The reason this all came about is that in between swim lessons, art class, ballet class, playdates, library visits and more the kids and I mapped out nine weeks of themes to keep us busy over the summer. Last year during our move from Virginia to Seattle my children were out of school from April until September. I did my best to keep home schooling up and running but it was no easy task. By September I was pulling my hair out and the kids were so board. Therefore this summer had to be different.
So far we are on a successful role with week one: the human body. We visited the dentist, who spoiled us and showed us more about our mouth and teeth then I ever knew my entire life. Now this may sound boring but we have a super fun dentist on the shores of Greenlake, Greenlake Children's Dentistry. Relaxed, modern, open, bright, gold coins for good kids that work in the toy machines at the end of the visit, a wonderful dentist, Dr. Troy Hull are a few of the things that make this place great but best of all is the office dog, Clover. Next we visited our family doctor in Ballard and to finish out the week we made a painting using different parts of our bodies (besides our hands) and traced large self portraits to color in as the kids saw fit.
Following up this week is week two: food. During the down time this week we have gone grocery shopping with our food pyramids and tallied our purchase to see out we eat. Thankfully we topped out on fruit and grains with only a couple sugars. This week has also focused on evening family walks and using the new My Plate diagram to eat our lunches and family dinners. The children love choosing what to fill their plates. 
Now the design part of this comes in the actual infographic challenge that took place earlier this year. Some of the designs I looked at were more confusing while others were so simple and clean. It is such a joy to look at information and be able to decipher it without much effort. I think a lot of times people think graphic design is hiring someone to make a product pretty but there is so much more to a design if you choose to put a message behind the image. Below are a few images from the challenge I found graphically interesting however if you want to see more follow this link, www.good.is/post/submissions-design-the-new-food-pyramid/.
What I found the most intersesting about the new My Plate design is that to me it seems like a direct version of what the UK uses. This got me thinking though about different cultures and how we all eat differently. Does that mean the food graph changes? The basics seem the same but yes we all eat different graphically speaking. Here is a look at the UK and a Chinese food chart.
Next I wanted to see what was out there, product wise to help my family make good eating choices. To tell the truth I think I have found a void in the marketing industry and in the next few weeks the kids and I will be visiting the ceramic shop to make our own versions of My Plates on real dishes. What I did find were two awesome designs but only two after quite a while of searching. Pictured at the top of this post is the Nutri-Plate and a less visual but just as user friendly and easier to measure plate is the Portion Size Matters.
Learning to eat healthy is not the only important thing about food at our house it is also learning how to eat sweets, fats and junk-food in moderation with limits. So to finish out our week about food the kids, grandma and I will be visiting Boehm's Chocolates tomorrow to take the factory tour and see how a candy chocolate is made. The best part is we get to taste samples. If pictures are allowed I'll be sure to post the tour for all of you to enjoy too. I'm curious would you buy a My Plate design to feed your kids with?
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