by Kathryn White | Apr 19, 2024 | Blog Posts, Education Materials, Nutrition and Health
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When discussing parental involvement, many usually associate it with supporting children’s academic performance and achievement. However, research published in the journal Child Development emphasizes the role of parenting in children’s behaviors and self-improvement, especially in early childhood. Although the study focused on the socioemotional aspects of child development, it can also extend to cultivating your kids’ healthy habits and behaviors.
One of the simplest ways to become more involved in your children’s health and lifestyle is by reading digital resources and imparting insights to them. Take the best-selling book The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown, which can help families understand their weaknesses and imperfections for improved self-perception and mental health. This book is filled with daily practices and ten guideposts for better living and can be accessed on the digital library Everand — alongside other top-rated titles on parenting and relationships, such as The 5 Principles of Parenting by Aliza Pressman.
Besides helping you care for children’s mental and emotional wellness, reading can also be an avenue for promoting physical health to your kids, specifically by cultivating healthier eating habits. So, here are the best ebooks to help you teach your kids about nutrition.
We Are What We Eat by Kristy Hamill
In their early years, it’s common for kids to be more interested in sweet treats and processed foods. But instead of lecturing them and potentially discouraging them from trying healthier choices, the book We Are What We Eat: Holistic Thinking Kids by Kristy Hamill uses talking food characters to guide them toward real foods. Through humor and rhyme, kids aged 2-10 can better distinguish which foods are nourishing and which aren’t. The best thing is that the book is also vegan-friendly, making it ideal for families looking to transition to plant-based diets for health, economic, and environmental reasons.
Good Enough to Eat by Lizzy Rockwell
Another practical, informational book parents can consider adding to their digital libraries is Lizzy Rockwell’s Good Enough to Eat: A Kid's Guide to Food and Nutrition. This hands-on tool can help parents explain healthy eating to kids in a more digestible way, as it breaks down the basics of nutrient groups, nutritious food sources, recommended nutrient intake, and calorie management with sufficient text and graphics. It also includes kid-friendly recipes that apply the book’s principles in real life, such as Alphabread and Full o' Beans Soup.
Fat Talk by Virginia Sole-Smith
No matter how much you want to encourage your kids to eat healthier, it shouldn’t be at the expense of their self-esteem and body image. As such, parents can refer to Virginia Sole-Smith’s new book, Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture, to help them navigate conversations about body weight and overall health while still avoiding body-shaming. Among the powerful insights gained from the book is the idea of using neutral language around food, allowing families to take a mindful yet relaxed approach to diet and nutrition.
Food Safety for Kids by Homeschooling Dietitian Mom
Nutrition also involves food hygiene and safety, as preparing and handling foods the proper way helps ensure kids can maximize flavor and nutrients. In this case, you can find the printable Food Safety for Kids on the blog as a handy guide for reinforcing the importance of food safety and preventing food-borne illnesses. The digital resource includes activities, flashcards, and other informative tools that teach kids to avoid food poisoning and cross-contamination and to clean and sanitize properly.
Overall, digital resources can teach you both technical and practical information about diet and nutrition, which you can then instill in your kids’ daily habits and lifestyles for long-term health and wellness. You can also find more printable nutrition education guides by exploring the rest of the blog.
Written by Reanne John for homeschoolingdietitianmom.com
Reanne John became a learning advocate after her daughter entered nursery. After discovering helpful educational tips, Reanne decided to pursue a career in blogging to support other parents.
by Deborah Hanyon, MPH, RDN, ACE-CHC | Oct 12, 2019 | Education Materials
Jen Merckling from “Ready for Reading” has created some adorable hands-on books based on the timeless children's classics. Included in her series so far is The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood. Also, Goldilocks & The Three Pigs, plus my Favorite as a Kid The Gingerbread Man! (This post contains affiliate links).
Totally affordable at only $6.00 per e-book, this is a totally unique way to introduce your preschool and kindergarten children to the love of reading.
