Create a Rhyme

Help children remember to eat fruits and vegetables with rhymes. Poems and songs will grab your child’s attention and get them involved in making healthy food choices. Jennifer Fixman’s “Eat Some Fruit,” or “I Will Eat All My Vegetables,” for example, encourages children to eat fruit and vegetables because the foods are good for them.

Give Them Credit

Make a poster and put your child’s name on it. Divide the poster into two columns. Put the name of fruits and vegetables in the first column and leave a space for stars in the second column. Each time your child tries a fruit or vegetable, give them a star. And every time they eat that food give them another star. Suddenly, you will find your child trying new foods just to get the star.

Let Them Help

Children love to help their parents. Why not let them help with the menu? Involving children in meal planning, grocery shopping and food preparation empowers them to choose foods wisely. It also allows you to introduce new fruits and vegetables alongside foods your child already loves. During the meal planning phase, for example, let your child pick the fruits to eat and you choose the vegetables to try.

Get Close and Personal

Plant a garden. Take kids to the farmer’s market or visit a farm. Children are more apt to try fruits and veggies when they experience nature at work. They find it fascinating to nurture plants and watch them grow into edible delights. They begin to appreciate the work involved in producing nutritious foods.

Sneak It, Dip It or Cover It Up

When all else fails, get creative. Studies show that children need to try a new food several times before they like it. Use cookie cutters to cut vegetables into your child’s favorite shape. Sneak fruit into a bowl of cereal or make a smoothie. Dip celery and carrots in peanut butter or a yogurt mixture. Cover broccoli and cauliflower with cheese or ranch dressing.

A final note: According to the British Heart Foundation one out of three children is obese. At the very least, obesity can lead to low self-esteem. At its worst, it can cause high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. In contrast, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute found that children who participated in nutrition classes ate more wholesome, healthier meals compared to those who did not. The lesson here is to sow the seeds of 5-a-day eating now to prevent the complications that may come from developing unhealthy eating habits later. 

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Fitness freak, self confessed geek, and also food lover (healthy, most of the time!). Matt helps run the UK’s specialist Fight Equipment and MMA retailer, Havoc Store. 

hair not yet done

I was one of the flower girls during Ate Jenny and Kuya Allan’s wedding. The color they picked was peach and mom had a hard time looking for a dress so what she did was…make a dress for me! She hasn’t done making a dress before except for her Barbie’s when she learned how to sew. That was what my aunt (mom’s sister) said. I really like the design she made for me though there were a lot of times that I have to try the skirt…yes, there were two pieces, a top and a skirt so that it would be easier to put on. What do you think of my dress? Mom said it’s not perfectly done, but I guess it’s ok since it’s her first time.

Mom wasn’t able to do my hair before taking this photo but she made a bun, more like a doughnut from my long hair. It was nice and made me move easier.

Below is a photo of my bestfriend and I, we were both flowergirls. We really enjoyed that day, after the wedding we went to eat and dance and play.

with my bestfriend

With my little bro.

This photo was taken by mommy yesterday morning, when we were waiting for the tram to school. It’s the first time I wore an all white dress with matching shoes, as it started to feel like summer, finally!

Mom posted this photo on facebook and my aunt asked why are my eyes looking swell and all…mom said even my brother’s eyes are like that in the morning. It is!

Mom was alarmed when she picked me up from school later that day. My eyes were swollen completely, I barely can’t see. The teacher let me rest at the Director’s office until mom came…we went to the doctor afterwards but we don’t really know what caused it. Must be the grass in the garden or must be the peach I ate. So today I am at home blogging. teehee.

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Ai se te pego dance number.

We had our Jazz Dance presentation at the Metropol last Sunday. We were group II and we had 3 dance numbers, this is us dancing to Michel Telo’s Ai Se te Pego. I’ve yet to upload the video, I really like our costume here…though the tummy-free top is not something I’m used to wearing. teehee.

No, I can't ride that...I won't.

We went to the Praterstern…Vienna’s amusement park, to meet my cousins and have fun. We were there for almost five hours and we enjoyed bumpcars, boats, horseback-riding and motocross too!

With my cousin.

Magnum mini pistachio gianduia

We tried Magnum in different flavors. We often have the white one and the almond but mom bought this mini box with pistachio and gianduia…which I don’t know about. She looked at it and found that it’s the same as Nutella…so that was why it’s yummy! Nutella is our favorite spread!

We also tried the other flavors like strawberry and milk, infinity, gold!?! and more!

Love this!

I can’t believe so many people sit around and watch TV all day! We’ve got Satellite TV Hana at home but my goodness, we live in Hawaii, why in the world do the kids want to be inside watching TV when they could be OUTSIDE enjoying the best that nature has to offer? Its’ a tiny town we live in and there’s not much to do other than enjoy nature but the nature itself could keep you busy for an entire lifetime.

I can’t believe my wife allows the kids to watch so many hours of TV when they get home from school – they know when I walk in the door they better get outside and get to playing immediately! I just didn’t grow up that way which is why my family is all thin and healthy. There’s no substitute for hours spent outside running around with your brothers and sisters and that’s what I want to encourage here in my home, you know? IT’s my job as a father to do so.

Creamy spinach with Mom’s homemade mashed potatoes – my favorite meal at any day. Mom would include fish fillet or meatballs or burger patties at times. My brother and I all love this…we finish everything when this is served.

Today I received a lovely postcard featuring one of the musicians in Pixar’s short film One Man Band. We love Pixar films and mom makes sure we know the short films too. This film is almost 5-minutes, it is about a girl in an Italian plaza who wanted to wish on a fountain with her big gold coin. Mom said her name is Tippy, I don’t know why she knows but it wasn’t said in the film. There were two street musician who wanted the gold coin so they were playing instruments and waiting for Tippy to give one of them the coin like I would do when we watch street performers in front of the St. Stephen’s church.

Tippy accidentally dropped the coin because the music was so much for her and it rolled on the street and went down a drain. She was angry about it so she held out her hand for the two musicians to pay her. They have no coins to give so Tippy asked for a small violin from one of the musicians. She tuned the violin and played it really well and then someone passed by and gave her a bag of coins. She was so happy about it and tricked the two musicians that she’d give them some too but she actually tossed two coins to the fountain.

Here is a clip mom found, it’s not so clear but you can still see it.

The postcard was sent from Taiwan. I’d like to thank Mo Yang for the postcard. ^_^ By the way, yes, I know Taiwan and have been to the airport many times, when we’re going home to the Philippines. Unfortunately just the airport, teehee. Here are some of the photos we took there.

That’s a carabao, mom said and that’s the first time I saw one, not a real one.  That’s me sitting while waiting to board and those are really colorful parasols at the ceiling.

This was one my many photo from last year that mom forgot to upload. I think this was in May so I took of my jeans jacket as running around with my brothers and cousins made me sweat.

But when it’s colder, like 18-20° I’d wear a coat (and shades if the sun’s high up).

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