Making funny faces, telling food stories and sneaking vegetable purees in their food, basically, you have tried everything. As a parent you still find it challenging sometimes, to make your child eat healthily.
When you want your child to explore more eating options, try food games for kids. These games make eating time more cheerful and kids tend to relish food when they are also involved in the making, through some interesting food activities.
In this post, MomJunctions shares 17 food games and activities for kids because food and fun go hand in hand.
17 Interesting Food Games And Activities For Children
Fun Food Games Your Kids Will Love
Is your child a fussy eater? Here is a list of fun food games for kids to bring a change in their eating habits.
1. String the cereal
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If your child is already into jewelry, then let them make a food fashion statement. You will require a ribbon or a string and some colorful cereal.
How to play:
- Lay down the cereal on a platform.
- Take the ribbon long enough to cover the child’s neck. Tie a knot on one end and keep the other end open for the cereals to pass through.
- Pass the colorful cereals through the ribbon and tie a knot on the other side too, to secure it.
- Your colorful cereal necklace is ready.
- If there is more than one child, you can hold a competition between them – the child who strings the maximum cereals and eats them in a minute wins.
2. Match the food item
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You can use this fun food game to teach your little learner about food. Gather some food items, a card paper, and a pencil.
How to play:
- Write down the name of the food item on the cards, preferably in a sentence format. Make sure kids try to learn about the food item while writing their names.
- Jumble all the cards.
- The challenge for your child is to match the card with the food item.
- When kids touch and feel the item, they tend to remember it better.
3. Marshmallow tower
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This game of marshmallow tower is suitable for the younger kids as it requires minimal effort.
How to play:
- Find a flat surface like a kitchen top or a dining table.
- Stack the marshmallows into a tower, starting from a broader base for the foundation.
- Add layers after each step and reduce one marshmallow from each layer.
- The top layer must have just one marshmallow, and your tower is complete.
4. Guess the sauce
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The blindfolded taste test brings lots of laughs. Keep your cameras ready so that you can cherish these memories for many years. Get some sauces, food items or mix them all up to make this challenge a lot more interesting. At least two players are required to play this game.
How to play:
- Blindfold one player.
- Lay down all the jars of sauces.
- The rest of the players have to make the blindfolded person taste each sauce and guess the name.
- The player who identifies the maximum number of sauces wins.
Tip: Do not include any allergic sauce, which may upset the health of the players.
5. Eat the donut
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Donuts are yummy and mouth-watering. But, how will you eat them when your hands are tied? To play this game, you need donuts, string to tie them up, a rope to tie the hands of each participant and a gang of players.
How to play:
- Tie the donuts on a string.
- Hook this string up to a tree or a low ceiling roof.
- Handcuff the players.
- The challenge for the players is to eat as many donuts as possible, without using their hands.
6. Berries in the mouth
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To play this intriguing game, you will require strawberries, blueberries, and yogurt. Set up a timer, to make it more challenging.
How to play:
- Fill up a bowl or a plate with yogurt.
- Strategically place the berries inside the yogurt in various parts of the bowl.
- The players have to eat all the berries in the designated time. The only condition is that they cannot use their hands.
7. Slurp the spaghetti
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Try this challenge if you have a children’s party at home or maybe when your little one is refusing to eat.
How to play:
- Fill up the bowls with spaghetti pasta.
- Without using their hands, players have to slurp and finish it.
- The player who finishes the entire bowl first wins the game.
8. Cookie cutting
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Kids enjoy munching on cookies, and they love it, even more, when they come in exciting shapes and sizes.
How to play:
- Parents can help the kids mix the cookie dough by adding flour, butter, vanilla extract, and chocolate chip cookies. Add nuts and raisins too.
- Roll the dough on the kitchen counter.
- The fun begins when kids start cutting cookies in shapes of their choice.
- Bake them for about 10 minutes. Bon appetit.
Fun Food Activities For Children
Here are some healthy food activities for kids to enjoy eating.
9. Decorate the cupcake
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Is your child a patissière in the making? Inspire the little chefs to pursue their passion by assigning this fun activity.
Parents can mix the dough and bake the cupcakes in the oven. Once the cakes are out looking fluffy and delicious, kids can decorate them with frosting, sprinkles, and drizzle some caramel or chocolate sauce.
10. Chopstick challenge
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If your little munchkin enjoys Chinese food, then this food activity for kids is perfect for them. Buy a set of chopsticks and serve a dish of noodles with it. Now watch your kid going crazy while trying to eat with chopsticks. Giggles! On a serious note, learning to eat with chopsticks can improve the fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination in children.
11. Pluck’em up
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Head out on a fun adventure where kids get to learn about the direct source of fruits and vegetables. Grab a basket and visit the nearest farm or an orchard. This is also a really nice way to teach kids about how farming is done. Children can learn a lot about the process of farming and appreciate nature if they have such experiences at a farm.
12. Letter your pasta
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This is one of the food activities for kids, which will fascinate and enable your child to learn the alphabet and numbers. Buy a packet of alphabet style pasta from your nearest grocery store. Place all of them on a table, and let your child identify each letter and number.
13. Jazz up your bread
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Why eat a plain sandwich, when you can have fun with it? Grab a slice of bread, spread some Nutella over it and jazz it up with your child’s favorite fruits. But what’s the activity in it? Give all the ingredients to your child for them to decorate the sandwich the way they want. The only rule is they eat the sandwich once they are done with decoration.
14. Gingerbread house competition
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Have fun with gingerbread, frosting, sprinkles and some candies. Let the kids compete with their friends or siblings and see who designs the most beautiful gingerbread house.
15. Cracker pyramid
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This food activity tests the skills of the kids at a whole new level. Building a pyramid teaches them patience and develops their cerebral abilities. All you need are graham crackers or some wafers to build a pyramid. Place the crackers in a triangular fashion, keeping a higher number at the base and reducing one triangle at each level.
16. Smoothie challenge
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If your kids dislike eating fruits, involve them in this smoothie challenge. Supply them with fruits, milk and a blender. Help the kids with chopping and peeling of the fruits. Add the ingredients to the blender and turn it on. Whoop, a delicious and healthy drink is ready.
Tip: Parents supervision and assistance is mandatory.
17. Paint an egg
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Decorating and painting a fragile egg is a challenging yet fun exercise. Kids can use watercolors or sharpies and apply their vivid imagination to paint an egg.
A healthy outside starts from the inside – Robert Urich. Childhood is the best time to inculcate healthy eating habits in children, and parents can be innovative in their approach. This will also help a child in understanding and appreciating healthy food.
How do you make food interesting for your children? Let us know about your child’s favorite food games and activities, in the comments section below.
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