Snack update

After a week of my new snack program, here's my opinions.

Three yellow snack tickets per day is way too many. Some of the kids used them up exactly but some had some leftover. I did notice that they were much more aware of their snacking habits and it was easier to limit portion size (i.e., 2 graham crackers per ticket), they had enough yellow tickets that they never ate green snacks. After a trip to the grocery store on Thursday, there was a lot of fresh fruit so Frugalgirl1 often chose an apricot instead of something else, but for the most part, they didn't change their eating habits.

The number of red tickets that I handed out was perfect. I gave them each three for the whole week. We usually have what we call "candy bar Friday," where they get to have a candy bar in their lunch box or for an afternoon snack. I told them they had to pay for their candy bars, so they had to keep one red ticket in reserve for the whole week.

Tomorrow when I dole out the tickets, I am reducing the number of yellows by half. They'll each get 10 tickets to last until next Monday. They'll still get 3 red tickets. The hardest part for me will be keeping the green snacks appealing by having ripe fresh fruit, but in the summer that is a lot easier to do.