Kidzu Children's Museum Reflection

Since covering health last Thursday in class, I have been keeping notes the ways I feel Kidzu Children’s Museum addresses the issue within our community. According to Dolgon and Baker (2011), community organizations are pivotal players in the “success of health education and a variety of wellness efforts directed toward youth.” I believe that Kidzu Children’s Museum’s innovative programming, which incorporates the idea of healthy minds and healthy bodies in a myriad of engaging and memorable ways, has led them to be an extremely effective community-based health program. Kidzu’s Healthy Bodies = Happy Bodies program, Market to Market program, Kidz in the Kitchen program, and Kidz Yoga program all stress the importance of maintaining good

This past Sunday marked the museum’s tenth birthday -- over 500 children and parents came to the museum to celebrate the occasion. Additionally, the museum has steadily gained more private donors over the past few years and has entered a number of lucrative partnerships, including Burt’s Bees. I believe that community organizations with that much clout and social capital have a responsibility to serve its members in the best way it possibly can. With that being said, I think the museum far exceeds what I would expect from them in terms of the programming and dedication its staff members have towards making Kidzu enriching for the community as a whole -- especially in health

During Market to Market, kids have the opportunity to explore the Chapel Hill Farmer’s Market with their families to purchase fresh ingredients to cook into a healthy meal later at the museum. Kidz in the Kitchen, which is my favorite program the museum offers, affirms the importance of eating well and shows how being healthy can positively affect a child’s life and their families. Children learn that cooking with their guardians can create lasting memories while being taught that using healthy alternatives to standard baking ingredients, such as honey instead of sugar, can make their food taste even better. The meals for Kidz in the Kitchen change weekly and are simple to make. For example, last week’s program Kidz in the Kitchen is incredibly popular at Kidzu: last week, the “magic ingredient” we used were onions. For the meal, kids made potato pea samosas and green chutney dip. For the last week of March, the “magic ingredient” will be allspice and kids will have the opportunity to make maple spice baked oatmeal and homemade fruit