Making Meal Times Fun

M loves when I spear her fruit (which she loves to cut with a melon baller!) with fancy toothpicks.  It makes it easier for her to eat and adds a touch of flair that gets her gobbling down cantaloupe, grapes, peaches, and pears.

Use a muffin mold and fill one well with peanut butter (aka: bait).  Put pretzel sticks (aka: fishing poles) in another well and then fill the rest with Goldfish, raisins, or mini chocolate chips.  Have your tot “fish” for her snack.  Fine motor skills and food fun in one!

Slice through apples, watermelon, or bread with fun cookie cutters!  It’s sure to bring a whole new excitement over lunch!

At our house, we call it “Silly Meal.”  I fill a mini muffin tin with a ton of different types of food (usually what the adults are eating, but just made in small portions).  She gets to pick and choose what she eats, when she eats it, and in which order she goes.  Super fun and colorful, too!

Using another silicon mold, I place snacks in some wells and number cards in another.  M matches the number card to the correct well (one box of raisins gets the “1” card, and so on).  Counting, matching, snacking… Perfection!

We love to pick up little packs of molds when we see them at the dollar store.  We use them to house tiny snacks but also to serve as “decoration stations” when we eat yogurt, ice cream, or even baked potatoes!  The variety makes things new and exciting and sometimes, M is even more apt to try something new when it’s presented in a fresh way!