What a couple of weeks eh?
For years to come, we will be educating our children about how a group of women changed the landscape of Australian history. People will be saying "remember when the Matilda's won the kick off to make it to the world cup finals?"
This image will forever be one of those moments that I will always remember exactly where I was, who I was with and the feeling. Wow! Just wow!
Can you relate?
This time in history opens the doors for so many conversations. One super powerful conversation I think you can have right now is how incredible our body is. About fuelling our body to help with our performance. This performance could be on the sporting field, in the pool, at dance, for our sleep, learning and mental health.
In this weeks newsletter I share a some ideas to start conversations with your family, friends and even your school.
THE PERFECT WORDS ABOUT THE MATILDAS
Dinner times for our family is not about the food we eat (although most nights at least one of us mention how grateful we are for our food), it's about connection. About coming together and the happenings of life.
At last nights dinner I broke our rule about not having phones at the dinner table so that I could read these words about the Matilda's. We're a mushy crew and there were tears of pride and joy.
I encourage you to share them with your family and friends.
WHAT THE MATILDA'S EAT
The Wellbeing Co-ordinator at one of my partner schools invited me to present for 15 minutes at their assembly today. She wanted me to chat about our key messages:
๐Eat a Rainbow,
๐ชOne Body for Life,
๐One Planet Earth
๐คMaking Friends with Food.
I'm seized the opportunity to not just reinforce our messages but to use the Matilda's to SHOW the importance of fuelling their body. Feel free to share the slides I've created below with your family.
This first one 'What a Performance' is designed to get children thinking about how incredible our One Body for Life is.
Share with them these words representing the Matilda's. Powerful. Fast. Strong. Flexible. Chat about we can all be strong, powerful etc even if we don't play sport like the Matilda's. Isn't our body amazing? What are some other words that describe what our body can do?
The students today said things like get smarter, problem solve, exercise, push ups, be intelligent, get stronger.
After that conversation, ask them to guess what kinds of foods the Matilda's eat to take care of their One Body for Life.
Now share the kinds of foods the Matilda's eat to help them be able to perform at their best. To be strong. To be powerful. To be fast. To be flexible. To keep their mind resilient too.
Ask them what they notice about these foods.
Encourage conversation about how performance is linked to the food we eat. To perform at our best, we need to take care of our One Body for Life by eating foods that are the friendliest for our body and brain. These are foods grown in nature - they grow in trees, on vines, on the ground, under the ground, walk on the ground, fly or swim in the sea. We need to eat these foods most of the time.
At the assembly we spoke about how the Matilda's were taking care of their body so they could be strong, fast, powerful. We also spoke about how the food they eat helps take care of our our One Planet Earth because they aren't creating waste the planet can't use. (Note, I know there are much bigger climate issues to be had even about foods grown in nature, but you have to start with simple messages with children).
Then we wrapped up talking about how it's important to make friends with all kinds of food. The Matilda's do enjoy coffee, cake and pizza and that's ok, but most of the time they eat foods that are friendliest for their body.
I hope these slides help you have conversations with your children and others.
OATS - ELLE CARPENTER'S FAVOURITEh
Here's a couple of Facebook videos about making oats. Yes, I was much younger.
Overnight oats - watch here.
Bircher Muesli - watch here.