The Pot and the Peach Pit: Story on Healthy Food for Children
What wonderful peaches the little girl’s mum brought home from the market! First she washed them carefully and put them in a dish, and then she brought them into the room where her daughter was lying in bed sick. The little girl had a bad flu, and for three days she’d had a fever and felt sick to her stomach.
The night before the doctor had taken a look at her and gave her mother some advice: “Go to the market and get her some peaches. They help fight off a sick stomach and are very good for the digestion. They also have a lot of vitamin C and pectins, which are important for fighting off infections.”
“Look how rosy they are!” the pale-faced little girl cried delightedly, reaching for the dish.
“Yes, the peaches are really beautiful,” her mum agreed and offered her daughter the juiciest one. “That’s why they have such a delightful name.”
The peach turned out to be good and sweet, and smelled even better than usual.
“What a big pit it’s got, like a little rock,” the girl said in surprise as she eyed the hefty, wrinkled-looking stone. “I wonder what’s inside?”
“Bitter seeds that smell like almonds,” her mum answered, happy that her daughter seemed to have got some life back into her.
“Mum, if we plant the pit in a pot, will a peach tree grow out of it?” the curious little one asked.
“I think it would, if we remember to take good care of it. But,” her mum admitted, “I’ve never tried growing a fruit tree at home before.”
The girl’s mum had a lot of house plants. Thanks to her wise care they had beautiful-smelling flowers the whole year round.
“Mum, let’s plant the peach pit! Please, mummy!” the little girl said, thinking up everything she could to persuade her. “Just imagine, we’ll have our very own peaches growing right at home. I promise I’ll take care of it.”
“Okay, dear, let’s do it,” her mum eventually agreed, and she brought a spacious pot full of earth in from the balcony.
A few days later, when her daughter was feeling better, the big pot with the wonderful peach pit took up its place beside her bed. For a long time the little girl watched the dark earth that filled the pot almost to the brim, and dreamed of the little peach tree that would grow from it.
“Oh, I wish it would hurry up!” she thought. “I’m just dying to pick a peach from my own darling tree.”
No sooner did she think that thought than a beautiful fairy carrying a basket of peaches flew in and landed on the pot. “I’m the mistress of a big peach orchard,” she explained in a cheery voice, “and I’m giving you this basket of my very best peaches. You’re a clever girl! Not just everyone tries to grow a peach tree in their house, you know.”
With a worried frown the girl asked, “What if my tree doesn’t grow?”
“I’ll tap your pot with my magic peach twig,” the fairy assured her. “Then your tree will be sure to grow.”
“Oh good fairy! I’d love to visit your big orchard, I’ve never seen a peach tree before,” the girl said a little sadly.
“Well, now, that’s not a problem. Just have one of my juicy peaches to get yourself ready for the trip, and we’re off! Did you know that peaches are one of the best fruits for you? They’re just full of fructose sugar and organic acids,” the fairy explained, and she took a big rosy peach from her basket.
“My mum says that peaches have a beautiful name,” the girl said as she munched noisily on the fairy’s gift.
“You must have a wonderful mum,” the fairy said with a smile, and then she tapped the little girl with her magic twig. Suddenly they were in the fairy’s orchard.
“What a delicious smell!” the girl exclaimed as she looked around in delight and breathed in the orchard’s peach-scented air. She set off down a narrow path that ran beside the row of modest trees with wide-spreading branches and reddish-brown, scaly bark. She ran her finger the length of a long, green leaf to its pointed tip.
“Welcome, friend, we’re glad you came to visit,” the trees greeted her in friendly tones, and waved their branches, which were absolutely covered with great rosy peaches. “Continue along this path and you’ll come to our gardener’s house. He’ll serve you up some peach tea with delicious peach jam, and tell you anyting you’d care to ask.”
Soon the girl saw a tidy little house with a kindly man standing on the steps. He smiled and stepped aside to let her pass.
“Please do come in, my dear, it’s been ages since I’ve had any visitors. And today I’ve baked a peach pie using the fairy’s own recipe, you’re sure to love it.”
Over the tea, delicious-smelling jam and flaky pie – which absolutely melted in her mouth – the curious little girl asked all about peaches and peach trees.
“When do peach trees bloom, and what colour are the flowers?”
“The flowers are pinkish-coloured and usually come out even earlier than the leaves, in March or April,” the old gardener answered. “Peach leaves and flowers are like medicine – they relax you. I gather them every year, and dry them.”
