During the summertime, not only do we find ourselves trying to come up with creative ideas to keep our children busy, but we might also come up with exciting snack ideas to fill their bellies! Below is a list of “snacktivities” to inspire you in the kitchen and help your little ones eat something healthy and fun at the same time.
- Frozen Grapes: Your child can do everything with just a little supervision; all they need to do is wash the grapes, pat dry them, pick off the stem, put them in a freezer-safe container, and freeze. Within an hour, they can enjoy their grape “popsicles”. Grapes can be a choking hazard for children under the age of 4. Cut grapes in quarters to make it easier for them to eat safely.
- Melon Balls: You can let your child use a melon baller if you have one; if not, they can use a spoon. Have some towels or paper towels close by just in case this activity gets messy. After they finish scooping the melons into a bowl, ask them to count them how many they made. Melon balls can be a choking hazard for children under the age of 4. Cut them in small pieces (less than ½ an inch) to make it easier for them to eat safely.
- Fruit Popsicles: Help your children fill half a popsicle mold or freezer-safe container with low-fat yogurt, then add any fruit you like, fresh or frozen, then freeze for at least a couple of hours. Pop it out of the mold and enjoy.
- Fruit Kebobs: Let your child add any fruit you have onto a kebob stick (or popsicle/cake pop stick). If you have cookie cutters, you can also use them to make shapes before adding them to the stick.
- STEM Veggie Towers: For an idea to include STEM learning in the summer, encourage your child to use their critical thinking and engineering skills to build a tall tower or make a piece of artwork out of veggies. Give your child cut veggies as sticks, like carrots and celery, and use hummus, cream cheese, or peanut butter as the glue; let them build the tower, then eat it!
- Popcorn Math: Your child can practice their math skills using popcorn. All you need is some popcorn, paper, a pen or a pencil. Use the blank paper to write the math skill you want to practice in the middle (addition, for example), then place the popcorn on the paper for the child to solve the problem. Let them solve it by placing the correct number of pieces of popcorn on the paper before eating it. Do not serve popcorn to children under the age of 4 as it is a choking hazard.
- Insect-Infested log: Turn celery sticks into an infested insect log using peanut butter (or a nut-free spread if they are allergic to nuts) and raisins. Let your child spread the butter on the celery logs and sprinkle them with the raisins and/or dried apricots pieces before enjoying them!
Do not forget to keep our healthy snack list handy for snack ideas all year-round!
