As a parent or a teacher, you are busy. You are swamped, to be honest. And then here comes the problem of getting your kids to eat healthy food and have a positive attitude about food in general. But fret not, because you can encourage children to have positive attitude about food at home or in the classroom.
As a teacher myself, I sometimes struggle to get my kids to like vegetables. We have school lunch but sometimes kids don’t even try new food. They just leave the food on their plate and skip their salads.
But what if I told you that integrating some things in your class or at home can impact their attitude towards food such as food education games? Playing such educational games can motivate the kids to like more food or even encourage them into the culinary business.
Ready to encourage your children to have a positive attitude towards food? Read along!
Here’s how you can encourage children to have positive attitude about food
This is a collaborative post
It starts with the adults
We, adults, are role models. Any negative attitude towards food or mealtime experience is passed on to the kids. We influence the children so much that when we leave food on our plate, it encourages them to not try that food as well.
Demonstrate better eating habits for them to follow and they should grow loving healthy food. Be a good role model and eat healthy food yourself!
Introduce Online Kids Food Games
The good thing about introducing online cooking games to kids is that it cultivates fun and curiosity about food. It gives the kids something new to do and most of all, it helps the picky eaters who would rather leave their vegetables become creative.
There are free resources available online such as Culinary Schools org that offer online cooking games. You’ll be surprised how many kids’ cooking games are available on the internet but if you think about it cooking is a big part of our lives.
Fitness Food Run is my favorite and the best game I recommend. I love how it encourages the players to only healthy food and avoid fatty food because the games depend on the player’s health. And I find it funny when the player eats jun food, it gets chubby and sluggish.
Also read: Benefits of playing games
Introduce new and fun ways to eat food
It’s time to get creative with recipes to introduce fun ways to eat fruit and vegetables. Designing and adding faces to their food is a great way to do this. Appearance is important to kids!
You can try a veggie dip to spice things up. Studies have shown that kids are more likely to eat their veggies with a dip. I don’t really understand why but it is worth the try.
Here are more recipes for picky eaters.
Involve the kids in shopping and cooking
Some kids embrace new food and try them but some kids don’t. If you happen to have the latter one, then you might want to involve them in shopping and cooking. It’s great if you can get the kids to go to the supermarket with you.
One thing you can teach them is grabbing vegetables. Talk to them about the vegetable available in the supermarket and give facts about them. I think this will instill curiosity and a positive attitude toward food.
Letting the kids help in the kitchen is also a big help. Let them watch you prepare meals and help cut the vegetables. As they get used to the kitchen, they’ll continue learning about food and increase their liking of healthy food.
Provide a comfortable atmosphere during meals
In Japan, tables manners are given importance. We say “Itadakimasu” before eating our meals and “Gochisousama” This shows appreciation and gratefulness for the food. It is also believed that eating together as a family is a symbol of shared life. I think this is a great way to promote a comfortable atmosphere at mealtimes. Also, allowing kids to talk and say what they like and dislike.
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OVER TO YOU
Encouraging children to have a more positive attitude towards food can be hard but these tips, it makes it easier. I especially love to introduce fun ways of eating their meals and playing food educational games. What do you think about playing online cooking games?
If you are a parent or a teacher and struggle to get the kids like food, you can borrow and test these tips and see what works for you.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the language I use around food and how it will effect my little one. We will be specific about us trying new foods and that we can also grow to like food we didn’t like before. I would not eat mushrooms as a kid. I didliked.the texture! and now I love them! We can keep trying things in different ways! My husband didn’t eat them either until recently. But he still dislikes tomatoes after eating them in every which way possible. So it’s ok to not like eating some things but he tried. And it’s been fun trying.. hopefully out son will find it fun trying foods too even if they end up not being to his pallet.
You’re 100% right about being a role model. I can remember as a kid when adults in my life would be on diets and that always seemed strange to me. So important that we need to model healthy behaviours around eating. One tip from my nannying days was to sprinkle cinnamon on apple slices — the kids LOVED it!
Yes, food and kids can be a struggle! My littlest one refuses most meat but eats lots of veggies and fruit! I try not to stress too much about it!
Yes, it does all start with the parents. If we set good examples then the kids will following believing that it is normal and what is done in their family.
Great tips. We also talk about the importance of being healthy and making good food choices with the kids by providing alternatives so that they know what we’re talking about.
These are very great ideas! I’m not a mom yet but soon to be. I hope to implement a lot of these tips.