Snack time has been a source of contention for a while at my house. Each day after school goes something like this: "Mom, can I have 3 oreos?" Me: "No, you can have 2". And a few minutes later: mom, can I also have this other thing. I feel like the snack police.
My sister-in-law Nancy shared a brilliant Snack Basket System a few days ago. Basically, there's one basket of snacks, and each snack is appointed a certain amount of points. The kids get to pick any snack they want, as long as they don't go over the allotted points or number of snacks. (up to 3 points, or 2 snacks a day) Since my kids are a little older and can read for the most part, I'm printing out a list of snacks with assigned points including some fridge items like cheese sticks and yogurt. With this point system, I can still somewhat control what types of snacks they eat. Generally the healthier snacks will cost 1 point. The carby stuff gets 2 points, and the candy and cookies cost 3 points.
This morning, while making my monthly Costco run, I raided the snack isle. I mean, it's ridiculous how many snacks I got, my whole shopping cart was practically filled with them. It seems like enough to last a whole year. But that's the point. Instead of having 2 or 3 choices, the kids get a bunch of different choices. Once the snack basket runs out of one variety, they'll have to choose from the remaining things. I can add snacks as the box gets empty. Plus, if I find a wrapper laying around, they get one point taken away for the next day. (hopefully that won't cause too much policing)
1 comment:
Genius. It's nice that you could just print a list and let them decide from there. We do have some fridge snacks, but I often choose not to get them because they get forgotten since they're not IN the basket.
Good luck!
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