Tuesday 7 October 2008

Why home educate? (7) Food

Squirrel cooks dinner today. And here it is. A sweet carroty soup...

a stuffed red pepper ...


and something ill advised, out of season, crippled-the-planet-with-air-miles and How much! For a punnet of strawberries! all on a pastry base.


Sadly, there are some things to which I cannot say No. Squirrel with her big eyes asking for sparkly shoes and strawberries being one of them.

And food is an excellent reason to home educate. We cook together, eat together, and plan dinner as a social occasion and family-bonding luurve thing. We also get some very good education via our gnashers about politics, food economics, food history, where in the world sweetcorn will grow (but not in our garden) and why our cabbages get eaten (by bugs). And right now I am glorying in all that food related education and feeling very, very, smug.

Now please look away and count to 10. And if the anger is still there, you can march right in and punch me in the face.

Or you come back in ten years time and take pity on me when I am pouring out my bucketfuls of sad heartache chronicling our teenage girl battles with anorexia and eating disorders.

6 comments:

Tim Atkinson said...

Anger? Jealousy, more like. But I'm with you 100% on the importance of meals - growing, preparing then eating. It's one of life's most important rituals.

Minnie said...

My daughter loves fruit. The expensive sort, strawberries and raspberries included. She gets a fiver a week and buys what she wants. It is all promptly consumed. No waste. Don't know where it goes though, as she is quite slender. lol

She normally helps with cooking and made her own breakfast today (an egg and bacon sarni). Tomorrow, apparently, she is going to make pancakes:o) Cereal or toast is too boring!!!

Ten years time? I reckon our girls will be ok:o))

sharon said...

With eating habits like that Grit, I don't think you will have dietary problems from the Gritlets even when they do hit their teens. Involvement to this extent will foster a life-long love of food, its preparation and provenance. Good for you.

R. Molder said...

I remember cooking with my mom as far back as I can remember anything. She was and still is a first grade teacher so she had the summers off and we would spend the days harvesting food from our garden, visiting apple orchards to pick the fruit and canning everything in site. It was awesome and I'm an excellent cook as an adult. I wonder sometimes why some parents are so quick to ship their kids off to summer camp. My bosses wife for example has their daughter enrolled in a different camp for every week of summer vacation at the age of 7.

Grit said...

hi dotterel, it's a big reason for us to home ed - i watched too many kids chomping their breakfast of sweets and crisps in the form room to think that was an influence my kids would be immune from.

that sounds lovely, minnie! today we had apple cake and peaches for breakfast!

hi sharon! i feel for any parent who has had problems with children and food; really we have never had those problems and i know i would worry myself sick if we did. i am keeping my fingers crossed and try finding ways to equate food with happy times, fun and pleasure!

hi sb! food and family go together, don't they? and i agree re holidays; time spent playing with food on home ground would do no harm.

Irene said...

Now, I doubt very much that's going to happen, no, not at all.