[Making Smoothies] With My Son

It's not easy to eat healthy and stay in shape. When you're busy and stressed you end up without time and tired. One tactic I used when I embarked on my original weight loss program was blending up a bunch of fruit with ice, yogurt and milk or orange juice. These smoothies became a very good meal enhancer, for lack of a better term, as they curbed my appetite enough to help me eat smaller meals while filling me with energy and nutrients that helped me exercise harder.

When Deke saw a short feature about making smoothies on Nick Jr he decided that this would be his newest favourite treat. Fine with me. Delicious? Check. Nutritious? Check. Fun to make with a possibility of a large mess? Check mate.

As long as it's him and not me.

I have given Deacon free rein to use whatever ingredients (within reason) that he wants. Some concoctions:

-- Blueberry Blueberry Blueberry Blueberry Blueberry Vanilla
-- Banana Pineapple*
-- Blackberry Pineapple Orange Juice
-- Chocolate Chip Strawberry Pineapple

I'll be honest, the last one was my fault. I made a joke to my wife that Dekester overheard and he decided that chocolate chips would tie the whole smoothie together. It wasn't bad, either.

Right now Dekey tends to enjoy the smoothies as a fun treat rather than a healthy meal, but we love choosing the ingredients together and discussing what the combinations may taste like. He also enjoys learning different things about the fruits (the interesting core of a pineapple, the seeds on the outside of a strawberry, why some cherries have pits and some don't, etc). I've mentioned in the past that my wife and I are homeschooling Deke. One of the great things about homeschooling is that any activity can become a lesson (in fact by now most activities carry some educational merit) and it makes him want to learn.

What's more interesting? Poorly cutting out a traced strawberry-like shape and pasting weird looking dots that are supposed to be seeds or cutting through a big, juicy strawberry and studying the colors and putting different parts under a microscope?


- Nicholas A. Marsico

* It was more like banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana banana pineapple

Other sources:
MyPyramid.gov - Inside the Pyramid