Boy Oh Boy! Boise Combats Childhood Obesity With New Child Care Workshop Series
When parents are busy at work all day, child care providers play a crucial role in maintaining a child’s health and wellbeing.
That’s why the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health and the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children (Idaho AEYC) have teamed up to provide Boise-area child care providers with a series of free educational workshops.
Providers learned about appropriate portion sizes for young kids as part of a lesson on healthy eating.
The series is based on the First Lady’s Let’s Move! Child Care initiative whose main goals include increasing physical activity, reducing screen time, serving more fruits and veggies, avoiding sugary drinks, and supporting moms who choose to breastfeed.
With such success, the Boise team has some tips for you on how to develop workshops in your area:
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Collaborate with programs in your area
Look for other groups in your area with an interest in combating childhood obesity that may want to help with providing materials and funding for workshops. In Idaho, Idaho AYEC was able to partner with Let’s Move! Boise and IdahoSTARS for support.
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Use community resources
Invite local organizations to be guest presenters or share resources at workshops. Examples include community garden projects, a Cooperative Extension Office and a Child and Adult Food Care Program Sponsor. Idaho AEYC invited the Boise Urban Garden School to introduce hands-on activities for children that teach kids how to make good choices about the food they eat.
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Provide incentives
Offer awards, materials, or incentives to child care providers that attend all of the workshops and complete the Let’s Move! Child Care Checklist Quiz, a simple online quiz that asks providers questions about physical activity and nutrition. In Boise, engaged participants received free continuing education credits, lesson plans with sample activities geared toward LMCC, sample policies around nutrition and physical activity that they could incorporate into their child care settings, and a goody bag full of hands-on materials.
Boy oh boy, aren’t you excited? Start planning your own workshop masterpiece today!
