My kids belong to 4H and this year I’m the Cloverkids leader. Some states call them Cloverbuds. They’re pretty much the younger siblings not old enough for 4H. This is my last year having a Cloverkid since Eden is turning 8 in November and will be in regular 4H come fall.
The basic idea is to give them an activity to do that helps them learn a little about 4H and stay quiet while the 4H business meeting takes place. This month we covered the area of nutrition.
Each kid got a big “fill up” plate and a small “sometimes” plate. The idea was to cut pictures from the newspaper ads and glue them to the appropriate plate.
Most of the kids had been through this type of food group lesson and come from families that focus on healthy eating, so I took it a little further and talked to them about how we might have different things on different plates. I, for one, wouldn’t put milk on either plate whereas some people would put it on their sometimes plate and others on their fill up plate. While our bodies are mostly the same and our nutritional needs are similar from person to person, there are some foods that aren’t right for everyone.
I also didn’t correct them. This lesson was just as much about making choices as it was about being right.
And, to prove that, here is our little buddy Luca showing both of his plates.
Notice his “sometimes” plate is layered. Yeah, he didn’t really get the concept that the smaller plate was meant to hold less items…
And the plate-of-the-day goes to our 5 year old friend Marley who thinks wine and cheese are fill up foods. I don’t disagree.
Cloverkids WIN.
I think wine and cheese SHOULD be on the fill up plate!
Marley has no idea how right she is. Add chocolate cake to the list, and you’ve got breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
