Angela Howdeshell is the Vice President for Programs and Administration for the Kansas Council for Economic Education, a non-profit organization housed at Wichita State University with a mission of helping Kansas K-12 schools integrate financial literacy and economic education.

As a parent, I worked hard to find many different and creative ways to encourage my child to eat nutritious foods.  I would sneak it in whenever possible and sometimes in very creative ways.  There were times he noticed and then times he did not.  I hoped for more times where he did NOT notice.  Then I would struggle with the decision of whether or not I would tell him what he had just eaten.  Mostly, I chose to wait to tell him until much later down the road after he had eaten it several times.

I know that I learned this game from my mother and father.  They were always trying to convince me that I could not survive on ravioli, burritos and pizza for every meal.  I refused to accept that terrible story that sounded like a big lie to me.  These foods seemed to have everything I thought I needed. Mom definitely tried in every way possible to force me to eat those red, green and orange things coming out of our massive garden, which she dedicated many hours tending to.  Outside of the strawberry patch, there were very few things I would consider trying.  Okay, maybe it had a little to do with a stubborn streak too.  My parents always hoped that I would have my own child that was as picky as I was.  They definitely got their wish!  My son could possibly be worse than I was.

One successful way that I remember my mother succeeding to change my eating plan was with her chocolate zucchini cake.  NEVER would I have touched a zucchini baked, fried, or any other way where it showed any skin, texture or taste of that very beneficial vegetable.  It would just be unacceptable in my books.  She succeeded this rare time and before I even knew it, I was chowing down that amazing cream cheese frosting and grabbing my second piece when she told me what was in the cake.  I had already admitted that I loved it so I had to embrace the fact that I lost the “hide the food” game that day.     Continue reading Teaching Economics through the Lens of Sports →