I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas!

This next project was entirely for educational purposes. I have been thinking a lot about the nutrition of my children recently, so I thought I would spend some time teaching Rebecca about the food pyramid and the different food groups. If she had her way she would eat peanut butter crackers and pasta for every meal, and while she likes plenty of other foods as well, these are what she requests when given an open-ended meal choice.

To start us off I went to www.mypyramid.gov and printed off a personalized food pyramid for Rebecca which laid out how many ounces/cups of each food group a preschooler her age is to eat in one day. Next we flipped through magazines and cut out pictures of food to match and glue on each respective food group. Now Rebecca loves to use glue sticks. Unfortunately she loves them so much that they don't last very long before all of the glue has been used up and we find ourselves opening the packaging of a new stick.

Finally we made up a chart to keep track of her daily food habits, which she fills in after each meal. I thought that by showing her what the requirements are and how well (or not) she fulfills those requirements it would give her (and me) a better idea of what kind of food choices to make throughout the day. The next couple of photos are what we came up with. The chart is a sample chart from yesterday that includes everything except for afternoon snack and dinner, which I am proud to say ended up completely filled in by the time those two meals had been consumed.

After three days of filling out charts I think Rebecca is a little weary of it, so I won't press it further, but her pyramid is posted on the side of the refrigerator as a constant reminder of balanced eating. Where was Elliot during all of this? I set her up at the little table with stamps and stickers, which she seemed completely content with. She is still too young for scissors, and with her fondness for chapstick I'd hate to see what she does with glue!