The most recently hired nutritional assistant to the extension office, needed to add more youth to her clientele. The age group, which the current nutritional program, had less attendance was the pre-school to age 8 children. The challenge was how to attract this group to attend, and provide education to parents or guardians who must bring the children. To address this challenge the nutritional assistant used a program designed for this age group of children, The Learning, Eating, and Activities for Primary. As this was a Family group, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance  Education approved curriculum and recipes were used to involve parents in learning too. A Saturday date was chosen in order that more working parents could attend, the program was named Laugh and Learn Play Dates.

Starting with the Learning, Eating, and Activities for Primary story and activities, the children were soon occupied. The challenge followed of being able to pass on information from the adult curriculum to the children’s parents. Exercise mats and a crawl through tunnel, provided by the Children, Youth and Families at Risk program, proved to be the solution to occupy the children and allow the parents to participate. The use of exercise mats and tunnel not only held the interest of the children, allowing their parents to learn, the materials also provided a beneficial and fun physical activity as well.

We successfully completed the diet surveys for the parents attending, and passed on nutrition information and recipes from the Adult curriculum. The children’s learning session was enjoyed as well. The efforts provided an enjoyable program for all, as departing participants all inquired for the date of the next session.