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Parents want their kids to eat healthy and make good food choices at home and at school. You can cook healthy meals for your family but translating your knowledge about nutrition to children can be a challenge for even the most creative parent.
But now you can use technology to help you. Research has shown that kids learn science effectively through computer games and other digital simulations; nutrition can be effectively taught the same way. The good news is that there are a number of interactive smartphone and tablet applications available that allow children to explore the colorful and magical world of healthy food.
From teaching how to grow tomatoes to building recipes, these five apps can help your kids learn about food and nutrition in an interactive and fun way.
1. My Food-Nutrition for Kids
Great for elementary school children, My Food-Nutrition for Kids is highly interactive, educational, and fun. In the six main sections, kids can play guessing games about potted vegetables, pick and choose ingredients to make healthy meals, and much more. Nutritional tidbits pop-up in between and during exercises. Kids can also choose from a diverse range of characters that encourages acceptance of all ethnicities. There is a downloadable handbook for parents or teachers to use with the app. My Food- Nutrition for Kids is available for iPhone and iPad.
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2. Baby Panda Robot Kitchen
This cooking app encourages kids to explore the culinary world by preparing various foods in an exciting spacecraft setting that features a flying pot and an oven robot. Baby Panda Robot Kitchen allows children to practice cooking skills virtually from choosing the ingredients, to actually cooking the food. It even lets them chop, grate, mix, and bake. This app encourages eating healthy by inspiring kids to play an active role in the kitchen. This is important because a study published in Appetite Journal, showed that kids who help prepare food tend to eat more vegetables, chicken, and overall calories than kids who didn't help. Baby Panda Robot Kitchen is available on iOS and Android devices.
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3. Gardenscapes
Through various activities, quests, and puzzles, Gardenscapes walks children through all the different stages of creating and maintaining a garden including clean-up, design, and maintenance. The graphics are colorful and lush, and as the garden comes together birds and others come to visit, adding lively surprises through the various stages. There’s even a “to do list” that helps to teach kids how to be responsible. Taking care of a virtual garden could inspire your child to start an outdoor or indoor garden and grow their own healthy food. Gardenscapes is available on iOS, Android, and Facebook.
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4. Discover Your Body
Discover Your Body helps older kids understand the importance of their health from an anatomical perspective. The application teaches the ins and outs of the human body in an interactive way, walking users through the muscular system, circulatory system, and more. It also explains how nutrition and food is part of your body’s general health. A 2011 study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology showed that kids who were taught the science of healthy bodies had stronger conceptions of health, proving the importance of informative apps like this one. Discover Your Body is available on iOS devices.
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5. Family Farm Seaside
Plant and harvest crops, feed the animals, and even make cheese with this engaging application. Accompanied by sweet music and colorful graphics, kids get to play farmer and do everything from plowing the field, fertilizing the soil, to producing over 100 different food products. This app can positively influence children’s eating habits because research conducted by Saint Louis University shows that when kids take part in growing their own vegetables, they are much more likely to eat them. Family Farm Seaside is available on iOS and Android, is incredibly user-friendly, and great for all ages.
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