Active Play
Being active doesn’t have to mean organised or structured sports. Unstructured play that is rule free and often spontaneous and imaginative may even be more beneficial for kids.  Active play not only works the body but also the mind – leading to better social skills, problem solving, concentration, leadership, independence, creativity and even communication through explaining the new game to other people. Some of the best child hood memories are often formed during active play, exploring the garden or playing hide and seek. 
*Help kids to make up active games
* Encourage kids to explore their surroundings (play outside the home with others or on their own)
* Allow kids to be adventurous
* Allow kids to get dirty and run around like kids should.
* Don’t be too protective of your children – allow them some “supervised” freedom to help build independence.
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Sometimes Food
We live in a world that is ruled by junk food, and some foods that should be kept for special occasions are creeping into our life on a regular basis. It’s important to teach kids which foods are everyday foods and which should only be eaten sometimes.  Sometimes means less than twice per week. Unhealthy foods should not be offered as a “treat”, there are many non food or healthy food treats that can be given that won’t lead to a poor relationship with food and poor health. Foods that are sometimes food include:
•    Softdrink
•    Fruit juice ( maximum of 125ml per day – for kids and adults)
•    Chips and biscuits
•    Chocolate and lollies
•    Take away - particularly foods such as chips, deep fried chicken or fish

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Fussy kids
Often kids get fussy when they want to show independence. It’s impossible to force kids to eat foods they don’t want to. However it’s important to keep encouraging kids to eat a wide variety of healthy foods.  Fruit and vegetables are essential components of a balanced diet for adequate intake of fibre, vitamins and minerals.  Some ways to help increase kids intake:
•    Kids learn best by example, so keep eating the recommended 2 fruit and 5 vegetables yourself.
•    Don’t force feed as this will cause a negative association with the food, but encourage kids to at least try a range of different fruit and vegetables and praise them for having a go.
•    Discuss the taste, texture, colour, feel  - often kids think just because vegetables having “funny” colour, taste or texture then it must be “bad”, if they realise you describe the vegetables the same, and you like it, they no longer think it is “strange” and begin to accept the food.
•    Try to make veggies fun, like veggie home-made pizzas or use a cookie cutter to cut shapes in the sweet potato and pumpkin.
•    Allow kids to show independence in many ways not just food choices.
•    Don’t over react to fussiness, stay calm and just keep offering healthy options, when they are hungry they will at least choose something to eat and if all the options are healthy, it won’t matter for the short term.
•    Get kids involved in growing or shopping, washing, and preparing fruit and vegetables, this helps build independence in a positive way.

Fun with Food
It’s great to get kids involved with getting to know food in lots of ways try:
•    Planting some vegetables or herbs
•    Washing or mixing the salad at dinner time while counting the cherry tomatoes.
•    Making fruit or vegetable kebabs
•    Putting veggie toppings on a home made pizza
•    Shaking chunky cut potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrot and parsnip wedges in a bag with a little taco powder, then placing them on a tray, spray with a little oil and bake to make some fun spicy veggie chips.
•    Make some fruit pancakes for a special weekend breakfast, using the fruit to make a face on top of the cooked pancake, will they choose a strawberry or banana nose? What would they like to use for eyes? Ears? Which one will they eat first?
•    Make a checker board with fruit, sliced banana or apple as the white checkers and strawberries or raspberries for the red checkers. When you jump over the checker – you eat the fruit. Or the same can be done for noughts and crosses, who ever wins gets to eat the fruit (which is great way to make eating fruit fun and feel like a treat).