09 July 2007

Snack Attack!

About a month ago I had this fantabulous idea about how to encourage my kids to eat more healthy snacks. One day I had given the kids a granola bar for their morning snack, and Frugalgirl1 (who is turning 7 today! Happy Birthday!) had the gall to ask me "How many granola bars can we have?"

I had always limited things like that to one per day anyway, but I had a brainstorm that I finally put into practice today. I'll report back on the progress.

I've divided up snack foods into 3 categories--green, yellow, and red. Green snacks are unlimited. At snack time, they can choose any green snack. Green snacks are fruits and veggies. Now, some people may disagree with my choice, but I have also included cheese and bread in the green snack category. The bread can't be covered in jam or honey; it has to be plain or with butter.

Yellow snacks have to be purchased with a yellow snack ticket. I have alloted the kids 3 yellow snack tickets per day. I handed out a week's worth. I am encouraging them to limit their yellow snacks to 3 per day so they will still have yellow tickets at the end of the week. Yellow snacks include almost everything. Granola bars, crackers, popsicles, muffins, etc. They are generally healthy foods but not the best choice.

Red snacks are the things I don't want them to have every day, like candy, marshmallows, cupcakes, etc. I have given them 3 red tickets for the whole week.

Maybe I should have given out fewer yellow tickets to begin with, but I am kind of hoping they learn to eat fruits and veggies instead of crackers.

on to other random topics...

haying time

We had the hay cut, baled, and sold in a period of 4 days.

HPIM1277

This picture was also taken on July 3 and this morning I picked the first zucchini. There will be more in a day or two. Let the grilling of vegetables begin! I can't even wait!

3 comments:

QueenMeadow said...

Happy Birthday FrugalGirl1!!

I am intrigued by your snack idea, you must report back!

Lena said...

My girls would eat the healthy but Robert would just give up snacks altogether. That boy frustrates me when it comes to eating!

Heidi said...

hmmmmm... might have to give the snack idea a try...