prism7513

Since my oldest has turned 6 and all her friends started kindergarten,
I've been delving more deeply into the idea of RADICAL unschooling.
The academic side of unschooling (which I discovered 3 years ago) was
rather easy for me to grasp and is a perfect fit for our family.
However, the radical side has been harder to get my mind around, and I
seem to get stuck on the littlest things.

I've finally decided to try to eliminate all the food limits I had. I
didn't have many, and have never forced my children to eat all the
food on their plate, and our meal times aren't rigid and I usually let
them snack whenever. But now I want to let them decide when and how
and what to eat...but I have one question - what tips do you use to
eliminate food from being wasted?

What I mean is this: when I cook, or fix something to eat, often times
my children (the two oldest are 6 and 4) will say they want more than
one food item. So I'll prepare it for them. But then they start eating
and realize that they don't want both, after all. Now, sometimes the
food is fine and can be refrigerated, but other times they took so
long to eat (or not eat) or the food was cheese or something that
becomes hard, or stale, or otherwise less than appetizing to eat
later. And I don't mind that it wasn't eaten, but for budgeting and
wasting less in general, I wonder if there's another way to offer them
anything they want without letting food go bad?

I'm guessing that this won't last as the older my kids get the more
they will be able to discern how much of which each food they want, or
at least sample a little before getting huge amounts, etc.

Also, with babies (I have almost 15 month old twins), I usually just
put a little variety on their trays, same as what we are eating, since
they can't tell me what they want. Most times they sample some of all,
but don't eat much of it. But I wonder if any of you do something
different for the littlest ones (they are still nursing, so I think
that's a lot of it.)

And lastly, I'm learning that everything I thought I knew about
nutrition is kind of out the window with radical unschooling! So I'm
wondering if there's ever a point to where you intervene with a
child's diet? If they become overweight? If they never consume
calcium? (my kids have all refused the bottle and never liked milk
after weaned, and don't particularly like broccoli or spinach,
either...but I just have hoped that they don't need it, then...) What
if they have special needs, like cystic fibrosis? (a new friend I made
feeds her son enzymes depending on what he eats.) Just curious.

Thank you for any and all tips!

Deb

Zoa Conner

Congratulations on being ready to trust your kids food choices. For
those of us who love food (cooking and eating!) it is a hard step to
take. At my house, my kids can eat what they want, but that does
not mean I stopped sharing information about nutrition, food waste,
or ways to keep your body healthy and strong. Here are some
questions that I can be heard to ask or say:
* are you munchy or starving?
* would you like some water while I make a snack for you?
* I know you are very hungry now. Do you want a portion of
dinner now so you can eat dinner with the rest of us in about
* 15 minutes?
* Would it work for you to eat this first and then I¹ll make the
other thing if you are still hungry?
* Can I make that second thing you want after I eat with you?
* Wow, you want a bagel, sausage, cereal, and something sweet
for breakfast? (from my 5 year old) Which one shall we start with?
* I think I¹ll save this for later. If you find that you have space,
I¹ll be happy to get it back out for you (so you can not leave the
food sitting out for long periods of time)
* Wow, this cheese has been sitting out and has gotten hard
and yucky. I think I can use it in cooking, but I wouldn¹t want to
just sit here and eat it. Next time, can you let me know if you¹re
not going to eat it so I can wrap it up and put it in the fridge
please? I prefer not let food get thrown away when someone could
have eaten it instead.
* You¹d like 27 sandwiches? I think that might be enough for
everyone¹s snack. Can we all share? Or you can cut the sandwich
into tiny pieces ­ 27 of them.

Also, you can suggest foods that can sit out for longer periods of
time. Maybe make a snack area or a tray of sitting-out-for-a-long-time
foods that they can access anytime.

For the 15 month olds, try putting the food in little serving bowls (for
storage when you are done). Their communication skills might be good
enough (now or soon!) for them to indicate which bowl they want food
from. Put a piece or two from each bowl with names in front of them.
Ask them if they liked the cantaloupe when they are eating it. I¹m
sure you can tell which foods they like and which foods they are
grabbing first.

