piece and connected the chain. Add some dressing and it's a fun cucumber salad.
ReplyDelete