Secret Goodness – getting kids to eat right!

**There’s still time to enter my giveaway – a family day out at a book themed exhibition at a London Museum – click here for details and to be in with a chance of winning!**


Away from Playing by the book I’ve been spending most of my spare time this last couple of weeks working on a Food Explorers day at M’s infant school. Next week we’re holding a workshop for kids and their parents/carers to explore different, new foods, healthy eating, and links to the curriculum, specifically two topics they cover in year 1 (ages 5-6); the Five Senses and From Field to Fork.

As part of this workshop we’ve an area dedicated to some quiet time, packed with picture books, nonfiction books, books for adults and books for kids all about food, healthy eating and related issues. Books being my thing, I took on the responsibility for drawing up a list of books to borrow through the city library system and I’ve had a lot of fun with this. As food/healthy living is a topic many people will cover at school if not also at home I thought I’d share my list of recommendations here.

Books about food and healthy living for 0-8 year olds and their parents

I do not eat the colour green! By Lynne Rickards

Eat your peas By Kes Gray

Oliver’s Fruit Salad By Vivian French

I know where my food goes By Jacqui Maynard

I will not ever never eat a tomato By Lauren Child

Oliver’s Vegetables By Vivian French

Oliver’s milkshake By Vivian French

Everybody cooks rice By Norah Dooley

Healthy eating : diet and nutrition By Anna Claybourne

Fabulous fruit By Bryony Jones

Flabby Tabby By Penny McKinlay

ThegGood green lunchbox By Jocelyn Miller

Green eggs and ham By Dr Seuss

Pumpkin soup By Helen Cooper

Very tasty vegetables By Bryony Jones

Little cooks By Fiona Hamilton-Fairley

Eating the Alphabet : fruits and vegetables from A to Z By Lois Ehlert

Eddie’s Garden By Sarah Garland

Eddie’s Kitchen By Sarah Garland

The Great Big Veg Challenge: How to get your children eating vegetables happily By Charlotte Hume

Healthy Lunchboxes for Kids By Amanda Grant

Tasty Poems By Jill Bennett

The Sun is a Cupcake and Other Poems About Food Complied by Brian Moses

Revolting Recipes by Roald Dahl

Up, Down and Around by Katherine Ayers

The Edible Pyramid: Good Eating Every Day By Loreen Leedy

I Get So Hungry By Bebe Moore Campbell and Amy Bates

Hubert the Pudge: A Vegetarian Tale by Henrik Drescher

Finn Cooks By Birte Muller

Eat Healthy, Feel Great By William Sears

As it happens, British Mummy Bloggers are holding a #secretgoodness Twitter party today between 1 and 2pm (UK time) on the theme of healthy eating. You can read full details here!

It’s the first Twitter party I’ll have attended and I’m looking forward to it. Part of the school workshop is going to include a Guess the Hidden Vegetable cake stall, so I’ve been doing lots of practical, kitchen based reseach on veg packed cakes and I’ll be handing out some of my favourite #secretgoodness recipes at the party. Hope to see you there 🙂 If you can’t make the party, please do leave any book recommendations in the comments as there’s still time for me to order a few more books!

[And yes, I do see the slight irony of this post immediately following on from our sugar encrusted doughnut fest!]