Teaching out children about healthy eating, farming, raising food, and what good food is – not to mention cooking – are all very important. In CA, high school Freshmen have to take a health class that is supposed to teach them about this. At all ages, kids are supposed to learn about healthy eating. So why not start early and start young?
We are trying this challenge: 30 days without the grocery store.
We have a few rules:
1. I have $30 a month to spend on things I can’t find anywhere else. This is important for the family because we have gluten and nut allergies in the house. So I need to get bread and Sunbutter at a store.
2. All fruits and veggies have to be bought at a Farmer’s Market.
3. Nothing can be bought that is processed. We have to buy ingredients and change them into the food.
So why is this a teaching experience?
I made a board to track our $30. It’s a big sheet of paper. Nicholas is the one who has to write what we spend and help with the math. Math is a practical skill to have – this will help him learn subtraction.
It also teaches about food and health. We are working on cooking skills (something everyone should have before they leave the house). Buying raw ingredients helps teach about chemistry: the changes heat makes, how oxidation works, why we freeze things….the list continues on and on. While he doesn’t think he’s learning all these things, we use words like “oxidation” and “irreversible change” to describe what is happening while we are cooking. It’s not simply “we heat this up.” It is “We bring water to a boil. A boil is the temperature water needs to be at to change states from liquid to gas….” The learning doesn’t end. It is simply another way of speaking.
Not buying processed foods and making sure we do more cooking will allow us to learn more and do things together that we might not otherwise do. It’s going to be a good lesson. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Wunderful Homeschool 
Allison
/ August 3, 2012Sounds like a great method. We did this too, and it sure makes an impression. Children love to cook; they feel proud when they master the kitchen.