Each book is at least 30 pages long and is in full color with super cute pictures of the characters. For example,
Little Red Riding Hood:
Read With Me Story – Combination of words and pictures so that your child can read along with you.
Order of Events – perfect way for your child to practice putting events in the order they in which they occur
Memory Cards – Jen says this is always one her kids' favorite games.
Story Narration – Let your child tell the story and you write down what he says.
Color-by-Number Pages – Practice learning numbers, letters, and identifying colors.
Each book is retold in a unique way by Jen, and she uses pictures in every sentence to make reading easier. 🙂
Ready for Reading Phonics is Jen's “big” reading program. Purchasing one of these short fairy tales is a great, inexpensive way to test out her awesome products without putting a dent in your pocketbook.
Opportunity for coloring, cutting and pasting, putting the story pieces in order, as well as pictures mixed with short words to help your child feel successful on her road to becoming a great reader!
Click here to find out more about Little Red Riding Hood as well as Jen's other adorable books.
5 Things Snow Teaches About God
Food Groups and Food Pictures Preschool Nutrition Fun
Artificial Additives and Our Kids' Health
Gluten-Free Cheat Sheet Bundle
Just in Time for Thanksgiving, Turkey Safety and Tasty Recipes
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by Deborah Hanyon, MPH, RDN, ACE-CHC | Oct 7, 2019 | Education Materials
Kids Cookbooks Volume 1- Easy Food, by Sarah Watson Bean at “Love at Home Education,” is a super simple, basic cookbook to help your children get started in their cooking journey. (Post contains affiliate links).
From age 2 and up, “Cooking by Levels” offers steps to get even the youngest members of your family in the kitchen and to help them feel included, by offering simple tasks for them to successfully complete.
Kids Cookbooks, Volume 1 – Easy Food provides opportunity to build teamwork from an early age.
“A level based cookbook that teaches your kids how to cook 15 meals. From helping out to cooking full meals all by themselves.” And the recipes all look yummy too!
Five levels are provided with directions on what to give specific aged kids to do. Visuals are included and placed in appropriate places throughout the cookbook to make it easier to tell at which level each individual cooking step fits.
For example:
- Pouring for 2-4 year old kids – This level gives younger kids the opportunity to practice pouring without actually measuring ingredients. A simple black and white measuring cup picture is placed in all the places to make it clear which age group the specific task is appropriate for.
- Measuring tasks (4 years and up) are paired with simple measuring spoons. These are tasks designed to encourage your child to start reading ingredients and instructions on recipes.
- Reading and Assembling ingredients – For example, 5 to 7 year old children can look for ingredients in a recipe and then find them in the cabinet or refrigerator. These tasks are identified by a simple milk carton.
- Ingredients and directions for a recipe can usually be read at this level. Also, children can begin to choose their own recipes. The symbol associated with level 4 is a simple, black and white recipe picture.
- Doing all of the reading, gathering all of the ingredients, and cooking all by themselves. This is the last and 5th step! This step is symbolized by a chef hat. 🙂
Suggestions are offered to deal with kids starting out at older ages as well as how to help the child move up more quickly when it is desired.
This Cooking Class and Curriculum is meant to be fun, of course, and it really is!
Reading Instructions and Measurements
Cooking By Yourself
Simple recipes include:
Waffles, pancakes, and homemade multigrain bread.
Delicious oatmeal cookies and homemade granola bars
And spaghetti, hamburgers, fresh, from scratch fresh pasta, and scrambled eggs 3 ways.
(Post contains affiliate links).
Offerings by Homeschooling Dietitian Mom
Meal Prep for Beginners
Meal Planning for Kids
The Importance of Good Nutrition
Nutrition and Food Science Activity Pack
Paleontologist Kids Unit Study
Sunflower and Pumpkin Gardening and Activity Kit
Gluten-Free Cheat Sheet Bundle
Posts by Me
Homeschooling Dietitian Mom Recommended Resources
Is the Paleo Diet Biblical?
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by Deborah Hanyon, MPH, RDN, ACE-CHC | Jun 21, 2019 | Careers for Stay-at-Home Moms, Homeschooling
Entrepreneurship and our children.