“Why have some of your peaches lost their fuzz? They’re smooth.”
“Those are nectarines – that’s what we call fuzzless peaches. The nectarine fairy has a great big tree farm in China , our peach fairy gave her the pits to plant. The trees are a lot like peach trees – they don’t like cold, either – and they get sick from the same diseases, grow the same amount of fruit which are just of full of vitamins and energy, just like fuzzy peaches. Honestly, I can’t imagine what isn’t inside a peach or nectarine: they’ve got iron, and silicon, and phosphor, and plenty of sugar for energy.”
“I think that nectarines are like peaches that are all dressed up,” the little girl said. “Peaches are like a patch of sun on a dull day, and nectarines are like bright sunshine.”
“You’re very observant. Also, nectarine skin doesn’t tear so easily as peach skin, so they’re much easier to collect and store and move from place to place.” the gardener commented with a smile.
“Tell me, please, does the peach fairy have her own house in the orchard, and where has she gone off to? Why did she disappear as soon as I got here?”
“Our peach fairy lives in every peach pit, in every peach tree and every single peach. Sometimes she sleeps in one of her little houses, sometimes she’s busy flying about with her magic twig helping people to grow those marvellous peach trees,” the gardener answered. “Of course, she only goes to those who want to make their trees happy.”
Before long the friendly fairy herself came for the girl and tapped her again with the magic twig, and … she woke up.
“Good morning, darling,” she heard her mother say in a voice she knew so well. “How did you sleep?”
“Mummy, the good peach fairy came to see me, and then she took me to visit her orchard. Just imagine! It was so beautiful! Now I know everything about peaches, and my peach tree is sure to be wonderful, because she tapped the pot with her magic twig.”
Smiling, the little girl cast a fond glance at the pot, where the fairy was asleep inside the cozy pit. And her mother smiled too.
***
Healthy Recipes included in the story:
Fruit soup
- 2 peaches
- 2 apples 1 pear
- 100g cherries
- 2 tbsp soured cream
Remove the peel and seeds from the peaches, apples and pear, chop the fruits into small chunks and place in a bowl. Remove the stones from the cherries. Grind together the cherries and fruit skins. Place the cherries and skins in a pan of boiling water, and simmer for two hours. Pour the fruit-infused water over the bowl of fruit chunks and add the soured cream.
Cheese soufflé with peaches
- 500 g of cottage cheese
- 850 ml. of peach compote
- 1 cup of soured cream
- ½ a cup of caster sugar
Mix the cottage cheese with half a cup of the peach compote, and mix together thoroughly. Mix the soured cream with the caster sugar and add to the cottage cheese mixture. Add the rest of the peach compote and decorate with slices of peach.
Lifestyle › Fitness clubs catering to children enjoy brisk business
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Chile: Post-quake support for thousands of children
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Yoga for Children Antidote to Stressed Families
Yoga for Children is a wonderful antidote to the hectic lives that our children lead. Yoga can be relaxing, stimulating, and promotes well being. It provides closely controlled exercise and is enormous fun for children at the same time.
A number of Yoga for Children programmes have been created by Yoga teachers to introduce the benefits of yoga and relaxation at an early age in a playful, simple and fun way. The combination of special yoga moves, breathing exercises and relaxations will energize, strengthen, loosen and balance little bodies, while helping to calm and control and relax little minds.
Kids yoga is a wonderful opportunity for the child to learn life skills that can be implemented into their daily routine. Whether it\’s breathing and relaxation techniques that will help them, focus, concentrate or be calm; or postures that will help their endurance, flexibility, balance and coordination these are all very naturally a strong part of yoga.
Yoga for children is most successful if the children are encouraged to use their imagination. A dynamic, creative and stimulating approach grabs the children\’s attention.
Yoga for children is practiced in the United Kingdom. It is not new to Britain, with after-school clubs and classes gaining popularity in recent years as parents realize its wide-ranging benefits. What is new to the UK, however, is the method of Research on Yoga in Education (RYE), an international non-profit making organization which blends the standard school curriculum with exercises on concentration, attention and relaxation, drawn mainly from traditional yoga.
What is also claimed is that Yoga for children gives the benefit that the children may be protected from injuries and at the same time they get all the benefits of exercising the system. This is not to suggest that the other exercise including outdoor forms of exercises and sports and games are not beneficial.
