Food Learning!

Sharing that experience has been a great learning tool. They are now asking how healthy something is, how much sugar it contains, etc. Last week I bought $10 worth of corn from a local farmer. He even delivered it to my porch on his four wheeler! We shucked, and blanched all 80 ears, then cut off the corn and froze it. My helpers were great, and they learned a lot in the process. Now we have healthy, home-grown, local corn for winter. (This also corresponded nicely with our Proverbs study about the diligent man and storing up the harvest.)

This weekend I ground wheatberries and performed a mass baking day. I’m trying to do away with sugared cereal the kids typically eat for breakfast. Terrible, I know! Since I don’t have the time to make a hot breakfast every morning I bulk baked a ton of whole wheat waffles, pancakes, apple muffins and bread. Yum! Now the kids can just stick want they want in the microwave or toaster and enjoy.

There are so many learning opportunities based around the food you eat and serve. Here are just a few ideas:

*Let the kids plan the weekly menu, or even the menu for one night a week. Encourage them to use all the food groups and discuss their choices.

*Have a child take responsibility for one meal a week. Besides learning a valuable life skill, they’ll practice reading, following instructions, and math. They’ll likely even learn some new terminology. As they become more practiced, encourage them to challenge themselves. Check out cookbooks from the library for inspiration.

*Have a cookoff! If you have several children of “cooking age”, create a contest for creating the best breakfast or lunch.

*Let older students learn about healthy food substitutions, then give them a recipe to “make over”. Make both the old and new versions and do a taste test. Rate both versions.

*Include the kids in the grocery shopping. Make a list before you head out and have them estimate how much the total will be. Compare their estimate with the actual bill.

*Take advantage of Grocery Cart Math (or make up worksheets of your own) for your kids to use while you are shopping. Have them find the best buy on specific items. Compare unit costs on different forms of a product. For instance; compare the unit cost of block, sliced and shredded cheese. How much would you save by buying a block and shredding it yourself?

*Do you coupon? We do! Include the kids. Let them match coupons to sales flyers and organize them for you. When you’ve finished shopping let the kids calculate how much you saved in coupons and with sales. What would the total have been if you’d not taken advantage of either?

These are just a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing. We’d love it if you left us your own ideas for incorporating education into cooking, shopping or meal planning in the comments!

This post is linked to the Carnival of Homeschooling, Raising Real Men edition.