I've been thinking a lot about entrepreneurship lately. (post contains affiliate links).
My son, Nathan, is far from being a typical learner, and he has some unique talents and abilities that don't necessarily show up in traditional school testing.
Many of you saw the train clip he made a few days ago. (And if you didn't, because you haven't subscribed to my email list yet, fill out the form below so you don't miss anything else)! This kind of stuff seems to come naturally to him. The only difficulty is getting him to do stuff that isn't in his current special interest area.
However, it is occurring to me more and more that he doesn't have to have a lot of different things going on.
All he needs to do is find one niche he can concentrate on. Something that he is really good at.
And he can start his own little business doing whatever it is. For example, making videos of trains, posting on You Tube, creating clip art, and selling it on Etsy. That, in essence, is what entrepreneurship is all about.
As Nathan gets closer and closer to working age, I'm finding it to be much more uplifting and much more satisfying to know that he is learning things that he will actually use when he is out of school.
Sure he needs to be able to read and write, understand math, science and history. And he is getting schooled in all of these subjects.
However, the life skills he needs to learn, such as how to budget, how to prepare food, how to create his own products, and how to better interact with others. All of these things he's also learning. And they will serve him much better as an adult than just focusing on the book work.
Since he's going into the 9th grade this fall, I've been thinking more and more about what he will be doing once he gets to the point of starting a career.
And, this blogging thing I've been doing for the past year has given me new trust in the ability of people to do anything they want. Especially if it means thinking outside-of-the-box.
This is why I believe it’s important that we as parents consider entrepreneurship as a possible path that our children may take.
Consider these statistics:
- Two out of every three jobs created each year are created by entrepreneurs
- Half of Americans either own or work for a small business.
I don't know about you, but I'm thinking that we as parents should give this entrepreneurship idea some serious thought! With all of the changes that are going on in our country and worldwide, ignoring these facts could lead to our child’s detriment!
So ask yourself: Am I training my children to think like entrepreneurs? Or am I instead training them to think like workers?
The traditional school system tends to teach children to think like workers. And unless we are outside-the-box thinkers, we tend to try to emulate that system in our own homeschooling. I know I did and I still struggle with this concept. But I'm spreading my wings out more and more each year, and I know that you can too!
We need to remember, that a system intentionally designed to create workers who obey orders without thinking, is the absolute opposite of Entrepreneurship.
This is why I was so excited when I first heard about lifechooling! Every year, since I started homeschooling Nathan in 4th grade, I've been gravitating toward this way of thinking without even realizing it.
I have found that by giving my son plenty of free time to explore his God-given gifts, not only am I encouraging him to be creative and think like an Entrepreneur. I am raising a much happier and well-adjusted child.
So, beyond giving your children free time and the chance to explore their talents and abilities, how can lifeschooling help you teach in a way that helps your children become the Entrepreneurs God designed them to be?
This is the purpose of the 2019 Lifeschooling Conference, July 11-13.
To help encourage you and give you tips to help in your important calling of raising children who are happy, well-adjusted, free to be who they were called to be, and true Entrepreneurs in their own right!
There will be speakers who really know their stuff when it comes to entrepreneurship!
So, if you want your kids to not just learn academic facts, but you also want to help them learn how to make a six-figure income without swapping hours for dollars, then you need to attend this conference!
The Lifeschooling Conference is a unique, 3-day, virtual event where pioneer homeschoolers, as well as modern leaders in the movement will come together to show homeschoolers how to “merge life with homeschooling.”
Topics include not only entrepreneurship of our children, but also:
Merging everyday activities with homeschooling
Lifeschooling through mentorships, in the younger years, and in the teen years.
and much more!
Not only that, but you will also get:
Daily Facebook Live devotionals from Ana Willis of “They Call Me Blessed”!
Facebook Live Q&A with speakers after their video sessions, so you can get your questions answered!
A swag bag worth hundreds of dollars (if you choose the All-Access or Premium Access ticket)!