Parents have expressed appreciation for the presentation of yoga in a playful manner with its presentation of actively moving exercises balanced with those that require stillness and inner concentration, all in a child-friendly way. Parents may be practicing yoga themselves, and kids are always interested in what their parents are up to.
When assessing yoga trainers for children, parents should also inquire as to the spiritual nature of the classes; some instructors take a strong religious stance, while others offer no particular religious slant, instead focusing simply on the movements and breathing.
In the best classes the kids learn balance with dozens of yoga poses, develop strength, improve coordination and enhance their flexibility all with these children\’s yoga exercises. Furthermore, kids develop an overall sense of strength, flexibility and well-being, while they get hold of their active lives and sometimes overactive minds. Kids get to prowl, growl and wiggle through yoga animal poses from Alligator to Zebra! Certified children\’s yoga instructors will introduce stretching, breathing, standing poses and simple meditation.
Kids yoga provides an answer to children who we might described as being are little bit harder to reach, although we stand firm with our belief that every child has an angel deep down inside them.
We have said that children’s Yoga allows a child to deal with daily stress. What do we mean by that?
The answer is that each time a child enters a Yoga class for kids, he or she can “close the door” on negative feelings that stress overload brings. They can simply put that behind them throughout the lesson and afterward doing that tend to take a more mature perspective. Kids need a way to manage all of their stress and anxiety. It is not healthy for a child to feel so much anxiety over any given situation.
There you have it! Kids and yoga seem like a natural match. It can be immensely therapeutic for those who need it.
However, yoga can be presented well and insensitively. The best trainers recognize that kids need a practice that suits their physical and emotional needs. Luckily, many yoga schools across the nation are responding to the growing interest in yoga for the younger set in a very well managed and sensitive way.
It is a fact that to provide kids yoga a specialized training might be needed, and is in some places being made available, but patience is a key quality needed for Yoga instructors who want to embark on this path. I teach children myself, and a Kids Yoga class has to be well devised, be fun, and include games.
So, we hope that we have shown you how yoga is such a great way to relax and de-stress equally for the child and the adult.
However, did you know that there are even now some yoga practitioners who are providing training to parents in yoga from soon after birth?
By using yoga with babies, parents confidence grows in handling, playing and having fun with their babies. The classes are fun class in a system which also offers gentle post-natal yoga and tummy toning exercises for mummy!
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Simple Healthy Recipes For Children
Children are naturally full of energy, so making sure they have a healthy diet is the most important thing in their lives. Having access to simple healthy recipes for your kids is a must for any family household. Teaching your kids to eat healthy from the very beginning will condition them to continue healthy eating into adulthood.
We all know that kids only want to eat sweets and chocolate, well by learning healthy recipes like smoothies and shakes, you can get them to eat the fresh fruit they need. You can even sneak the odd vegetable in there and they will be none the wiser. Giving them a cool name like “Hulk Juice” or the like will get them more interested in a healthy diet.
Finding a balance between getting your child to eat what they need and letting them eat what they want, is difficult. By rewarding them with a treat for….lets say…..creating the best picture on their plate out of vegetables, or maybe let them have that burger every now and then, so long as they drink a fresh fruit smoothie with it. By allowing the bad stuff in moderation, you will get your children to accept healthy eating more easily.
Don’t keep junk food or other quick fix unhealthy food around the house. To help your children eat a helthier diet, you must ensure they cannot get their hands on the bad habit snacks and candy too readily. If they notice the kind of food around them is healthy fresh fruit and other healthier options, they will become accustomed to it.
Become smoothie buddies. Involving the whole family makes the whole experience much more fun, and much more likely to succeed. Get everyone involved. You can then keep tabs on how each other is doing, and even invent new recipes from time to time.
Enjoy a variety of recipes. For a lot of children, variety is the key to success. Continuously discovering and enjoying new healthy recipes is important in keeping them interested. A recipe collection like “Sensational Smoothies: Drink Your Way To Health Deliciously” is a great way to way to keep them eating healthy.
It is our responsibility to make sure our children grow up to be as healthy as possible. Child obesity is rising constantly and it needs to be stopped. Teaching our kids how to eat healthy is the best way possible for them to become healthy, successful adults. For more ideas and tips visit http://www.squidoo.com/simplerecipesforchildren and ensure your children become the best adult they can be.
Categories: Healthy Recipes Tags: children, Healthy, Recipes, simple
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Nicole Calvano is looking to introduce local families living with autism to a whole new approach for dealing with the disorder: yoga.
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