Homeschooling has for now become the need of the hour with the pandemic affecting the education formats for children. A large number of people have adapted to rather home school their children to keep their education needs under check and control.
With children spend most of the time at home, the next important thing to focus on is their diet. Good and healthy balanced meals are imperative for body and mind growth for children. Here are some tips to create and follow a healthy diet for your kids.
Plan a diet schedule ahead of time
Homeschooling brings about additional responsibilities for a parent and thus becomes more important to put structure to a day. Meals are an important aspect that needs proper planning and schedule. As you homeschool children, plan a menu or a food schedule weekly or as it suits you. Include your children and plan meals with them. This not only helps you understand what they like but also eventually will help you get them habituated to home-cooked food.
Make a list of all dishes for the week. Here, you can incorporate all-important dietary options and buy groceries accordingly. This saves a lot of time each day when you know what meals to prepare. To further fast-track this process, you could make prior arrangements and store chopped ingredients in the fridge.
Avoid ready to eat food items
Coming from the first point, planning ahead helps buy the right grocery and avoids the use of last-minute ready-to-eat food items. Go for a grocery run prior and pick all items that you will need for meals. This gets easier when you know what you need to be cooking. Make sure to add plentiful of vegetables, fruits, nuts, milk, and seeds to your child’s diet.
Avoid picking up fast foods and processed items from shop racks; unavailability of them at home will dramatically reduce its usage too. It is okay to include some of your kids’ favorite food items, but the key is to limit the intake and substitute it with good healthy food.
Avoid skipping meals at all cost
Homeschooling can get tiresome when coupled with own work and home responsibilities. This can often result in losing track of time. Skipping meals or replacing them with instant noodles or chips might seem like an okay-to-do option. It may be okay once in a while, but skipping meals is bad for a child’s health and compromises nutritional needs. Moreover, a hungry stomach will not let either you or your child focus.
Coming back to the starting point, skipping meals can completely be avoided with prior planning and preparation. Another great idea to educate the child on good nutrition, start involving them in your meal preparations. Talk to them about food benefits while they watch you cook and help with kitchen errands. On weekdays and holidays, assign them tasks to prepare a small meal and take you through the many benefits of what they chose to prepare.
