Family dinner is one of my favorite times of the day. As the Together CountsTM program mission states, it’s important to have a balance of family activities and meal time. It can be hard to carve out time for everyone to eat together, but the physical, mental and emotional benefits for your kids make it worth the effort. According to research from Medical Daily, “Kids who more frequently ate with
Sometimes trying to get your child to talk about school seems like an impossible task. I’m sure you’ve had conversations like this: “So how was school today?” “Fine.” “Did anything interesting happen?” “Nope.” Where do you go from there? Study after study shows that kids who have involved parents do better in life – the parents who value family mealtime and schedule family time into the daily routine. However, sometimes
Studies have proven that eating together as a family has many benefits: ”Kids who more frequently ate with their family not only had a lower body mass index, they also ate more fruits, vegetables, fiber, calcium-rich foods, and vitamins……Also less likely to experience depression symptoms and were more likely to feel that their family was more supportive compared with teens who ate less frequently at the family table.” – Medical Daily.
How often have you found yourself with spare time between your kids’ activities or errands? You’d love to swing by the park or the pool with the kids, but you didn’t plan ahead and aren’t prepared? Never fear! You can make it easy to stop and have some spur of the moment, active fun on-the-go by creating a family fun bag! A family fun bag is simply a kit you
Spring has sprung and summer is on its way, which means it’s time for one of my favorite activities of the year–growing my vegetable garden! Gardening not only provides delicious vegetables for your family dinner table at very economical prices- it’s also a wonderful thing to share with your children. Five Reasons to Garden with the Kids They’ll try something new. Food that a child has planted, watered, tended and
We all know eating together as a family is a good thing! In today’s economy smart families are working hard to make those family meals as cost effective as possible. Here’s a simple skill to add to your money-saving “toolkit” when you hit the grocery store…comparing unit prices! Imagine this: you are in a grocery store looking at a shelf of plain tomato sauce from a variety of brands. How
It’s winter—how does a family stay active and have fun when it’s blustery and cold outside? Sure, you could join a gym, but that can be expensive, time consuming and is more of an individual activity. There are classic wintertime activities such as skiing, snowboarding and snowshoeing –but they require special equipment, training and money. But never fear– there are still plenty of great ways to stay within your budget,
If you are going to eat a tasty, nutritious meal with your family then at some point you’ve got to go shopping! How do you plan your family’s grocery shopping? I use a “shopping for the pantry” method at my house. Rather than planning my shopping trips around a specific set of menus or meals, I like to keep my pantry/cupboards stocked with a variety of the items I typically use.
Here in America, Thanksgiving is all about the meal. Sure, we spend time with family and think about the things in life we’re thankful for…but really, we’re all just waiting for supper. Every year we sit down to a table laden turkey and dressing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy and pumpkin pie. When it’s all done folks sprawl on the sofa softly groaning while the football game drones on in
Before you can enjoy all the emotional and health benefits of eating a meal with your family, you have to get a meal to the table! Food prices continue to rise, and savvy families have to be mindful of their grocery budgets. Now, I could tell you to save money by using coupons, shopping the sales, stocking your pantry, comparing unit prices or by shopping at alternative locations, such as
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