Happy New Year!  Can you believe that it is already 2012?  This year we will celebrate the fourth birthday of Healthy Kids Ideas Exchange (HKIE)!  We’ve come a long way from the early days when this free information exchange was just an informal email for about 20 friends… we are now in the thousands in terms of readership!   I hope you’ve enjoyed the topics and will … [Read more...]

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  We had a very fun and different Thanksgiving schedule this year…a day of skiing on Baldy mountain!  We were really surprised when we picked up the local paper from the après ski scene at the base of the mountain, only to see our daughter on the cover holding a pumpkin pie!  What a wonderful treat to read a great article written … [Read more...]

During this month, we have the wonderful tradition of Thanksgiving that brings families and friends together at the dinner table.  For this month’s Healthy Kids Ideas Exchange newsletter, I’d like to explore some questions related to Thanksgiving that I’ll be discussing with kids as part of  Food and Fun lessons.  We’ll be covering: -A bit of background about the … [Read more...]

Back in May of 2009, I wrote a monthly newsletter Glorious Grains that talked about the difference between whole grains and “enriched” (processed grains) and then suggested some easy ways to include more whole grains in your diet (including lots of recipe ideas).  Since that time, I’ve been involved with Nurture’s launch into the school setting with lessons and … [Read more...]

This month’s newsletter is the third installment of a series about chickens and eggs.  We started in June with a newsletter about my own experience tending backyard chickens.  For the July/August newsletter, my daughter and I shared with you our journey incubating fertilized eggs.  Now we return to reason #5 for keeping backyard chickens, and that is they provide … [Read more...]

This month’s newsletter is a follow up to June’s newsletter on backyard chickens—which prompted many of you to stop by and meet the girls in person.  With my daughter having developed a great love of chickens over the past several years (thanks to our girls Amy, Jenny, and Nancy (and our dear departed Sally)), she wanted to see what it would be like to incubate some of … [Read more...]

This month’s newsletter topic is by popular demand!  Over the past few years I have gotten so many questions about my “girls” that live in our yard, provide us with fresh eggs daily, and give us companionship that I feel I must share their story.  So I will tell you all about Amy, Jenny, and Nancy (and our dear departed Sally), and why we love them so much.   Maybe … [Read more...]

Spring is finally here, and perhaps Spring has you thinking about seeds?  Yes, seeds are great for starting a garden (see Healthy Kids Ideas Exchange March 2009, Growing a Family Garden).  Seeds are, in some cases, also fun for eating—and we will learn more about this topic in this month’s newsletter.  Seeds are also a great metaphor for new beginnings…and new … [Read more...]

How do you help your kids make good choices for snacks and meals? Try using wording that makes sense to kids and connects to what they want to do. Do they care that the canned frosting has fats that may be bad for their heart? Not so much. Do they care if eating unhealthy foods will make them “slow down”, “not have sustained energy” or “make them sleepy”? YES! … [Read more...]

It’s almost spring break!  This month’s newsletter is a bit out of character from a typical Healthy Kids Ideas Exchange newsletter, but this is an important topic that stems from a recent event in my life with my 7-year old son:  He had a life-threatening choking episode.  Everything turned out fine, but as I related the event to friends, I began to hear again and … [Read more...]