With school back in session, many of us have kids coming in the door at 3:30 absolutely “starving” after a busy day of learning and playing. While it’s easy to hand them a pre-made, packaged snack, there are much better, healthier, earth-friendly snacks that they will happily gobble down.
So, how do you get your kids to actually eat that healthy snack?
This first step is to get them involved. Kids, and most adults, are much more apt to get excited about something that they have some say in. Ask them what they want and have them help prepare it, whether it’s cleaning and chopping fresh fruits and veggies or mixing up homemade granola, if they help make it, chances are they will want to eat it, too.
Don’t go overboard. A snack is just that, a snack. It’s not a meal, it’s just a little something to give them a boost until dinner time. Giving too many choices is overwhelming and could also cause them to fill up on snacks and not be hungry when it’s time to sit down for the next meal. Also, finger food is the best snack food. Anything that kids can eat without utensils is way more likely to get eaten!
Make it interactive. Offer some different sliced up fruits or meat and cheese cubes that kids can put on a skewer to make their own kabobs. One of our favorite snacks at Eco Camp is Moose Lips. Each kid gets apple slices, raisins, a spoonful of peanut butter, and a butter knife. They then spread the peanut butter on an apple slice, top it with another apple slice, and stick raisins to the peanut butter that squishes out between the two. This one also makes for fun pictures!
Prep ahead of time. If you want your kids to eat those delicious fruits and veggies, have them all chopped up and ready to go so they don’t have to wait. Spend a little time on the weekend cutting up carrots and celery or slicing up a watermelon so that when your littles are hungry it’s quick and easy for them to grab that healthy snack. Some of that prep work can serve dual purposes, too. Another tried and true, and more substantial, Eco Camp snack is bagel faces. The kids are given half of a bagel spread with cream cheese, then they choose what they want from the assorted cut up veggies and arrange them on their bagel to make a face. All of the veggies you use for bagel faces make great salad additions, too!
Eat the rainbow. Kids love color! Offer a variety of fresh fruits and veggies and challenge your kiddos to eat at least one item from every color of the rainbow. Or, go the opposite and eat all foods of one color. Have them help pick out snack foods that are all red, like cherry tomatoes, strawberries, and watermelon. Or orange like carrots, cantaloupe, and cheese. Each day can be a different color!
Get creative! If you have the time and the interest, there are many ways to present snacks that will make them irresistible to kids! We’ve made rainbow fruit fish, Oscar the Grouch out of broccoli, and Elmo out of cherry tomatoes. If you need a little inspiration, a quick Google or Pinterest search will have your snack schedule set for the rest of the school year!
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