Friday, March 14

Craft project and eating your vegetables

So, it's a struggle for all moms to get their kids to eat their veggies, right? I don't have the answers, but do have a fun idea to encourage creativity and encourage eating the good stuff.
We often add "sprinkles" to our kids' foods and allow them to do the sprinkling themselves. This is sometimes just what they need to finish off their broccoli, sweet potatoes, yogurt, or what have you. Sometimes, though, our sprinkles are purchased in bulk-sized containers and, therefore, aren't easy for little arms to control. So, I filled small spice bottles with some favorite sprinkles and let the kids decorate new labels and rename the contents. Now they can easily sprinkle their own shark bites and moon pebbles on their cucumbers and chicken.

If you'd like to try this, here are some basic instructions and suggestions:

Sprinkles: wheat germ (one of our favorites for yogurt, applesauce, oatmeal, etc. Keep in mind this needs to be refrigerated.), sesame seeds, poppy seeds, flax seeds, sugar, salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg.

Take out some old, emptied spice bottles. Wash and dry thoroughly.
Peel off and measure the label (or use your sewing tape measure to wrap and measure).
Draw measured rectangles on paper.
Show your kids the new bottle contents and encourage them to come up with creative new names.
Have kids draw/color the measured rectangles.
Label them.
Cut out and tape or glue onto spice bottles. (I used a super sticky double-sided tape).

Tip: I drew very light shape outlines on our paper. Often, the best bits of the kids' drawings end up outside the lines (or they draw their own lines), so this way I could shift my cut-lines without having a dark outline showing through the drawing. Here's an example of one of our coloring pages before I cut the labels out.

P.S. Hello to everyone from Ohdeedoh, Craftzine, Mom Advice, sk*rt, and Parent Hacks. Thanks for visiting!

21 comments:

Grandma G said...

What a fun idea!

The Jerrolds Family said...

This is a great idea! I can't wait to do this with Emma!

Kelly Curtis said...

This is a great idea - it would be a great inclusion for Pass the Torch Tuesday. Awesome

painted fish studio said...

i found your post via craftzine.com, and must say, i love the idea! i don't have kids yet, but i may just do it for myself! :)

hodge podge said...

brilliant! i am sending your post to all the moms i know, and (like painted fish) i might just make them for myself too!

Anonymous said...

Love it! My son loves to sprinkle salt on his food. Which I, of course, am always trying to curtail. Using something like wheat germ with a fun name and label is genius. Thanks!

pomly said...

Cute! We will definitely do this! In our house we call grated parmesan or romano "snow cheese." Pretty much any vegetable tastes good with SNOW on it! Now I've got shark bites and more to add to the repertoire!

Unknown said...

I love this idea. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

AWESOME idea. Making a mental note to try this ...

Anonymous said...

Genius! Super smart and creative-makes me wish my little guy was old enough to eat more than mashed bananas!

Starla said...

that is the cutest idea!! i don't have kids and i would STILL do this! hehe

Chrissy said...

That's adorable! Who wouldn't want a little fairy dust on their spinach? Thanks for the great idea!

Jennifer said...

Wow- what fantastic idea! :)

The Confetti Monster said...

I absolutely love this! I don't have any kids (yet) but I want to do this asap! :)

Mama Ruck said...

Great Idea! I shared it with the local moms club.

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