I am finding that there is no need for me to intervene with my kids
diets - as long as I don¹t stop talking to them about healthy bodies
and why I choose to eat A instead of B. I might say if I felt they way
you do, I would feed my body protein (or whatever). Maybe it will
help to mentally shift back to the ³eat healthy over a week² mentality
that you might have had when your older kids were toddlers. You
know ­ average what they eat over a week to look for a balance in
food intake. I¹ll bet if you write everything that goes in the older
kids¹ mouths in a day or a week, it will be not so scary looking to
you. I also assume that you have plenty of different kinds of foods
in your home (and that you offer the kids) for them to choose from.

Enjoy,
Zoa
----------------
Zoa Conner, PhD
Physicist and Organic Learning Mother
zoaconner@...
*Handmade stuff @ earthyzee.etsy.com



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Meredith

--- In [email protected], "prism7513" <penley75@...>
wrote:
>but for budgeting and
> wasting less in general, I wonder if there's another way to offer
them
> anything they want without letting food go bad?

Mo cycles through stages where her appetite is very small, so I've
gotten used to giving her a miniscule bit of anything (like four
pieces of popcorn and a grape) and several helpings if she wants
more. Little bitty plates help a lot! Really, with a small plate its
easier to create itty bitty portions. You just naturally adjust for
the size of the "container" as it were. More than that, tiny plates
and bowls mean that when she gets herself something she
automatically creates smaller portions. So even if she's in the "one
bite and I'm full" stage, there's less to throw away.

>when I cook, or fix something to eat, often times
> my children (the two oldest are 6 and 4) will say they want more
than
> one food item.

Do you know what a "monkey platter" is? Its kind of a variation on
the tiny portion idea - you offer small portions of several
different things all at once. With Mo, I'll sometimes bring her a
plate with half a dozen things on it, but tiny portions. If I'm
making something for both kids and me besides I'll do something more
like a little buffet on a tray - a whole bunch of finger foods that
anyone can grab. I try not to have any expectations as to what the
kids are going to eat - just toss out a variety of options and
refill what gets eaten fastest.

We do have supper most evenings, but generally its me and George and
Ray, since Mo tends to eat on a different schedule than the rest of
us and is still pretty conservative as to what she'll eat.

> And lastly, I'm learning that everything I thought I knew about
> nutrition is kind of out the window with radical unschooling! So
I'm
> wondering if there's ever a point to where you intervene with a
> child's diet?

It helps to look at what kids eat over a period of a week to a
month, rather than in a single day. They really *do* cover all the
nutritional bases, they just don't do it the way you might expect.
The other thing to keep in mind is that its normal for appetites to
go up and down in relation to growth spurts - and when appetite is
low is often when you'll see the least overall "nutritional density"
in their food choices. That's when parents tend to panic and start
wanting to "intervene".

>my kids have all refused the bottle and never liked milk
> after weaned, and don't particularly like broccoli or spinach,
> either...but I just have hoped that they don't need it, then..

Its also helpful to take a good look at your kids and see: are they
energetic? happy? do their eyes sparkle? hair shine? skin resilient?
Try to focus on the whole, rather than getting bogged down in the
details of what they (don't) eat as an indicator of health.

Milk, broccoli and spinach are all tough to digest. And there are
other sources for the nutrients that don't have the same strong
flavors that can be overwhelming to some children.

>What
> if they have special needs

Kids want to be healthy and feel good. Its possible to work in
partnership with children to help them understand *which* foods help
them feel good on a regular and longer term basis.

---Meredith (Mo 7, Ray 15)

Melissa Gray

I know food issues. From my POV:

Definitely go with making less (because more can always be made)

Don't feel like because YOU won't find it appealing, that the kids
won't. There are some things my kids would rather sit out for a while
(Rachel loves grated cheddar cheese that's been sitting out, after it
gets all greasy. I don't know why, she doesn't either, but it's never
poisoned her) Try saving it in the fridge in a ziplock box and let
them pick it later.

For snacks we usually make the monkey platter that Nicole (?)
mentioned, and most of our meals are buffet style. Kind of put it
together, pick your own foods. Couple of veggies, rice or pasta
plain, and meat plain that they can sauce up they way they want.

Our babies have always gone straight to table foods. I might steam
their veggies a little longer so that they are softer, and their meat
is cut very finely, but none of mine would eat special foods. They
want what everyone else is eating.

