Hooray! The long lazy days of summer have arrived. After having successfully completed another school year you can’t wait to spend time doing nothing. It is important to allow kids unstructured time to renew, refresh and come to know themselves. However, more often than not, sometime during the next few months children will utter the words, “I’m bored. There’s nothing to do!” (add whiny voice as appropriate). Here are some suggestions to keep kids active mentally and physically which also nurture them emotionally. Remember summer is a wonderful time to build relationships by spending time playing, doing, and growing together.
Have family members set summer goals. For example: list of books you want to read, things you want to do, places to visit, skills you need to learn.
Take your child to the library and sign up for a summer reading program.
Have your child help put together a first aid kit that can go with you on your many summer outings.
Give your child an inexpensive camera and let them take pictures of all the fun activities you do over the summer. Create a scrapbook of memories.
Practice pranayama by blowing bubbles or dandelion heads.
Pack a picnic and enjoy eating outdoors.
Watch a baseball/football/soccer/beach volleyball game together. Talk about the rules and how they are important.
See how many places in your home (not including books) where your child can find words to read.
Make paper airplanes and practice airplane pose (Warrior III with arms out to the side).
Plant a garden and enjoy tending it throughout the season.
Visit a local museum or art gallery.
Sketch or paint outdoors: clouds, night sky, trees, a favourite view, an interesting building…let your imagination and creativity soar.
Lie on the grass and look at the clouds. Make up stories about the shapes you see.
Colour mandalas. Go for a walk and find mandalas in your neighbourhood (flowers, signs, art, stepping stones, etc).
Learn geography while watching the World Cup. Find participating countries on a map.
Teach your child their personal information: phone number, address, etc. Practice each day.
Can your children tell time? Teach them how to read an analog clock with yoga eyes.
Check out a book of jokes or riddles. Share one over dinner each day.
Create an indoor or outdoor miniature golf course. Play a round or two.
Grab a broomstick and hold a limbo contest. Back-bends open the heart and invigorate the body.
Add food coloring to a dollop of shaving cream. Let your child use it as finger paint.
Make homemade ice-cream. Practice two scoops partner pose.
Help your child write a letter or card to a relative or friend telling about summer events.
Fly a kite. Practice triangle pose (sometimes called kite pose).
Have a pillow fight.
Enjoy face painting and then perform face yoga in the mirror and laugh at your funny faces.
Read under the stars. Take a blanket and book outside and read with your child by flashlight.
At dinner have each family member say something nice about every person at the table.
Make puppets out of a paper bag, an old sock or a stick. Put on a puppet show.
Cut out pictures from several magazines. Have your child write a story about them.
Give your child a bucket of water and some paint brushes. Let her “paint” the sidewalk, fence, house, etc.
Find out when the sun sets and rises in your area. Learn how to do Sun Salutations.
Look at the stars with your child. Make up new constellations together.
Find a local kiddie pool, beach or fountain and go wadding.
Play alphabet games with your child. List countries, animals, cars or yoga poses in alphabetical order.
Build a fort inside or out using blankets, sheets, boxes, tables, chairs and other items found around the house.
Meditate upon the breeze as it ruffles the leaves of your favourite tree.
Create a treasure/scavenger hunt and help your kids follow the clues for a fun reward.
Gear up for summer sizzle just in time for the summer solstice with seasonal yoga tips from Melina Meza, BS Nutr, 500-RYT, of Seattle’s 8 Limbs of Yoga Centers. Discover how adjusting your lifestyle in accordance with the seasons improves life’s natural rhythms and prevents seasonal imbalances. Summer brings fire and water elements to the forefront. Melina will share ayurvedic tips for keeping cool including food, routines and the what, when and how of asana practice. Maintain a yogic life while on vacation or during the typical summer slow-down as you beat the heat and stay happy and healthy mentally, physically and spiritually.
Original air date: June 17, 2010
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Learn more about seasonal yoga and Melina Meza on her website. You can also find her on YouTube and @melinameza on Twitter.
Learning about the body is fun! That’s the message Dr Heather Manley, a naturopathic physician based in Hawaii, is sharing with kids, parents and teachers.
Recently Manley sent me a copy of Battle with the Bugs, the second audio story and workbook in the series of Human Body Detectives. Each story takes Marrin and Pearl, characters based upon and voiced by Manley’s daughters, on health mysteries where they are magically transported into the body on an adventure.
