5 Child Nutrition Tips for Young Round Rock, Austin Families
From making meals into a game and centering foods around a family tradition, INIC Preschool is here to help promote healthy eating for babies, pre-toddlers, toddlers, preschoolers, and kinder prep scholars!
April is Child Nutrition Month, and there’s no time like the present to make sure your young learners are maintaining a nutritious diet. Nutrition is a key component of INIC Preschool’s curriculum – all of our little scholars play with food and learn how to live a healthy lifestyle. Our Round Rock and south Austin childcare campuses teach children 0-5 years old. Research shows bilingual children have higher math, reading, emotional, and analytical skills, and are better multi-taskers. That’s why every INIC Preschool class is in Spanish, every day – that’s comprehensive Spanish immersion curriculum.
Eating the right types of foods – and having them at the right time – provides the nourishment, vitamins, and minerals that help infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and kinder prep students grow into healthy adults. The following habits should begin in early childhood, so we carry them into adulthood.
Taste the Rainbow
Make plates look like rainbows. From fruits and vegetables to meats, grains, and milk, healthy eating is made up of an array of colorful foods. While many kiddos could eat chicken nuggets and French fries for every meal, be sure to put some green on that plate, too. For specific guidelines and recipes, check out the Institute of Child Nutrition's Child Nutrition Recipe Box and MyPlate Plan, which shows food group targets and age-specific food plans.
Monkey See, Monkey Do
Lead by example. Having a child is like having a little shadow that follows you everywhere and tries to copy everything you do. If they are going to have a monkey see, monkey do attitude, then make sure you’re on your best behavior…including at the dinner table! When you cook, serve, and eat nutritional foods, your child will (hopefully) have to and want to, as well.
Play With Your Food
Have some fun with it. A wise way to encourage those in the early childhood age bracket is with games, and it can even apply to this topic. There are nutrition-focused activities, there are mommy/daddy and me kitchen sets, and there is gardening. INIC Preschool is proud to have its own garden, and a study recently came out saying that this hobby can help improve long-term health. The researchers – including those from the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston’s School of Public Health, and the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin – specifically found an improvement in metabolic parameters like blood sugar and cholesterol.
Food is Culture
Implement traditions. At INIC Preschool, we embrace cultural diversity and community involvement, and this, too, can be incorporated into eating the right way. A student’s heritage, a family’s nightly mealtime, a recipe passed down from generation to generation, dishes specific to certain holidays…All of this and more can lead to a healthy, yummy meal and a celebration of customs and histories!
Fuel for the Future
Look at the bigger picture. Last month was National Nutrition Month, which was created 50 years ago by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and this year's theme was "Fuel for the Future." When it comes to cooking and cuisine, think about its impact on the planet. For example, you could try out plant-based options, opt for purchases in eco-friendly packaging, or plant your own garden at home.
These are just a few steps to keep in mind – this month, especially – as you encourage your little scholar to eat in a healthy way. After all, we want them big and strong and able to learn all they can at INIC, and we look forward to watching them grow!
About INIC Preschool Spanish Immersion Education & Childcare
Learn. Play. Make Friends. Founded in 2012, INIC Preschool is a Spanish immersion school with locations in Round Rock and South Austin. Educators here are upbeat and enjoy a positive teacher-led work environment with access to many benefits. INIC’s challenging curriculum accommodates the unique learning style of every child, from three-month-old infants up to school age. The classroom experience is intentionally low tech for kids, but parents and grandparents are delighted to check in on their little scholar with high-tech, easy-to-use tools: WatchMeGrow and Brightwheel. All classes and activities are taught in Spanish, every day.
INIC Preschool Round Rock proudly serves families in Pflugerville, North Austin, Cedar Park, Leander, Georgetown, Hutto, Taylor, and Liberty Hill. INIC Preschool South Austin has served these communities since 2012: South Austin, Circle C, Oak Hill, Buda, Kyle, Dripping Springs, Driftwood, Bee Cave Township, Westlake, Onion Creek, Manchaca, and more.
Round Rock, Texas: 2960 Jazz Street // rrAdmissions@inic-edu.com
South Austin, Texas: 2100 W. William Cannon Dr. // Admissions@inic-edu.com