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Tips and tricks for helping out the picky eater in your home

3/13/2020

 
Tips and tricks for helping out the picky eater in your home
Sometimes kids just won't touch a single piece of food that's put in front of them. It could be that they will not take a second look at a fruit or vegetable or they reject anything that doesn't come out of a bag with a funny character on it. It's a learning process trying to figure out what works and what doesn't work in terms of getting kids to eat a healthy and balanced diet. It's about letting go of control and encouraging healthy eating habits. Try these top tips to try and help overcome picky eating!

Sit down and have a meal together as a family every night ( if possible!)- Sitting down with your kids and eating with them as a family as frequently as you can is the most important and often overlooked contributing factor to overcome picky eating. There are plenty of studies proving positive correlation between regular family dinners and increased vocabulary, academic performance and even the increased consumption of fruits and vegetables in children. Kids learn best from modeled behavior, they need to watch you eat and enjoy different foods to learn how to do the same!

Make a mealtime schedule + stick to it- Set designated times for meals and snacks and stick to a plan. This helps regulate kids' appetite and sets a peaceful rhythm in the home around meals. Kids like to know what to expect, be sure when mealtime is over, the food is gone. This does wonders for kids who take hours on end eating one serving of food. A good meal time is anywhere between 20-30 minutes. In many social situations like school lunch, mealtimes are usually around this amount of time.

Expose them to a wide variety of foods- Exposure to a large variety of food tastes and 
textures is crucial for future food acceptance, especially within the first year of life. If the goal is to have your children eating more foods and being okay with trying new ones, how else do you expect them to get there without providing opportunities to try, see and learn about foods? Everyday, try to expose them to a new food type, vegetable, fruit or texture. For textures think finely chopped, fork mashed, crispy foods, or chewy foods. Also try talking about the foods on the plate differently, talk about all the colors on the plate and how it's important to eat all the colors of the rainbow to make our bodies strong. Teaching them about the food on their plate is also helpful. Tell them where it comes from and what it does for the body. For example "carrots make your eyes super strong, salmon comes from fish in the sea and makes your brain grow!"

Get kids involved with cooking + meal prep- Being involved in the cooking and food preparation helps prepare them for the meal to come and eliminate the element of surprise. They can be the ones to help you chop and mix bananas into their yogurt instead of being surprised at the chunk in their mouth. Cooking with kids can be challenging, but it also can be a lot of fun! They feel more in control, which is so important. They are also willing to try new things if they help assemble it. Letting them get their hands on the food prior to eating will increase their chances of putting it in their mouth.

Accepting where your child is on this journey- This is by far the hardest for parents. Do your
best to accept your child for where they are along their journey to enjoy a wide variety of foods. 
You can't force them to be anywhere that they are not. Fortunately though, you can be the single most important contributing factor to helping them move forward! It may take longer than you think and you may not reach all the goals you have set. But continuing to encourage and support them, and taking baby steps, will help them in the long run!

Hopefully using these silly simple steps, you can start enjoying mealtimes with your children 
again, and hopefully your kids will learn to eat new and healthy foods along the way!

Happy Saint. Patrick’s Day!

3/13/2020

 
Each holiday brings the opportunity to participate in unique celebrations with your kids and Saint Patrick’s Day has no shortage of fun festivities. Whether you are lucky enough to be Irish or just love celebrating the holiday, try these fun and educational ideas to bring some luck to your home. 

Eat all things green! 

Celebrate the day by feasting on all things green. For breakfast, try some green eggs and ham while reading the Dr. Seuss book to your kids or dye your pancakes green just for fun. For lunch, try serving up a buffet of green foods - broccoli, celery, salad, guacamole, and grapes. Wash it all down with some green juice. Who knows? Maybe your child will try some new foods trying to get good luck on St. Patty’s Day.
Set up a leprechaun trap! 

Supplies
  • Recycled cereal box
  • Gold glitter
  • Construction paper green red, blue, purple, yellow, orange, white
  • Cotton balls
  • 12- inch dowel or stick
  • 36- inch piece of yarn or string
  • White craft glue
  • Glue stick
  • Scissors
  • Tape
Instructions
  1. Close the open end of the cereal box using tape. Cut the front (or back) of the cereal box off. Cover the box with green construction paper.
  2. Using the piece of cardboard you just removed from the cereal box, cover a section with glue stick. Sprinkle the glue with glitter and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Tape the excess off onto a piece of paper and funnel the excess glitter back into the glitter container.
  3. Cut the glittered cardboard into squares. Use scissors to round the corners of the squares to make gold coins. Set the coins aside.
  4. Cut red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple construction paper into 2-inch wide strips. Begin with red, glue the orange strip on top of the red overlapping by 1-inch. Next add yellow, overlapping the orange by 1-inch. Continue this process with green, blue and purple. Trim 1-inch off the last (purple) strip so that all visible colors are 1-inch wide. This is your rainbow path.
  5. Cover a piece of white construction paper with white craft glue. Add cotton balls to the craft glue to create the clouds.
  6. To connect the rainbow path to the cloud, run a bit of glue stick along the underside edge of the path and stick it to the white paper, just under the cotton balls. Pile some of the gold coins onto the cloud, then create a “bread crumb” type trail of coins from the cloud down the rainbow path.
  7. Get your kids to set up the trap by placing the clouds and path on the table or floor. Tie yarn around one end of the dowel. Prop the cereal box up with the dowel and hide! When the leprechaun follows the gold trail and ends up inside the box with the pile of gold, pull the yarn which will yank out the dowel and drop the box, trapping the leprechaun inside! Be sure to remind your kids that they are very, VERY fast. So fast, they may not even see him escape!


