How to Encourage Healthy Snacking After School

Snacking is serious business around my house. With 6 (very busy) kids, everyone heads straight for the kitchen after school. Finding the right balance of delicious and still nutritious snack options can be a challenging task, but luckily we have a healthy snack solution that everyone loves. Halos mandarins are a completely guilt-free snack that my kids are always excited about. Wonderful Halos are sweet, seedless, and easy-to-peel and they are perfect for snacking anytime. We want to thank Wonderful Halos for sponsoring this post so we can share our favorite healthy snacking tips with you.

As a mom of 6, it seems like someone is always in the kitchen looking for a snack, especially once school gets out for the day. Our kitchen is the center of everything in our home and with three little kids and three teens we go through a lot of snacks each afternoon.

I try to encourage healthy food choices whenever I can. This certainly applies to mealtimes but I find that swapping out our snack options for healthier choices can make the biggest impact since snacks are often when my kids just grab whatever they happen to find.

How to Encourage Healthy Snacking

How do you encourage kids to make healthy snacking choices? It’s always a struggle but we’ve found a few tricks that have made a major difference in my home.

Keep snacks accessible

Snacking is an impulse thing at my house. My kids come home from school starving and they don’t want to take the time to make something healthy or wait for me to come up with a healthy choice for them. Having snacks accessible and ready to go makes a huge difference in whether or not my kids make healthy choices.

Wonderful Halos are always a favorite in my house. Even my little 4-year-old twins can peel them on their own and they are great when you need to grab something on the go too so I always try to keep them on hand. We made it even easier by adding a Wonderful Halos jar to our kitchen counter.

Kids will eat what is in the house.

When they come home to a gorgeous jar of sweet, easy-to-peel Halos mandarins, they don’t think twice before grabbing one.

Make snacking memorable with personalized notes

As a working mom, I take any opportunity I can to make the most out of a moment. There are days when I get busy and am tied up with something when my kids get home from school.

On those days, I love to say a quick hello and then let my kids discover a fun little note left with their snack in the kitchen. My hope is that they will remember these notes and sometimes it is easier to express love in writing than it is in person, especially if you have tweens or teens.

Plan your snacks for the week

If I stock up on junk food that is the first thing they will grab. If I keep the kitchen well-stocked with healthy snacks my kids will eat those … and I never hear any complaints.

I’ve learned that when I give my kids free reign they won’t always make the best food choices. I have a few picky eaters and they have been extra challenging when it comes to getting them to eat healthy after school snacks.

I’ve found that the trick to getting kids to snack on healthy foods is to have plenty of healthy options that they love. Fortunately, everyone loves Wonderful Halos and they are completely guilt-free! My kids love that Halos are just their size and the fact that they can peel them on their own. I love that I feel good about serving them and they are so easy for my kids to grab on the go. 

Prep Snacks at the Beginning of the Week

Life during the week gets busy. I find that prepping snacks at the beginning of the week helps the whole week to go smoother. Chop up fruits and veggies, fill up the Halos jar with Halos mandarins, and cook a few healthy homemade treats.

I let me kids know at the beginning of the week what their options are so everyone knows what to grab when they get hungry. When I do this, I get way less complains of “I’m hungry” and “There’s nothing to eat”.

What are your favorite healthy after-school snacks? Learn more about Wonderful Halos HERE.

 

This post has been sponsored by Wonderful Halos.