On Your Mark, Get Set, GO!

I present to you a guest post by my friend, Valerie, who lives in North Carolina, and is eight months pregnant with her third little boy.

When our son was about 2 1/2 years old, we wanted eating plain cooked broccoli (my husband's favorite choice for vegetables, thus a very frequent side dish at our home) to be a fun and enjoyable experience instead of coaxing and bribing.  So we started to have "broccoli races."  Everyone at the table gets a piece of broccoli on their fork, someone counts "1, 2, 3, GO!" and we all eat our broccoli at the same time.  When we're done eating, of course we display our open, empty mouths to the whole table.  The goal is for everyone at the table to finish, not necessarily to finish first.  My boys love this game and it turns any "blah" food into an exciting adventure.  We still use it for broccoli, but we also use it when we're learning to eat a new food.

Another game we play to make eating fun reveals the depraved mentality of our boys.  This game is called "Don't eat me!" and my son invented this game when he was almost 4 years old.  Sometimes our food talks.  It usually talks in a high pitched squeaky voice and says something like, "Please don't eat me!  Whatever you do, don't eat me!  Please!" At which point the boys gleefully take a bite of the food and laugh as the food screams "AHHHHHHhhhhhhh!"  The scream fades away as the food gets swallowed.   My boys, now ages 6 and 3 1/2, LOVE this game!

Note: Due to the high "giggle factor" in these games, it could pose a small choking hazard, so be attentive and chose foods that are appropriate to your child's chewing ability.  For example, don't play these games with a bowl full of grapes.