School has started. The MDO/Preschool has the meet and greet next week.
I am trying to get stuff together for my little packet of lunch information. I don't expect the mom's to make wonderful little bento for their 3 yr olds, although I did have two such creative mothers last year, but I would like to see more nutrition and less sugar. Have you ever looked at how much sugar is in a juice box? Also, some parents pack HUGE amounts of food for a 3 yr old.
I advocate small amounts of several good foods. Chances are their kids will eat more of the smaller portions of food.
I took a really good Brain Development class at the beginning of the Summer and the information blew me away. The biggie was that High Fructose Corn Syrup is in EVERYTHING and it is NOT good for Anyone's brain. If it says High Fructose it is bad for you. If it says hydrogenate, or partially hydrogenated on a package don't eat it. These trans fatty acids affect brain function, the nerves inthe brain don't function as they were designed to do.
I have a list of brain builders and brain drainers to give the parents. I also have an article from the local paper from last year and a list of interesting web sites. Like this one: http://www.foodfun4kids.com/
Where you can buy a deck of cards that the 4 suits are: FRUITS, VEGETABLES, GRAINS and PROTEINS. Each nutrition card is unique and has nutrition facts listed for fresh fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods that don’t have food labels.
The WholeFoods web site has a good kids section with ideas for snacks and lunches.
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/kids/. Just keep clicking on the links.
LapTop lunchbox has a good site about kids lunches too. http://www.laptoplunches.com/ideas.html#nutrition
Lap Top Lunch is an American Bento box. I don't have one, but I've been tempted.
Another cool American Bento type set up is http://www.lunchsense.com/home/lun/smartlist_7/buylunchboxes.html
I do have some Lock Lock boxes, some inexpensive 2 tier Hello Kitty bento boxes from the Dollar Tree and a Sigg bottle to carry my water. I put it all in a regular zippered insulated lunchbox. Usually the children can't wait to see what I have in my lunch, the Sigg bottle has odd creatures on it and everyone wants to look at it. I carry water to drink and pack healthy food for my lunch. The rule at school is growing food before treats. I love the mothers who don't pack sweet treats at all.
If you would like to see what some mom's send to school with their kids, yes people actually take pictures and post them on the internet, google bento. Or go to this site http://www.flickr.com/groups/kideats/
Not everyone packs healthy though.
Have fun looking!
Viki
Showing posts with label bento. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bento. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Lunchtime at the preschool/MDO
This year when I did my meet & greet to go over the handbook and introduce myself I talked about Lunch. Everyone was very receptive. Lucky for me there had been an article in the local paper 2 days earlier about lunch and nutrition for school.
Almost all of my little ones(think 3 yr old) bring great lunches. I only have a few picky eaters in my class this year.
One little boy brings a round sectioned dish with a fish shaped lid every day. His lunches make me drool. His first lunch was Shrimp and fruit. He rarely has a sandwich. One of my favorites of his was noodles with beef and shrimp, homemade fruit salad(kiwi,pear and nectarine) and cherry tomatoes with steamed asparagus. Never tons of food, but just enough for him. His mother is Korean and says he is a picky eater!
Another little boy brings leftovers usually too. He calls tortellini, noodles. Usually packed plain with cut up chicken breast. Always has almonds and usually cheese chunks. His mom does use plastic baggies, but interestingly his mother labels everything in marker. He'll say, "does this say cheese?" Also if you can dip it in Ketchup this child will eat it. He loves to dip.
I have another child who lives on bottled yogurt smoothie drinks. One who will only eat apples(but not the skin) and applesauce. One who eats the inside of the peanut butter sandwich before eating the bread and also likes hard boiled eggs and raw cut up vegetables.
When I did my spiel I talked about small portions of what their child would eat. Not to pack an apple that was so big the child couldn't take a bite out of it. I told them about a mother I know that used to take an ice cube tray and fill each section with good food. When her child wanted to snack Mom would take the tray out of the fridge and the kid could eat Anything in the tray. By the end of the day she would have eaten lots of good growing food.
The regulations say that each lunch should have a protein, fruit and veg and milk and bread. It doesn't take in to account that some kids are allergic to milk. I told them this was a guideline, that I doubted that the lunch police were going to come knocking so to think outside the box.
Crackers and noodles instead of bread. Cheese or yogurt instead of milk. I asked them to cut up the fruit so their children would actually eat it.
The mom's have come through spectacularly! Makes me proud.
I of course do my part and bring a good lunch in one of my bento boxes. We have conversations at the lunch table about growing food and what we like to eat. If I have carrots everyone with carrots tells me they have carrots too. Lunch is fun in my class and that's the way I like it.
Viki
Almost all of my little ones(think 3 yr old) bring great lunches. I only have a few picky eaters in my class this year.
One little boy brings a round sectioned dish with a fish shaped lid every day. His lunches make me drool. His first lunch was Shrimp and fruit. He rarely has a sandwich. One of my favorites of his was noodles with beef and shrimp, homemade fruit salad(kiwi,pear and nectarine) and cherry tomatoes with steamed asparagus. Never tons of food, but just enough for him. His mother is Korean and says he is a picky eater!
Another little boy brings leftovers usually too. He calls tortellini, noodles. Usually packed plain with cut up chicken breast. Always has almonds and usually cheese chunks. His mom does use plastic baggies, but interestingly his mother labels everything in marker. He'll say, "does this say cheese?" Also if you can dip it in Ketchup this child will eat it. He loves to dip.
I have another child who lives on bottled yogurt smoothie drinks. One who will only eat apples(but not the skin) and applesauce. One who eats the inside of the peanut butter sandwich before eating the bread and also likes hard boiled eggs and raw cut up vegetables.
When I did my spiel I talked about small portions of what their child would eat. Not to pack an apple that was so big the child couldn't take a bite out of it. I told them about a mother I know that used to take an ice cube tray and fill each section with good food. When her child wanted to snack Mom would take the tray out of the fridge and the kid could eat Anything in the tray. By the end of the day she would have eaten lots of good growing food.
The regulations say that each lunch should have a protein, fruit and veg and milk and bread. It doesn't take in to account that some kids are allergic to milk. I told them this was a guideline, that I doubted that the lunch police were going to come knocking so to think outside the box.
Crackers and noodles instead of bread. Cheese or yogurt instead of milk. I asked them to cut up the fruit so their children would actually eat it.
The mom's have come through spectacularly! Makes me proud.
I of course do my part and bring a good lunch in one of my bento boxes. We have conversations at the lunch table about growing food and what we like to eat. If I have carrots everyone with carrots tells me they have carrots too. Lunch is fun in my class and that's the way I like it.
Viki
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