With each audio CD comes a workbook full of crosswords, games, puzzles, jokes and stickers. My children immediately gravitated toward the stickers and colouring pages, while I had to gaffaw a few times at the corny jokes. For example:
“What do you call a germ who wants to have a good time? A FunGi (a fun guy)“
“What did the left eye say to the right eye? Between us something smells.”
I was most impressed that Manley didn’t simplify terminology (how many children’s books do you know that use the word ‘macrophage?’), but provided real information in a kid friendly manner. And don’t be surprised if the adults in the room also learn a thing or two about how the body works. Here is a teaser of the book for your enjoyment.
If you are looking for a fun, creative resource where children are teaching children in an engaging way, you’ll want to get your hands on these great books. They can be found at Human Body Detectives and on Amazon.
I can’t wait for the release of The Heart Pumping Adventure, Marrin and Pearl’s third adventure into the human body, due out this spring.
Dr Heather Manley has generously donated a copy of Battle with the Bugs to one lucky Yoga In My School Reader. Leave a comment below to enter into the draw.
It started when they were very young and I’d ask them to stir jello, make play-dough, or dump measured ingredients into the bowl to make muffins or cookies. These days we have assigned evenings where they are the designated ‘sous-chef’ and get to help with dinner doing everything from setting the table and pouring the water, to chopping the vegetables and puréeing the cheese and broccoli soup. A favourite activity when friends come over is to create something delectable to eat which is often inspired by the Food Network (one of my kids favourite TV channels) or by a kids cooking recipe book currently on loan from the library. This spring my son has graduated to the BBQ where he recently grilled up honey mustard chicken breast to perfection.
Yes, having my children in the kitchen requires effort and organization. Like most tasks, it would be easier if I simply did it myself. However, I’d definitely be denying them, and myself, many wonderful memories and numerous life skills. My job is to ensure that my children have all the tools necessary to live as engaged and accomplished adults. I see teaching them how to cook everything from Caesar Salad to Crock Pot Stew as part of that responsibility.
And from a yoga point of view, I’m striving to teach them good nutrition and to establish a positive relationship with food. When helping in the kitchen, kids interact with their food on a totally different level. By taking the raw ingredients, discussing basic nutrition requirements, and learning how to combine different flavours to create wonderful dishes, children take charge of what they are putting on the table and into their bodies.
What Kids Learn When Cooking
Involving kids in the kitchen develops a host of skills. These include:
Following directions – reading and following a recipe
Basic arithmetic – measuring ingredients or doubling (tripling for cookies) a recipe
Vocabulary enrichment – ingredients, tools, and directions all provide new and interesting vocabulary
Sensory stimulation – tastes, textures, and smells in great variety come from the kitchen
Cause and effect – leave out one ingredient and see what happens
Cooperation – working together and waiting their turn
Sanitation – cleanliness and safe food handling skills come with the territory
Confidence – empower kids with cooking skills that will last a lifetime
Creativity – express kids unique tastes with their own recipes/kitchen creations
Ground Rules for Cooking with Kids
Here are a couple of suggestions for getting your kids into the kitchen.
Safety first – never leave children unattended in the kitchen. Your supervision is essential and your children’s well being always comes first.
Never assume that children know how to handle a knife or when something is ’safe’ or ‘unsafe’. Establish safety ground rules which are age and ability appropriate.
Provide your child with their own kitchen utensil kit such as the Kid’s Cookware Kit - I haven’t done this but think it is a brilliant idea to foster independence and ownership.
Start with a clean kitchen and keep a sink of warm soapy water ready to clean-up as you go along. Cleaning up is part of cooking so don’t let your kids escape once the dish is made without washing up and wiping off.
Make it fun! If you or the children are getting frustrated try again another time or with a different recipe. This is a time to connect, share, and explore the wonder of creating good things to eat while spending time together.
Cooking With Kids Websites
Spatulatta is a great website that teaches kids to cook. Hosts Liv and Belle provide over 350 videos of how kids can make a variety of healthy and nutritious foods including vegan & vegetarian options, comfort foods, holiday specials and more.
For the little ones (ages 2-5) learning to prepare food uses all their senses and exploits their desire to please. It gets them fully involved with their food and with helping around the home. A win-win for sure. Cooking with Children: Kids in the Kitchen offers suggestions for age appropriate tasks and recipes even the youngest children can help prepare.
