Berries are always a favorite with kids because of their sweet flavor, brilliant colors and bite-size shapes. It’s easy to use kid-friendly serving ideas featuring fresh strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. Here are some fun, tasty ways to help your family eat healthier.

Let them play with their food

Incorporate games and interaction into meals and your kids won’t even realize they’re learning life-long healthy eating habits. Allow your kids to touch, feel and taste as much as possible on their own. Antioxidant-packed, colorful fruits and vegetables can become a regular part of your family’s diet by introducing kids to finger food fun and games. When it comes to fun, berries are a natural! For instance, raspberries are a perfect fit on little fingertips. Blueberries and blackberries can fill waffle holes for an impromptu game of tic-tac-toe. And strawberries have built-in “handles” for eating on their own or for dipping into yogurt, applesauce or melted chocolate chips.

Activity Idea

Create your own “Rainbow Bingo” game. Your kids can help make the game cards. Each square contains a photo or drawing of a different colored fruit or vegetable. Each time your kids eat one of the items on the card, they cross it off. They can even win a small prize at the end of the day. It’s a fun, easy way to introduce a greater variety of colorful, nutritious foods, such as fresh berries, into your family’s diet—so everybody wins.

Get kids involved

One of the best ways to get kids excited about eating healthier and enjoying a wider variety of foods is to get them involved in the process. This includes everything from letting your kids create their own berry recipes, to letting them help with chopping, stirring and taste-testing new foods, or even planting a vegetable garden or an herb window sill box.

Activity Idea

Create a family cookbook. Give kids index cards and a scrapbook they can decorate, so that they can record their favorite family recipes (or new ideas of their own) and come up with fun recipe names. Older kids can also take digital photos of their creations and create the entire cookbook on their computer (a custom cookbook makes a perfect keepsake or a great gift for grandparents). Get your kids started with something simple, such as a sweet, scrumptious “Berry Breakfast Sundae.” Simply have them layer raspberries and blueberries as high as they can onto yogurt, then sprinkle with their favorite breakfast cereal and top with a strawberry.

Plan and shop together

Before you head to the supermarket sit down with your family and plan out a few meals and snacks for the week. Let each child be responsible for shopping and preparing a meal (age permitting). While at the store, show your kids how to read nutrition labels and let them select their own fruits and vegetables. If your community has a Farmers Market, let the kids wander around and choose something to take home.

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