Make a Rainbow Cake!
Rainbows are a wonderful natural phenomenon that creates a sense of awe in young children. They're also a great symbol for St. Patrick's Day. Use this as an opportunity to explore the wonder of color. With spring approaching, try to look for moments where you can go for a walk or a drive after the rain to see a rainbow with your toddler. If that's not possible, use a prism to create a rainbow indoors on a wall or the floor. After that experience, you can make this rainbow cake to reinforce what you've discussed about rainbows and color. It can also be used to introduce new skills like measuring and stirring. The best part is that it's a rainbow you get to eat when you're finished. To create the cake, simply use your favorite cake recipe, in a round pan (rectangular works as well). Frost it in a simple white frosting, then decorate it with a candy that comes in a rainbow of colors. Skittles and M&M's are ideal choices. Depending on how advanced you want to make your cake, you can also use food coloring to make the actual cake a rainbow. Make each layer a different color and simply put frosting between each in order to have the stack stay together. 


Explore the Irish culture
Learn about the Irish culture by checking out books or movies about Ireland and the history of Saint Patrick’s Day from your local library. Have the kids watch a video of an Irish dance performance (YouTube is a great place to find one) and have the family try some of the dance moves themselves, consider adding a little Irish music to the day. Purchase a CD of Irish jigs or fire up your favorite music streaming surface and look for Irish-themed playlists. Simply playing Irish music is likely to get your toddler spinning, jumping, and dancing. The upbeat tempo just begs for it! You can even introduce the best part of the Irish jig by interlocking arms, then spin around in a circle. This activity will get the whole family moving and probably produce some giggles too. For the crafty, try painting or drawing an Irish flag or four leaf clover. If you are lucky enough to be Irish, make a family tree and discuss your heritage. For dinner try serving a traditional Irish meal like corn beef and cabbage. If this isn’t a family favorite, Reuben sandwiches may be a good alternative.
There are so many ways to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day that do not involve the stereotypical party we may first think of. Parents can get creative with crafts and activities that are family-friendly and sure to become a well loved tradition in years to come!

NEW CENTER LOCATION IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS!!

3/8/2020

 

 
Hello Team ELM Family! We are excited to announce we’ve opened a store front o; we are located at 45 East Railroad Avenue, Jamesburg NJ 08831. More information coming soon about our open house on Saturday, April 4th from 1:30pm-4:30 pm!
 
This has been a dream for Erika, and the whole team since Team ELM started back in 2015. Somewhere for the team members to have as a home base and for the company to branch out and thrive! Here’s what going on!
 
 
Homework Help:  
 
Monday- Thursday 3:00pm – 4:00pm
 
 
Class Times:
 
Monday 5:00 pm Reading Class
               6:00 pm Math Class
               7:00 pm Writing Class
 
 
Tuesday 4:00 pm Reading Class
                5:00 pm Social Studies Class
                6:00 pm Math Class
                7:00 pm Science Class
 
 
Wednesday 4:00 pm Math Class
                      5:00 pm Reading Class
                      6:00 pm Writing Class
 
 
Thursday 4:00 pm Social Studies Class
                  5:00 pm Reading Class
                  6:00 Math Class
                  7:00 pm Science Class
 
 
Friday 3:00 pm Math Class
            4:00 pm Writing Class
 
 
Tutoring:
 
Saturday 8:00 am SAT/ACT
                 9:00 am Test Prep Strategies
 
Sunday 8:00 am SAT/ACT
Birthday Parties
Fridays 5:30pm -7:30 pm
Saturday’s 11:00 am- 1:00 pm, 2:00 pm- 4:00 pm & 5:00 pm- 7:00 pm
Sunday’s 11:00 am- 1:00 pm, 2:00 pm- 4:00 pm & 5:00 pm- 7:00 pm
 
All supplies included, plus decorations (1 bouquet of balloons, door hanger & birthday sign)
 
 
Please call to sign up your children for any of the classes we are offering, the tutoring sessions over the weekend, or to plan a birthday party! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call! We look forward to this new chapter with our Team ELM family and can’t wait to see you very soon!!

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