So my daycare kids have great parents who know tons about nutrition but due to their busy lives often send food that's not... quite what I would say is the healthiest.

So I approached all of the parents about including lunch with daycare for a small fee increase (of 2.50 per day) and everyone was on board!

Today we made STONE SOUP!!!! Everyone got to choose an ingredient. So other than the stone we had:

turkey jello (stock)
brown rice
onions
garlic
red and green peppers
summer squash
zucchini
corn
celery
cabbage
can of stewed tomato's
pepper, bay leaves and Mrs. Dash salt free table blend...

it was SO FREAKING GOOD! The kids all gobbled up bowls of it with organic wheat crackers, sprouted grain bread with raw cow milk butter (I made it) orange slices and fresh mozza cheese!

Lunch #1. Giant hit for all

And during the entire time everyone got to help, we talked about all of the vegetables and where they came from and their colours etc. It was a fantastic morning. After our soup was made we read the book "Stone Soup" and then we made pet rocks A bunny, kitten, frog, ladybug and snail.

Awww that is friggin awesome!!!!

That's great. The parents will appreciate it more than you know because kids will generally try things for other people (grandma, babysitter, aunts, and uncles, etc...) than they will for mom or dad. My kids learned to love many unique things at the babysitter's house that they never would have tried for me. Kudos to you!

Congratulations - most of the daycares in this area do serve lunch, and there really isn't an option to pack your child's lunch. A large piece of my daycare choice had to do with the food served. My son did go to one that had real food, and some variety to the menu.

But getting the kids involved in the lunch making and tying this in with the book is a great idea!

My son's off to kindergarten now, and he has totally rejected school lunches in favor of mom's lunches. Maybe not always the healthiest, but potato chips aren't in the picture either.

Ok, I want to come stay with you and learn how to make that butter!

CFMama - for a while, I was helping a friend of mine with activities for snacks for her kids (she worked as program director for an after school program for at-risk kids). We did things like "Make your own popcorn" (airpop a batch, put out seasonings/spices/etc like cinnamon, italian seasoning, garlic powder, lemon pepper, etc, put some in individual paper bags and let the kids season), "Fruit Dippers" (bowls of fruit for the kids the skewer, accompanied by greek yogurt-based dips sweetened with fruit jam or a touch of honey), and Veggie Creatures from Outer Space (a bunch of different shapes of veggies - kids can arrange them into creature shapes and decorate them with dippables like guac, salsa, etc). All of these came with an individual nutrition message/goal (the popcorn one was about fiber, the fruit dippers about calcium from the yogurt, the Veggie Creatures was "good fats", from the avocado).

The kids liked them!

for such a great idea and for doing something that will hopefully impact those kids and help them be healthy for the rest of their lives. Stone soup is a good one too

Sounds like an awesome day spent with the kids!

What a great lesson! They will not forget that, either And I bet the parents are SO happy to know they don't have to make lunch AND what they are getting is healthy. You rock! I bet you get some great feedback from the parents on that.

Can I come to your daycare? That sounds like so much fun!

I kind of wish I was about twenty years younger, lived in your vicinity, and went to your daycare, just for the food.

why is there stone in the soup???? LOL

Trazey: google "Stone Soup book" and you'll find out why The jist is that there was three soldiers that were hungry and they conned a village into giving them stuff for a soup. The base for the soup was... 3 stones! Hence stone soup!

Mandalline! Thanks for those ideas! We often do fun and funky stuff for snacks but I like the "lesson" behind it in your post. I'll have to do that!

Raw butter. Well first you need raw milk... and that is illegal to sell and not easy to buy. Thankfully I have a connection with a farm where I can get quarts of raw cows milk from. Then I let it sit for 24 hours. let the cream separate and then skim the cream and throw it in my cuisinart food processor! I then... TURN IT ON. And walk away Until it's a big lump o butter in the bottom. Then I pack it, rinse it in clear water and salt it with some chunky sea salt. I pack it into a ball and keep it in my "butter bell" and it stays good for a few days out... more in the fridge. There are no preservatives and it's not cooked but trust me... it won't last long My family will eat the amount I make on EVERYTHING and it will be gone within a day or two.

Goodness you have one "rockin" daycare!! Good job for getting the kids involved, my kids LOVE to help me cook... I can't wait to get moved and have a kitchen that is big enough for all of us to be in there without someone getting hurt.

Oh man, I want to go to your daycare!

I remember being in like 3rd grade and acting out that book in reading class. I got to be the lead, whichever part that was...the "king" maybe? (I think I was picked because I was the best out-loud reader...not for gender, obviously LOL).