None of my children have enjoyed cow's milk, and I've never pushed
it, as I'm lactose intolerant and grew up being forced to drink a
glass of milk every night before bed (and being sick all night and
the next morning) "But it's good for you!" There are many other ways
to get calcium, beans, greens, yogurt and cheese, and high amounts of
calcium can cause kidney stones. Potassium is just as important for
absorption, and eating less calcium with a potassium source is a
better way to absorb and build bones. Same for just about everything
else. If you read how lobbyists work within the FDA, you wouldn't
trust a single one of those recommendations. I like the idea of
looking at your kids. Look at their energy, their skin, their hair,
their overall happiness.

As for special needs, we have a few. I'm the evil mom who let her
celiac son eat wheat. I know it's not ideal for him, eating wheat
raises their chance of cancer by 10%. And he was young, three or
four. However, he had to know that it makes him sick, no matter if
other's in our celiac group supported me or not. And now he's five
years old, and he will not choose to eat wheat. He's the only kid in
our support group that can, at this age, go in and order his own food
in a restaurant, verifying everything with waitresses. He doesn't
WANT to feel sick, and he knows that he makes the choices, they
aren't made for him. I'll help and point stuff out, but I never say
no. I have a daughter allergic to corn, and another to milk. So these
are all things we've had to work through.

HTH, feel free to ask any questions. I'm swiped today after a full
day out with kids. Big shopping day (speaking of food!)
Melissa
Mom to Joshua, Breanna, Emily, Rachel, Samuel, Daniel and Avari
Wife to Zane

blog me at
http://startlinglives.blogspot.com/
http://startlinglives365.blogspot.com



On Sep 30, 2008, at 9:50 PM, prism7513 wrote:

> Since my oldest has turned 6 and all her friends started kindergarten,
> I've been delving more deeply into the idea of RADICAL unschooling.
> The academic side of unschooling (which I discovered 3 years ago) was
> rather easy for me to grasp and is a perfect fit for our family.
> However, the radical side has been harder to get my mind around, and I
> seem to get stuck on the littlest things.
>
> I've finally decided to try to eliminate all the food limits I had. I
> didn't have many, and have never forced my children to eat all the
> food on their plate, and our meal times aren't rigid and I usually let
> them snack whenever. But now I want to let them decide when and how
> and what to eat...but I have one question - what tips do you use to
> eliminate food from being wasted?
>
> What I mean is this: when I cook, or fix something to eat, often times
> my children (the two oldest are 6 and 4) will say they want more than
> one food item. So I'll prepare it for them. But then they start eating
> and realize that they don't want both, after all. Now, sometimes the
> food is fine and can be refrigerated, but other times they took so
> long to eat (or not eat) or the food was cheese or something that
> becomes hard, or stale, or otherwise less than appetizing to eat
> later. And I don't mind that it wasn't eaten, but for budgeting and
> wasting less in general, I wonder if there's another way to offer them
> anything they want without letting food go bad?
>
> I'm guessing that this won't last as the older my kids get the more
> they will be able to discern how much of which each food they want, or
> at least sample a little before getting huge amounts, etc.
>
> Also, with babies (I have almost 15 month old twins), I usually just
> put a little variety on their trays, same as what we are eating, since
> they can't tell me what they want. Most times they sample some of all,
> but don't eat much of it. But I wonder if any of you do something
> different for the littlest ones (they are still nursing, so I think
> that's a lot of it.)
>
> And lastly, I'm learning that everything I thought I knew about
> nutrition is kind of out the window with radical unschooling! So I'm
> wondering if there's ever a point to where you intervene with a
> child's diet? If they become overweight? If they never consume
> calcium? (my kids have all refused the bottle and never liked milk
> after weaned, and don't particularly like broccoli or spinach,
> either...but I just have hoped that they don't need it, then...) What
> if they have special needs, like cystic fibrosis? (a new friend I made
> feeds her son enzymes depending on what he eats.) Just curious.
>
> Thank you for any and all tips!
>
> Deb
>
>
>



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Sherri

I cook two meals usually. One for DH and whatever Faith says she wants.
She eats what she wants and is hungry in an hour. She eats about 5 times a
day, very small amounts. We are small family and I can't eat anything they
can due to health issues. We have been doing this for years. DH is usually
on a low carb food plan his choice and I ask Faith if she wants some of the
protein Daddy has or something different. One of her fave's is fish sticks.
We have the quad's next door over once a week.

Sherri



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]