As a mom it is sometimes hard to get kids to eat a healthy balanced diet.  One of mine is especially picky, which even has become a concern as to his health.  We keep telling him how his body needs all different kinds of foods to function.  Awhile back I did this object lesson for him:

He loves playing the wii, so I got the power plug, a controller, super mario kart, a wheel, and the console & tv.  I told him if he wanted to play the wii he could only pick 3 items.  Well he figured out he needed all 6 in order to play.  So then I told him how each part represented things his body needed to be healthy and work.  The TV was breads/grains, the console was dairy, the power cord was fruits, the game was vegetables, the controller was meats, and the wheel was sugars/fats.  Then I explained of all these the one thing he could do without and still be able to play was the wheel (sugars/fats), but that it makes things more fun.

That analogy worked for a month or two, and now we are back to trying a different tactic.  Today I found this little movie from Disney made in 1945 that was pretty cute and got the point across in cartoon format!  It’s pretty cute.  So here’s hoping!  Here’s the link to the movie: