By info@hyackinteractive.ca

Five Healthy Snacks

I have fond memories of coming home from school to visit with my grandmother. She always had a plate full of snacks for me because she knew I would be ravenous after that long day of learning. If you’re looking for a few ideas to liven up your afternoon snack time here are 5 healthy snacks for your kids and let’s be realistic… for you too!

Wait is there kale in this Smoothie?

Sweet and tasty your kids will never guess that it’s chock full of greens. You’ll need:

Frozen or fresh berries, almond milk, banana and kale.

Cut the stems and use the kale leaves only, add everything into the blender and zap away! Pour into glasses and enjoy.

Sassy Salsa Tofu RollsWrap and Roll

The best way to get kids to eat nutritious food is to let them help with the preparations. Your little chefs can dip the rice paper and choose their fillings.

Rice paper, carrot, cucumber, radishes, celery salad greens, fresh herbs, your choice of dip.

Grate carrot, cucumbers and radishes. Chop celery into long strings and rip apart salad greens and herbs. Place all veggies and herbs onto a large platter in separate piles.

Pour warm water into a bowl and dip one rice paper at a time. Pull the rice paper out when it has gotten soft (but not so soft that it tears too easy) place on plate and add your filling. Roll the rice paper up into a spring roll and dip in your choice of dip. I personally like a Thai peanut sauce, delish!

Best Popcorn Topping Ever

Need a snack to help you get through watching Frozen for the fiftieth time? You can’t go wrong with popcorn and this delicious topping which is a great source of Vitamin B12 and Omega 3.

Air popped popcorn, nutritional yeast flakes, flax seed oil and sea salt.

Mix three tablespoons of flax seed oil into your bowl of popped popcorn and if you need to add a bit more to make sure your popcorn is well covered than please do so. While you are mixing your oil in start sprinkling your nutritional yeast flakes (affectionately known as nooch). Add a pinch of salt and presto you’ve got a popcorn snack that you won’t want to share with anyone it’s that good.

Mexi Tofu Scramble Burrito

Need some protein and calcium fast? Tofu is great source of both. Also if you purchase organic tofu than you can be reassured that it is non-GMO.

Medium Tofu package, can of black beans, frozen corn, mild salsa and small corn tortillas.

Place half the tofu into a medium hot frying pan and break it up until it has the same consistency as scrambled eggs. Add 1/3 cup of black beans, 1/3 cup of corn and continue frying until the majority of the water has evaporated. Add three tablespoons of salsa and mix well. Spoon tofu scramble into tortillas and eat them up right away or let them cool, wrap them up and pop them in the freezer for later.

Heavenly Chocolate Avocado Mousse

Did you know you can turn avocados into a creamy delicious healthy dessert? Here is a great way to use up a ripe avocado. You’ll need:

Coconut oil, avocado, cocoa, agave syrup (or substitute maple syrup cause we’re Canadian eh?) and berries for the topping.

For full instructions visit the Raw Chocolate Mousse recipe here!

Kids and the Internet

The day I told my six-year-old that he couldn’t have his own YouTube channel, he cried as though his heart was broken. By YouTube’s rules, Wesley had to be at least 13 years old – and to be honest, I thought even that sounded a little young.

I underestimated the power of my son’s dream to become a YouTuber, thinking they were like my own daydreams at that age that I might be ‘discovered’ singing in my front driveway and become a star. But the world has changed. My son doesn’t dream of his talents being “discovered.” He knows that he already has the power to share his talents with the world, if only his mama would let him.

minecraftParenting kids in an age where even a six-year-old kid is technically capable of making, uploading and sharing his videos is really difficult. As I have already discovered, even when I think I’m doing a good job of setting limits on technology use, my son’s peers are outpacing me. We’ve been sharing funny cat videos and YouTube clips from Sesame Street with our kids since they were toddlers, but my kids never YouTubed alone … until a neighbourhood friend introduced my son to the world of Minecraft game walkthroughs. Suddenly even my four-year-old knew how to use the iPad to find and watch Stampylongnose and iBallistic Squid share their exploits in Minecraft.

At first, I panicked. Who knew what he’d been exposed to? I talked myself down, and decided to find out. As calmly and casually as I could, I asked Wes about Stampylongnose and the other Minecraft YouTubers he had discovered. What were their videos about? What did he like about them? I sat down and cuddled on the couch with my boy and we watched a few videos together. In the videos, the gamers simply narrate what they are doing as they play. Because Minecraft is such an open-ended game, it can actually get pretty interesting to see what people have built, and often they share how they have done it so that their audience can make their own version when they play. The videos are not what I would choose to spend time watching, but there’s nothing wrong with them.

As parents, our job is not to protect our kids from all risk. Risk is part of life. I want my kids to learn how to assess and mitigate risks, not avoid them. Yes, there are corners of the Internet that are dark and full of dangers, but as I’ve learned in my own life, when used thoughtfully, social media can be a great force for good, too.

With my kids, I have decided to teach them about the Internet in a similar way to how we teach them about sex, drugs, death and other awkward but essential topics: I aim to provide just enough information, (hopefully) just in time, and be available to listen and answer questions whenever the kids need to talk.

We talk about how not all videos on YouTube are intended for kids, and some of the things to watch out for, such as bad language (which he is already aware of from school friends). I tell him to come talk to me if he sees anything that he has questions about or that makes him feel uncomfortable. And I check in regularly, listening in and asking questions about what he’s up to. Advertising is something else we talk about. We hardly watch any cable television at our house, so most of the ads my children see are on YouTube. For the most part, they skip the ads, but when an ad does catch their attention they often mention it to me and we talk about what the ad is selling and what it means.

I think it’s great that he wants to make his own videos, so I am supporting him by finding age-appropriate classes where he can learn the tools and tricks of the trade. I have already bought him a tripod to make it easier to make stop-motion videos with the Lego app on his iPod, and if he remains interested I may get him some more equipment to make videos for future birthdays and Christmases.

As for having his own YouTube account? The answer is still no. In time we’ll cross that bridge, but for now I am encouraging him to make videos for sharing with us and his friends only.

 

Bio: Briana Tomkinson is a New Westminster parent.