Life-Skills for Kids

I have discovered at my school these past 4 years, that kids really love to cook and to learn about healthy choices. I have a group of kids from a local public school who come into my school every semester. They will eat anything that they get to make and are very curious about food and health. It is wonderful when they ask so many questions and later one of the parents tells me that they can’t have white bread in the house anymore because their child tells them it’s not healthy. The biggest success for me is when the kids understand why drinking soda is so harmful to their health and they simply stop drinking it.
Here is the bottom line; our nation’s kids are in ill-health as a group and it goes back to education. I have found that when you explain to kids what is good for them and then show them how to make healthy food, they “get-it.” They don’t want to grow up to have diabetes. They don’t want to be over-weight. They do want to feel good and strong and healthy.
As a nation, we teach our children trigonometry, but leave out basic life skills such as nutrition, cooking, sewing on buttons, balancing a checkbook, etc. How did this happen? Why did this happen? It’s typical short-sighted thinking. We think that it’s too expensive to offer these classes in school, denigrating the worth of basic skills. What about the high cost of health care (or more appropriately in this country and many others disease-care)? What about the intrinsic value of knowing you can take care of yourself?
I watch these kids in my kitchen and I hear their questions and I know how much they need and enjoy this basic education. Let’s get these basic skills back into our schools.

Best of health,
Patty