Other perks and freebies if you purchase an upgraded ticket!
Oh, and as I've mentioned several times, it’s FREE.
So sign up now before you forget.
And you will receive a reminder email when the conference draws closer and when it is ready to start. Not only that, but you can participate in our Facebook group (In fact you don't even have to sign up for the conference to participate in the group–I didn't know this until this week). So if you aren't ready to sign up because you want to know a little bit more, you can join the Facebook group here. I will be there, and hope to see you there!
Last, but certainly not least, if you visit the site (you don't have to sign up for conference), and enter your name in the drawing (scroll down to the bottom of the page), you will have the chance to win a cash prize at the end of the conference. Click the “$200 Summer Cash Giveaway” box to the above/left to enter.
Click here to join us on Facebook. I know you don't want to miss this! The group is awesome, with all sorts of amazing people participating. And it's not a huge group either, currently less than 200, if you're a bit shy, like I am.
Sorry this is so long, but I'm really excited about this conference and you should be too!!!!!
Hope you have a great day and weekend,
Speaking of entrepreneurship and our children…click here for more information on The Etsy MasterClass for Teens
And for an AWESOME and affordable printables class that the whole family can benefit from, click here.
Another I've written to help with teaching your reluctant learners:
10 Ways to Encourage Math and Writing
by Deborah Hanyon, MPH, RDN, ACE-CHC | Dec 10, 2018 | Homeschooling
My autistic son hates school. Fortunately for me, he is willing to do what he has to do–to a point.
(This post may contain affiliate links).
I have fought with, struggled with, and forced him to do things he doesn't want to do. I've bribed, tried positive reinforcement, begged and pleaded. However, it takes a ridiculous amount of energy to get Nathan to do things he doesn't want to do–not to mention it is not a great way to promote a positive, loving relationship. As a result, I have been motivated to find creative ways to encourage learning that fits his learning style.
First, a little background…
I have one son, and he is 13 years old, in 8th grade. This is our fifth year homeschooling.
Nathan was in 4th grade when we started homeschooling. The first three years we used online public schooling. This worked out great for the first couple of years. One reason why was because the structure was provided. Also, I had a lot support through his IEP.
I learned a huge amount of stuff during those three years. However, by the time Nathan was ready to go into 7th grade, I was ready to venture out on my own.
A big part of the why was that the public school was not Christian. Thus, I felt like I had to constantly “rewrite” or add to the science and history curriculum. Also, things changed drastically in middle school, and I would have been severely limited in my role as a learning coach.
So in 7th grade I went independent.
Abeka and Apologia were my chosen curriculums. Both of these curriculums are awesome. However, they really are more appropriate for the typical learner, which Nathan is not. For example, I purchased the workbook for science. However, Nathan never wanted to write any words down. All he wanted to do was draw pictures of everything.
In addition, I had to read history, literature, science, and pretty much everything else to him. This is because he wasn't willingly reading on his own at that point, nor would he have been able to read quickly enough to keep up with the schedule. Also, everything was offline.
The good news is I LEARNED a lot of stuff I didn't already know.
However, by the second half of the year, I was exhausted. Plus, I was constantly adding this or that, supplementing with this or that because the curriculum just wasn't a great fit.
As a result of his unwillingness/inability to write things down, or read things in a timely manner, I switched to Monarch. Monarch is an online Christian (not live) curriculum by Alpha Omega Publications.
This program seemed perfect at first, because most of the work was completed online with very little hand writing required. Also, the curriculum has a text-to-speech feature, so he doesn't need to read it on his own. We are still using Monarch. However, I'm probably not going to continue with Monarch either.
This is because Monarch has a “typical learner” bent as well. As a result, I have been supplementing the curriculum with hands-on projects, unit studies, and more appropriate level reading/writing assignments.
This year I have finally started to “put it all together” on how I can teach my son, meet the requirements, and make it fun and as interesting as possible.
