If you are a parent who has struggled to get your child to eat their ‘greens’ then perhaps you might want to introduce them to sprouts and sprouting. Sprouts provide amazing healthy food ideas and there is no better way to turn your children onto the health benefits of sprouted foods than to directly involve them in the sprouting process.
Children naturally love to see things grow and it is usually fairly easy to catch their attention and curiosity when you tell them, ‘We are going to grow our own greens!’ Introducing them to the life processes of germination and sprouting can be very fun when they get to be the little gardeners of their own vegetables.
A story was shared with us about a 9 year old boy who absolutely refused to eat any green vegetables for his whole childhood. The mother had resigned to supplementing his diet with green vitamins that can be purchased in most health food stores.
One day she decided to ask him to help her soak some lentil seeds that she had planned to sprout for her salads. The boy asked why the seeds needed to soak and the mother explained that the seed ‘needs to be awakened from its nap’. The boy’s imagination took over from there and as he filled the jar with water he talked to the seeds saying, ‘wake up you sleepy heads, it’s time to go to work’.
The boy stayed with those seeds throughout their process of awakening and the mother told him a story of how the little seeds only job they wanted to have was to help human bodies to become like them – strong, healthy, and energized. The boy asked how they would help his body become that way and the mother told him that all he had to do was allow them into his body and they would do all the work from inside!
The boy loved the idea of his newfound friends becoming a part of him and by the time the little tails showed up on those lentil sprouts he could not wait to sit down and enjoy them. The mother said he told them before he ate them, ‘okay little guys, now that you are wide awake and ready to go, you need to come to the factory where you have been hired.’ She was amazed at how he then began sprouting for himself, each time assigning his new employees with jobs like ‘today you are going to help me jump high and run faster’.
Use your imagination and engage your child into the wonders of the life processes of their bodies through them being able to steward the life process of a little seed that will help him to grow! You can also use you imagination with the possibilities of healthy food ideas that sprouts and sprouted foods opens up.
{ 1 comment }
Have you seen these crazy bean sprouters that are attached to the flush of your toilet for rinsing? I am all for fresh sprouts and good sprouting results but do you really want your food to be coming out of your toilet or bathroom and on to your table? I am sure you can pick up a clean water source from inside the cistern of your toilet but you will have: