Activities Families Can Do with Children

Activities Families Can Do with Children Choosemyplate.gov offers some fun ideas for families to teach their children about healthy eating and engage the whole family in making healthy choices. Some of these include:

 Food critic game where children select a new food to try and rate it on visual appeal, smell, taste, and texture52

 Grocery store bingo where children identify foods they see in the grocery store to try to get a 5 in a row bingo53

 Make food visually appealing by turning it into art

 Kid’s Restaurant: Kids get to plan out the meal, design the menu, and prepare the dish

 Growing a garden (or starting small with an herb box in a window)

 Going to a local farmer’s market or farm stand to find local food options to buy, take home, and turn into a delicious meal.

Making Mealtimes Fun Here are some tips for families for making mealtimes more relaxed and enjoyable:

 Remove distractions, such as phones, tablets, and turn off the television.

 Have conversations. Use starters like: o Give each family member the spotlight to share their highlight,

lowlight, and “funnylight” o If our family lived in a zoo, what animals would we be and why? o If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why? o If you were stranded on a desert island and could only have one

food to eat, what would it be and why?

o Pass on traditions, both the foods and the stories behind them

 Let the children make the choices (from a healthy selection of foods)

 Let everyone help prepare and clean up after meals

 Consider a change of scenery, like a picnic

 Reserve a special plate to rotate between family members, for example on birthdays, when someone gets a good grade, or any other occasion you’d like to recognize.