I have not found the perfect homeschool curriculum for my autistic son who hates school. However, there are parts of many different curriculums that I love. And I have discovered ways to teach my son in a nontypical way that requires way less fighting, arguing, bribing and so forth.
Along the way, I have discovered various tools that have been immensely helpful. I have also discovered that adapting school to at least sometimes match his preferred topics and interests makes a HUGE difference in his willingness to do an assignment.
The following math, reading, and writing tips and tricks are things I have gathered and used, and am still using today.
- Adobe Creative Suite ($19.95/month for students, compared to $59.95/month) – I don't think a lot of homeschoolers realize that you can have the ENTIRE creative suite, which includes Acrobat DC, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and a bunch more for such a good price. I know I didn't until September of this year. Nathan is getting a serious head start by learning Photoshop. And he really likes it.
- Dragon Speak Naturally – we don't use this program much anymore. However, it helped us when we first started out on the speech-to-text path. It is available through Amazon, and is under $50. You can download it on multiple devices. It gets to know you, so starts to be more accurate the more you use it.
- Kindle Fire – I mention this one because it's the only tablet (including iPad) that I have been able to get to read any book we purchase. It is a computer voice, but it's better than nothing if you have a reluctant reader like I do. This was especially helpful a few years ago when Nathan wouldn't read anything on his own.
- Audio books – Kind of pricey, but a lot of books are available for free through local libraries.
- Whiteboard – Lap size whiteboards are portable and they make great scratch paper for math problems and for spelling tests. As a teacher, you can use them to help your children keep track of their schedule. I use a lapboard for PE class. That way I don't have to be there the whole time. The Whiteboard is helping my son to be much more independent.
Great for Visual Thinkers Who Hate Writing
- Inspiration 9 – This is a visual thinking organizer, and we absolutely love it! It has templates, or you can start from scratch. It converts bubbles to outlines and vice versa. You can create presentations, export to MS Word, and download pictures from the internet. It really helps me and my son organize our thoughts. You can learn a few things just from reading the premade templates.
- Allow your child to sometimes write essays on topics not necessarily the same as in the subject, but still allow child to practice the skills.
How many specific dates, names and events do you remember learning in 6th grade?
My experience is that teaching facts and figures, dates and names just doesn't stick. What makes learning stick? Meaningful projects that add depth to the persons, places, dates, and events. They are much more effective at painting a picture that stays with you over time–especially if it is a subject your child is interested in.
- Subjects on preferred topic – Trains, for example. (my son loves trains)! You can take the subject of trains, and assign a paper about the historical context of trains during the Civil War, for example.
- Online Unit studies – Thematic studies that focus on a certain flavor. For example, TechieHomeschoolMom.com has a Christmas Around the World Unit Study that we have been working through. We are learning about various countries around the world and how they celebrate Christmas. Also, Hide the Chocolate's Unit Study on “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Unit studies are great for breaking up the sameness, or you can build an entire curriculum around them.
Autistic Son Hates School But loves Arts and Crafts
- Lots and lots of arts and crafts and hands on activities – I believe that I started losing interest in school in junior high and high school because there were so few hands-on activities. I don't know where our school system got the idea that older kids don't need hands-on instruction. But I completely disagree with this idea. I don't think a kid ever outgrows the ability to enjoy hands-on activities.
- Remember the point of learning is to grasp the subject matter being taught, not just memorizing facts.
- Type of pencil used – It is amazing what a difference changing from the standard #2 pencil to a basic, plastic Bic auto pencil has made in our house (there are also Pentel brand, but Nathan doesn't like those).
I don't know if you've noticed, but standard pencils are kind of “scratchy” when you write with them. Plus they get dull so quickly, you have to re-sharpen them almost constantly. (I can't stand writing with a dull pencil)!.
The auto pencils are a bit more expensive, but they are SO worth it! Nathan still doesn't like to write. But he now is more willing than before.
These are just a few of my favorite ideas.
6 Reasons I'm Thankful for Autism
NEW! 10 Ways to Encourage Math and Reading
Entrepreneurship and Our Children
Etsy Masterclass for Teens
