Health is a required homeschooling subject, but it’s too easy to view it merely as a text book and not a way of life.
How the kids implement what they’ve read about nutrition, exercise and personal care is more important than how they answer the questions
at the end of each section. After reading about the food groups and choosing a healthy snack, Beka was determined to put it into practice.
Think she made a good decision for snack time?
Sometimes when learning isn’t going well, it’s important to re-evaluate basic needs of students and the teacher. A few times, I thought the kids were being lazy or disobedient in their school work, but the truth was, they were just hungry.
I didn’t serve snacks because I really wanted the kids to eat their meals. However, if I hadn’t served a filling, nutritional meal, it didn’t last.
Breakfast, especially, should be healthy, including a protein which stays with them longer To ensure the daily requirement of fruits and veggies are eaten, they need to be served with every meal.
Hunger can cause dizziness or lightheadedness, irritability, agitation, and a lack of concentration.
Sound like your kids?
Or you?
If your kids are hungry, unless your breath smells like French fries, they aren’t going to be able to concentrate.
I always wanted to push on and just finish up what we were working on and then eat lunch, but too late I realized that they could do the work
more quickly if they weren’t hungry.
It’s hard to be the mommy, the teacher and the chef, but to make your homeschooling adventure more successful, you have to keep all three plates full at the same time.
I keep emergency snacks like almonds, cheese, and granola bars for mommy moments like that. I often forget to "feed the mommy", and my kids will remind me when I am getting grumpy 😉 One thing I love about homeschooling, my tall, skinny, needs a million calories a day but is still a rail kid can munch her way through school. She works twice as fast while snacking than without food. Go figure. On a sad note, I have a friend who's son has a food issue. His school is TOTALLY fighting against her. He was adopted through foster care, and she has worked YEARS to finally get him to a healthy weight (was way to small), and to eat healthy food regularly. The school refuses to allow him to eat when/what he needs, and his grades are falling. BREAKS my heart.
You are so right!! Sleepy can alter a mommmy's behavior too! I've learned that if something bothers me at night, to wait and deal with it in the mornning, then it seems like it is more manageable!!Loved your healthy food tips and the link for more info, I"m going to check it out! Thanks for sharing.
Amen sister. Great post and reminder to us all, esp. us young ( i'm still a young mommmy, right?!) moms. Kids diets and nutrition is just going down the drains, it's terrible! We implement "math drill, snack drill' round here and it's often shouted out at 10 am. A snack (usually boiled egg eaten right out of split egg) and math drills, a perfect combination!