With childhood obesity rates steadily increasing, it is important to help kids learn about good nutrition. Every calorie consumed counts towards your kids' health and performance in school and play. Your kids' willingness to eat healthy dinners makes your life easier too--meals no longer become a battle ground, and they are more likely to understand your no in the grocery store. Have fun and make nutrition lessons resonate with fun nutrition games.
At Home Games
Make nutrition fun by starting in the grocery store. Challenge your kids to choose one new fruit or vegetable a week to try. Keep track of their adventures on a chart and declare that they win when they reach certain number.
Play red light, yellow light, green light. Put out pictures of foods--ranging from healthy to junk--and when you say green light have them point to healthy choices like fresh veggies, fruits and whole grains. When you say yellow light, direct them to foods that should be eaten in moderation--such as ones higher in fat and sugar like hamburgers and granola bars. Red light refers to foods like candy, soda, cakes and chips that ought to be enjoyed only on special occasions.
Assign each day of the week a color and feature that color in each meal of the day. For example, make Monday green and serve kiwis over the morning cereal, bell peppers and cucumbers with low-fat ranch dip with lunch and pasta with pesto for dinner. Explain to your kids how these naturally colored foods enhance their health and make their bodies strong.
Online
Numerous nutrition games are available online. Operated by the National Dairy Council, Nutrition Explorations.org (see Resources) offers animated games and puzzles featuring monsters, dragons and families who need guidance in creating healthy meals. Another site founded by a nurse and boasting an advisory board of registered dietitians and clinical nurses called Nourish Interactive (see Resources) helps kids understand the USDA food pyramid. Games such as Food Coloring, Falling Food, Whack a Snack and Bon Appetite Arcade teach kids the importance of exercise and nutrition in their daily lives. Nutrition games featuring favorite characters like Dora the Explorer are available at Nickjr.com.
Crafts
Many websites provide printable coloring pages and crafts to help teach nutrition to kids in a fun way. Try the family-owned and operated site DLTK-kids.com (see Resources) to print out nutrition-themed bingo cards, books and coloring pages featuring all the food groups. Have your kids create a fruit salad collage with pictures they cut out of magazines or create fruit out of clay. Make a mobile from a wire hanger featuring each of the USDA six food groups: fruits, vegetables, meats and other proteins, breads and cereals, dairy and fats, oils and sweets. Nutrition games will assist you in instilling a life-long commitment to healthy eating.
Member Comments