füdoo Boards frequently asked questions - Simple answers to good questions

For families: Start thinking about food for your whole family, instead of what each person will eat throughout the day. Simplify. This may mean packing lunches for school and work. Anyone can record the food on the board, but it becomes a team effort.

For teachers: Use the boards as a whole group teaching tool at centertime to practice recording lunches, breakfasts, etc. Use it in a center job where children can learn about food groups, servings needed, food journaling, etc. Because what we eat and do is such an important part of being ready to learn using a füdoo Board everyday in your classroom can make health a daily part of routine discussion. Read more about a Montessori teacher using her füdoo Board....

This is up to you. As a füdoo mom, I strive for simplicity. This means my family uses one board and one set of magnets. I didn’t sign up to be a short order cook, where I offer different foods to meet individual taste buds. We think of our food in our home as “family food”. If my family is hungry we get a meal or one snack going and we eat it together at our kitchen table. We have truly simplified how we eat. Oh the freedom! Your family owns the füdoo Board this way.

On the other hand, some families have more than one board. Amanda, has twin boys, and as she puts it, “I have always thought in twos!” She runs two füdoo Boards and is comfortable with this. The ownership here shifts from the family to the individual. This can mean a lot to children or adolescents who need something to own for them.

Wendy, another füdoo mom, has four children, ages 5-14. Her children make their own snacks and record all their snacks on one board. Each child takes responsibility for making their own snacks. Everyone’s magnets are all over the same board and they all fit! Read more about making it a füdoo habit....

3. Can the füdoo® Board be used by anyone?

4. As a parent, what if I don’t like vegetables?

5. Are there drinks on the füdoo® Board other than water?

We stress offering water with every meal. It is so simple and helps digestion. Read more.. We do offer two other magnets with liquids on them. There is a red, 100% fruit juice magnet and a royal blue milk/soymilk magnet. This is an area in your life that might be easy to simplify. Simplifying what you family drinks means having cold water in the fridge, a pitcher of cold water at the dinner table, and skipping the juice and soda isle in the grocery store.

If we make a smoothie, we usually split up the ingredients and mark the board with those magnets; yogurt, berries, orange juice, tofu. LINK to Berrie smoothie Other drinks, such as soda, sports drinks, and milk shakes fall into the “Sometimes Food” category for our family.

If drinking water is challenging for your child try this...Drink! Activity #1

This is another popular question. It comes down to this. If you really want your child to learn to eat healthy, like it or not, you need to model healthy eating. Use the füdoo teaching words to help motivate you and your child to eat those foods. We use teaching words to help us talk about what a food is doing for our bodies, instead of just spouting out, “Eat this.” I have made a pledge never to say, “Eat your vegetables.” Again. It’s just wasted breath and comes across as a negative connection to the healthy food. Instead, my husband and I ramp up our füdoo teacher talk and get our kids ready for some seriously, major gern fightin’! It may sound corny, but we have healthy children who eat their vegetables.

The füdoo Board can really be used by anyone. It is just a really cool, simple way to track what you eat and do in a day. I can’t tell you how many adults have said, “I caould use one of those!” Well, they are right! We have customers ages 2-80 using füdoo Boards all over the world to have fun being healthy. All you need to do is learn how many servings you need from each food group. Check out the USDA Food Pyramid Page to learn more...

6. How are the magnets divided into groups?

7. What is Sometimes Food?

8. How can I clean any marker residue from the füdoo® Board?

I googled this question on day when I really wanted my füdoo Board to shine. Take some rubbing alcohol and take off the residue with a cotton ball. I used a alcohol swab from our familiy’s first aid kit. Wash the board with soap and water afterwards. You’ll be good to go. This is definitely an adult job.

In the words of my five year old, “It’s a food you can eat sometimes, but not all the time. Like candy. Sometimes Food doesn’t keep your body healthy.” It really is that simple. Enjoy it once a day, remember moderation and mark it on your board. Then move on!

We include fruity-chewy snacks, anything packaged up and sugary, and sports drinks. We don’t make it a big deal, we don’t have much of it in the house, and we stopped spending our money on that stuff at the grocery store too! When you stop stocking it in your house, you stop fussing over it. See more...

For the most part, the magnets fall into the old food group categories. There are a few, such as, tomatoes, olives, pickles and potatoes that sometimes fall into other non-vegetable food groups. We stuck them all in the “germfighters” food group in order to cut some kids a break. Go ahead and eat your pickle. For a child who doesn’t eat many vegetables, earning more green magnets is a huge accomplishment. Positive reinforcement goes a long way for everyone. If these misfit magnets bother you, use your blank magnets and put them in the food group you deem more appropriate. We’re flexible! See our website pages about our food magnets...

