{"id":1168,"date":"2014-12-11T22:26:55","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T05:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/?page_id=1168"},"modified":"2015-07-06T10:58:57","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T16:58:57","slug":"eating-all-the-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/happyhomeschooling.com\/site\/eating-all-the-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Eating All the Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"family2\"Question:<\/h4>\n

I have four little ones, ages 6, 4, 2, and 9 months. The older ones want to eat all the time! I’m sympathetic because, with pregnancy and nursing, I’m hungry often, too. But it’s too much to clean up 5-6 times a day after so many snacks. Being home all day makes easy access to the refrigerator…how should I discipline ourselves regarding meals and snack times to make life easier?!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Answer:<\/h4>\n

I think every mother can relate to kids with constant hunger and the continual prep and clean-up that snacking can require. I gave up on the idea of an “open kitchen” (meaning everyone can eat anything anytime). We are much happier with meals on a schedule.\u00a0I require my kids to ask before they get a snack or access the fridge. That way I can prevent the 5:30 pm fill-up and then refusing to eat at 6:00 pm dinner. When my kids ask, generally, the answer is “yes” for anything healthy like fruit, veggies, nuts, whole grain bread, cottage cheese, cheese, etc. as long as it is at least an hour before dinner and they clean up. If it is close to dinner, then I encourage them to eat veggies–which don’t fill you up so much. The answer is generally “no” to junk food. When we eat junk (if they bring home candy from their baseball practice or we have ice cream or something) I encourage them to eat it at the end of a meal, when it won’t affect their blood sugar or create cavities as likely (because we brush after dinner).<\/p>\n

I make sure breakfast is substantial. When I am cleaning up breakfast, I try to put a bowl of fresh veggies such as celery, baby carrots, olives, cucumber slices, jicama pieces, cherry tomatoes; or a bowl of grapes and almonds on the dining room table<\/strong>, covered with plastic wrap loosely. Then by-passers can grab a few bites. I am amazed to see all the food gone when we come in to make lunch.<\/p>\n

I don’t like to interrupt school time for a sit-down snack around the table. I just can’t seem to manage gathering children back in to the school frame of mind again. I figure they can go from 9 to noon without perishing. If anyone gets too hungry, I have a bag of almonds in my school area<\/strong> and I will pass them a handful to munch on\u2014a good protein source that will help them think well, plus get to lunch time. At my house, if kids eat a hearty snack midway through school, nobody is very thrilled about eating lunch and then they are all starving at 2 pm. I like them to come to meals with an appetite because broccoli and beans and other healthy foods sure look a lot tastier when you are hungry! And the constant clean-up, and just the plain distraction and amount of time eating takes from school discourages me from doing a snack time, except for a toddler.<\/p>\n

One suggestion: avoid dried fruit for a snack! I learned this lesson the hard way (as usual). We had dried apples from our orchard in the autumn and all winter long I gave my children dried apple rings for snack time. By the time spring came, every child had several cavities! The dentist told me that even caramel is not stickier than dried fruit and it really promotes tooth decay terribly well.<\/p>\n

Ideas from Experienced Homeschoolers about Snacks\"fruit-696169_1280\"<\/h4>\n