What's the best way to get kids to eat their veggies? Disguise all that nutrition with a little bit of fun. Next time your kids start hankering for a snack, try disguising good-for-you food by preparing one these fun fruit and vegetable activities for kids.
Ants on a log
Old-fashioned and easy to construct, there's a reason that this veggie craft project has stayed in the back pocket of parents for generations. With a little bit of protein-packed peanut butter, suddenly celery and raisins become yummy, and even fun. If you don't know how to put them together, the directions are simple: Just slice celery into sections and spread peanut butter onto the stalk. Place the raisin "ants" on the peanut butter, and you're ready for munching. To make it even more fun, have the kids sing "the ants go marching one by one" while you make the snacks.
Funny faces
Let your kids make their own edible caricatures with wholesome ingredients. Just place a tortilla on a plate in front of each child, and in the center of the table fill a platter with a variety of chopped and sliced fruits and veggies like apples, carrots, peppers, pears and grapes. You can add a few slices of cheese for good measure. The kids can use the veggies, fruits and cheese to make a face on their tortilla. They can make self-portraits or monsters-- anything goes. Then, when their work of art is complete, they can roll up the tortilla and eat their creation. For extra nutrition, look for whole wheat wraps or tortillas.
Fruit monsters
For a fruity fright fest, you'll need some fruit in large sections (apples and oranges work nicely) as well as fruit cut into smaller pieces (apples still work well, you can also use grapes, pears, melon or anything else). Let your kids create their own fruit monster by attaching small pieces of fruit to the larger pieces using toothpicks. Four heads and three legs? Do you know what kind of monster that is? A Delicious-Nutritious-O-Saur.
When you provide fun fruit and veggie activities for kids, you're giving them more than a healthy snack. You're giving them a positive association with foods that will hopefully be staples in their diet throughout their entire lives.
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