Cooking With Kids is a school based program that uses hands-on methods to teach elementary students about the joy of delicious healthy foods. From tasting classes which introduce kids to food they may never have had before, to getting local chefs to donate their time and talent to schools, this innovative program brings fresh and healthy options into the classroom.
Today children are inundated with poor food options. From chicken nuggets to processed treats, its all readily available and marketed to the hilt. One of the worst culprits is school lunch. School cafeterias often don’t have a single ‘from scratch’ option made without preservatives and chemicals. Where are the fruits and vegetables that are supposed to make up the largest portion of the daily intake? And ketchup is NOT a vegetable!
Educating children about healthy eating is critical. There is much we can do to promote fresh, healthy, delicious food. It is essential to change children’s relationship to food so that they understand that what they put into their bodies effects how their bodies feel and perform.
Here is a 20 minute talk by Ann Cooper, the renegade lunch lady, who is passionate about changing what kids eat for lunch. She promotes a local, sustainable, seasonal and educational diet.
There are numerous ways to change how children relate to food. Here are a few suggestions
Teach proper nutrition- develop awareness for the food groups, portion size, and label reading
Involve kids in the kitchen - even the smaller kids can help in the kitchen, get them involved and empower them with life long skills
Eat together – studies show famlies that eat together have better health habits
Grow your own food – even a small garden can grow fresh produce for the table
Appreciate the body - learning basic anatomy develops an appreciation for and awareness of the body, its systems, and how to care for it with proper nutrition
Other articles with a focus on improving the health and nutrition of children include:
Teens these days are very diet conscious. However, many have adopted destructive habits such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking or using laxatives (see How Yoga Helps Teens Battle Eating Disorders). Parents and teachers need to make sure they are teaching their teens how to have a positive relationship with food and body image. Here are 20 dirty diet tricks that will help teens maintain, or achieve, good health in a positive way.
don’t eat while standing – you don’t wear off more calories by standing (common myth) and your brain doesn’t register the food you are ingesting (mindless snacking a big no-no); sit down and enjoy a meal/snack instead of nibbling
don’t eat more than a palm’s worth of anything – portion control is important and your hand is always available to measure by
munch while you grocery shop – if you forgot to eat before shopping, snag a bag of baby carrots & munch while filling the basket – ring up the empty bag
do traffic light isometrics - while waiting at a red light tone buttocks & abs by clenching until light turns green, you’ll learn quickly which red lights in town are the longest
enjoy gorgeous nails – give yourself a manicure when food cravings hit – hands are pretty and out of trouble
go monochrome - use colour to your advantage by dressing from top to bottom in one unbroken vertical line=instantly taller and thinner, this really works well with sophistocated dark colours (navy, gray, black, chocolate)
don’t eat and…(read, watch TV, work, study) – being mindful about what you put in your mouth makes it more satisfying, tune into what you put in your mouth and enjoy every morsel to its fullest
sign up for a fund-raising walk-a-thon or bike-a-thon – enlist sponsors and get moving, you’ll be motivated, be helping others and have a deadline which is good for body & soul
live the 80/20 rule – eating healthily 80% of the time allows for small indulgences the remaining 20%, also don’t beat yourself up when you do indulge (we all do) just count it as your 20 percent and return to eating healthy
keep it small- never order anything involving the words “deluxe,” “supersize” or “jumbo” – order small sizes of everything especially at a fast food outlets and the coffee shop
start a healthy cooking club – exchange recipes & ideas with like minded friends and celebrate success together, you’ll be developing skills and habits you’ll use throughout your life and will have a great cache of healthy eating recipes for when you move out
love soup – enjoy a steaming bowl of broth based soup before your meal – it’ll fill you up and quench your hunger
employ mind games – cut your sandwich into quarters or use a salad plate instead of a dinner plate to fool yourself into thinking you are eating more - mind games work, use them
always buy thin crust pizza – deep dish is trouble and will go straight to your thighs – ugh!
drink water – you’ll stay hydrated and feel fuller as well as avoid the unneeded sugar in sodas or the caffiene in coffee & colas
smuggle healthy snacks into the movie theatre – you’ve got a big bag, use it for good
always bring a guilt free option to get togethers- a fruit or veggie platter are always hits, or if you want to indulge, raid your stash of healthy recipes from #14 and whip up a divine low fat, low sugar option of your fav dessert
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