9. Does my child need to eat a whole serving of the food in order to earn a magnet?

10. Why do some magnets have serving sizes and some don’t?

11. Would the füdoo® Board work at my son’s child care center?

I spent a lot of time in many child care centers in the past ten years. I worked in some, trained teachers in some and spent hours observing classrooms for research studies. Early childhood educators will have no problem pulling a füdoo® Board into their classroom. Teachers are always looking for ways to communicate how the day is spent to a child’s parents. What was on the menu and what activities the child took part in are key notes that parents want to see. If the child’s family has a füdoo® Board at home, as a teacher you have a perfect connect with the parents.

If you are a child care center interested in using the füdoo® Board system in your school, we can supply you with a reproducible füdoo® Board handout that goes home with children everyday. I also offer my services at parent meetings as a guest speaker. I am always excited to see the füdoo® Boards in preschools, child care centers and elementary schools! Please contact me for more information. We are currently used in Montessori preschools, Head Start programs and Goddard Schools. Please email me for more information. sarah@fudooboards.com

I try not to stress over serving sizes. Some foods, like asparagus, I am just happy if they eat a stalk! Some food groups like the “get you going" foods may need a small reminder as to what a serving looks like. It’s easy to go overboard on foods like pretzels, tortillas, or rolls. The serving sizes are there for a parent’s reference and an older child’s interest. In our home when anyone asks for seconds, the rule is once they have eaten the other food groups on their plate. If they still have room and interest, sure! Read more about second servings... Eat! Activity #10

As a parent or teacher, do you really want to be the one in charge of this job? I didn’t think so. It always makes you the bad guy. Füdoo families do not fight about food. As a parent, all you can do is offerthe best food to your child. Offering it up means putting it on their plate like it is perfectly normal, and it is. Put it on your plate too. And eat it with a smile. Believe it or not, this is how my husband learned he liked tomatoes and bell peppers. Do not offer all kinds of substitutions. You’ll make yourself crazy. Mark your family’s meal as to what you offered. You’ll learn how they like to eat it best; raw, cooked, with dip, with peanut butter.

If they are trying a new food in a new way, they earn the “New!” magnet and a “germfighters” magnet. Positive reinforcement. A parent a teacher’s secret weapon. Keep it positive. It will make your life easier.

By using a füdoo Board you are building your child’s capability to make healthy choices. It will take the burden off of you in the long run. What is a serving anyway?

12. Could the füdoo® Board be used by families with children with food allergies?

13. Do you find that at 2 year old, children "get" the activities and writing on the board? My girls really aren't into that stuff yet...

14. How can we organize our magnets if we don't have a magnetic fridge?

You have a few options if you don't have a refrigerator that holds magnets. The most important thing is that you do have the food magnets available for choice laid out somehow and not in a pile to sift through. It is too much work to shuffle through all the magnets at every meal.

I like to use the fridge to hang our magnets. It is easy for me to glance at when I am making a meal. But if you can't get them to stick you do have other choices. I reccommend using a cookie tray. They are cheap and flat and can hold all the food choices for a child to work with at the kitchen table.

Another fun idea is to get your hands on some magnet paint. With this paint you can turn any regular wall into a magnet holding surface. It works great for our magnets and can be painted any color you want.

Get your magnets in clear sight and you and your family will use them.

Any written word or symbol you can get on that board is a mini lesson in verbal and written language. You are right - a three year old isn't going to be writing or reading it, but they will get it if you sit down with them and start asking questions.

Lily has always scribbled all over it. This is early writing. I use the board to offer her a choice of what she wants to do - and we'll go do it. If you can circle the choice after doing the activity - more power to you! That is reinforcement of the power of words.

I think the key is starting to use it yourself in front of them. Sit down at lunch and write down all the names of the people at the table. Or have older siblings do it. They can be great teachers too. I like to record what we did in the morning time at lunch. Lily has gotten really good at remembering the activities of the day. Good memory recall stuff. We write grocery lists on the board - or special requests.

Now, Lily is almost four and I write sentences in the middle of the board in her own words. The other day we wrote, "I kicked the soccer ball". We pointed to each word as we read it. Then we read it to Dad when he got home from work. It's so simple but that is teaching!

My advice is always to model the behavior you want from them first. Use the board and they will use it. Kids will follow your lead!

One of our first customers was a family with a young child who was unable to eat gluten products. They were interested in the füdoo® Board to help them track the child’s special diet. They also bought one for their child’s caregiver to use during the day. What a relief it is for them to be able to have a tool to easily explain what their child can and can't eat!

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