Monday Funday: Spring Elves, Fairies and Creatures From The Garden

Spring has sprung here in Austin! Fig leaves are unfurling. Tight pomegranate buds are almost ready to bloom and mint is taking over my herb garden with a burst of early strength. 

Thursday Tips Senses Series: How Do You Know If You Like It–You Haven’t Tasted It?

Taste is simple and extremely complex. It is binary–I like it or I don’t–and infinitely nuanced. 

Monday Funday: Sometimes The Moon Is Made Out Of Cheese

Sometimes all you need for food play is a simple cookie cutter and your imagination!  In honor of the full moon today, I made one out of cheddar cheese.

Thursday Tips Senses Series: What We Feel When We Touch Food

Our sense of touch gives us a lot of information that informs how we act. We ‘get a feel’ for something. We ‘feel things out,’ then decide how to proceed. 

Monday Funday: Sushi Play!

I was recently asked to come up with food play activities that could help kids learn to like sushi. I had so much fun coming up with ideas that I want to share them with you all for today’s Monday Funday!

When I think about introducing a specific new food, I find it helpful to come up with activities within the main categories of food play: building, deconstructing, making a picture, pretend play, games and cooking. Below are some ideas in each category to help your child learn about sushi!

Monday Funday: Make Hearts Out Of Anything And Everything!

It’s Valentines week and no matter how you feel about the holiday, I believe everyone could use a little extra love–always–and to add some easy, extra love to your food play, all you need is a heart-shaped cookie cutter!

Thursday Tips Senses Series: Smell–Wake Up And Smell The Chocolate (Coffee)!

Our sense of smell triggers visceral, gut reactions. On a basic, sensory level we experience smells as good or bad. We want to move towards smells or away from them.  Even our English words for smells evoke this dichotomy. They can be pleasant aromas or noxious odors.

Monday Funday: Read A Book About Food

Learning about food can happen throughout the day in all experiences and books are a perfect way to learn anywhere, anytime!  My promotional book arrived this weekend which made me think about all of the amazing children’s books out there that can help your child learn about food!

Monday Funday: Games Make Drills Fun!

We learn new skills by practicing them over and over, but often just the thought of repetitive drills feels daunting, discouraging and no fun at all. This is where games come in. When we make anything into a game, especially something we want to practice over and over like touching or tasting new foods, it’s suddenly, magically fun! We may even forget we’re working on a skill because we’re so focused on the game! 

Thursday Tips Senses Series: Hearing–The Sounds Of Mealtimes

As human beings we’re extremely sensitive to the vibrations of sound. We absorb sound through our whole bodies and register those vibrations through bone conduction, which means that sound vibrations make our bones vibrate and those vibrations are then picked up by our ears and brains.

A teacher of mine once casually mentioned this profound insight about our sense of hearing: We can’t block out sound. We don’t have earlids. Wow. So true. So how does our sense of hearing affect mealtimes?