Have You Ever Eaten Dragon Soup?

FROM ALISON: Jordan loves Carrot soup and if he got to choose the lunch menu, we would have Carrot soup every day, I want him to eat a variety of foods, here's what I did to persuade him to try Spicy parsnip soup. Introducing our children to a variety of foods can be a battle ground for all parents, but it needn't be. For us Son Rise parents as Son Rise teaches us another way to introduce food to our children - you make it fun!

So first, I checked in with my attitude, how did I feel about introducing the spicy parsnip soup to Jordan? I like this soup so I knew that it was good to eat, I knew it was healthy for him, so I was comfortable that I wasn't trying to poison him. So this felt nice to do. So, my next question was, how attached was I to the soup actually passing his lips and making it all the way down? This has often been the place where I have undermined my effort - being too attached to the outcome, but today I felt relaxed. So what to do, I considered bribing him with a jam tart, if you eat this delicious soup then you can have a jam tart, but actually Jordan would have heard if she needs to bribe me then the soup must be really nasty. Then I realised that actually this would be a technique used in an ABA program - give the child the soup and then reinforce their eating it with a jam tart. So as I have no intention of doing ABA with Jordan I decided to do it differently. With Son Rise we make everything as much fun as possible so that we can be good news for our children - my relationship with Jordan is far more important than whether he eats the soup or not. So enter left stage two steaming bowls of dragon soup, did you know that when you eat dragon soup your mouth gets so hot you can actually breathe fire? So Jordan says he doesn't like the soup, but I tuck in and then with all 3 E's firing on all cylinders I let out a mighty roar and breathe fire all around the room, Jordan roars with laughter, picks up his spoon and starts to eat, before long we are both fire breathing, scaly, giant slaying, castle guarding dragons - absolutely hilarious! Soon I have finished my soup and Jordan still has half a bowlful left, so I become an evil ogre who uses a drink straw to blow cold air over the dragon to put out his fire. Jordan doesn't want his fire put out, so he is now eating the soup as fast as he can to keep his fire strong. So much fun and guess what - Jordan likes Dragon soup!!!