Kids and Breakfast
If I told you your child could increase their brain power by 3% by drinking 8 glasses of water a day, do you think you could work at making it happen? If I told you your child could increase their IQ scores by 10 points by eating four prunes per day, would it motivate you to encourage your kids to eat them? If I suggested that by doing a combination of simple things your child could improve his academic performance would you want to hear more? I know my curiosity would be piqued! The bonus is that it doesn't have to be complicated! Improving your child's brain power could be as easy as encouraging him to drink 2 more glasses of water a day or having him consume a handful of nuts or seeds with his breakfast. Read on and find out more about Kids and Breakfast. Breakfast can be one of the most frustrating meals of the day, kids sleep in and don't have time to eat before school or they get tied up doing last minute homework when they should be sitting down to a meal. If the parents work it is even more frustrating as even they don't always get to have a good breakfast. By the time 3:00 rolls around it means one tired, and cranky kid or parent! What can you do? If you work you may think it isn't practical or possible to sit down with your child at the dinner table and enjoy a leisurely breakfast every day. You might be able to pull it off once a week but every day may be pushing it. Fortunately, with a little planning, and preparation this may not be as impossible as you once thought. The planning takes just a little bit of time and the preparation is easy once you have a plan and a schedule. 
Set aside about 1 hour on a day off or the weekend. Use that time to do your planning. Preparation can happen the night before or on the same day as your planning. Once you have the plan set up you probably won't need to do it again. Breakfast is pretty standard and most of us can't get too fancy so all you need to do is rotate your breakfast menus. Create a list of favourite, healthy breakfast choices, ie. porridge, eggs in a blanket, scrambled tofu, pancakes, etc. Many of these items can be pre-mixed before hand and quickly cooked up in the morning or in the case of porridge or whole grain can be cooked over night in the crockpot. List your choices by category: quick meals, cooked meals, pre-mixed meals. I have created a chart at the bottom of this page to give you some examples. Check out your calendar. Are there days and evenings that are not as busy as others? Are there some evenings that preparing for meals the next day would be impossible or the mornings are so rushed that you sometimes can't even take the time to eat? Those days you need a quick meal. On a special calendar (check out the sample below or order your own Healing Kitchen Menu Planner) write in the quick meal breakfast you will be serving or consuming. Do the same for each day of the week. On days you have a little more time to prepare meals plan to have a hot breakfast that may take a little longer to put together. If you have a family check out Developing Routines, Creating Rituals for some encouraging words on families breaking bread together. Once you have your week planned, post it where everyone can see it. Have a family meeting and make sure everyone understands how the planner works. Have younger children cut out pictures of the meal from magazines, pictures of cereal, bowls of steaming porridge, etc and encourage them to glue or tape them onto the planner. Getting kids involved in meal planning and preparation is an excellent tool in teaching organizational skills. A skill I wish I had learned as a child! Include a blank shopping list with your planner, that way if someone eats the last of the toast or cereal it gets marked on the shopping list to be picked up on shopping day. You are now ready to face the week with healthy nutritious meals. |