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Healthy Children Happy Children

I’m sure many of you will have seen in the news recently about
children being overweight and having un-healthy lifestyles. Diet
and Exercise feature in the proposed new Ofsted Framework
which is out for consultation at the moment.

Here at ChipMonks we believe it is part of our duty to ensure the children in our
care have a healthy lifestyle with good diet and lots of physical play.

There is so much hidden sugar in lots of unexpected places and this can really
catch you out. We cook all our meals freshly every day and include lots of
vegetables in every dish – sometimes hidden! But we also encourage the older
children to make healthy choices by providing vegetables separately and
supporting the children to serve these themselves.

Snacks are mainly fruit and rice cakes or bread sticks with an occasional plain
biscuit as a treat! The children only drink milk or water at ChipMonks and we
encourage this practise at home too. Half the sugar that children eat comes in
the form of snacks and sugary drinks and these are not great for little ones.

We are in the process of setting up our own vegetable garden so the children
can immerse themselves in the whole process of growing, nurturing, harvesting
and eating what they grow!

Small children don’t often get out of breath but we are good at running round
and playing lots outdoors to encourage this. Our outdoor space is fabulous and
it’s great to watch the children making the most of it. Our Forest School
sessions, run by Hayley who is our qualified Forest School Leader, are amazing
– watching the children engage with nature and use their imagination to make
planks of wood, sticks and other natural objects into space ships and fairy
castles is very satisfying – I say bin the plastic toys!

A great source of information for us is the Change 4 Life web site https://
www.nhs.uk/change4life. They have some fantastic, easy ideas for making small
changes to your lifestyle that will set your children up for a healthy happy life –
why not take a look.

Helen Monks
Owner/Manager
ChipMonks Day Nursery Hellifield

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