School helps make healthy life choices

Redwood makes the point that food and exercise play a large role in the early years of every child.

Update: 2019-02-15 23:50 GMT
The school is dedicated to encouraging the children towards both so that these become lifelong habits .The curriculum at Redwood provides for both, Ms Madhura explains. (Representational Image)

Chennai: The Redwood Montessori philosophy goes beyond the realm of education from books. Striving to present the best environment for the kids, the school enables an atmosphere in which the child can make independent choices for body and mind.  The exemplary approach is evident at the school that is fast gaining a name for not only educating children but also teaching them the best life choices early.

“As the Montessori environment is set up, the child will make the right choices overseen by a teacher; so too choice for the body or meals for our children were paramount as a part of their education. These meals for us were synonymous with pesticide free, chemical free ingredients. Children can eat cookies and cakes but why give them processed options only?” asks Ms Madhura Kumar Visweswaran, chairperson, Redwood Montessori, which started seven years ago with a mission.

Elaborating further, Ms Madhura said, “In fact, parents and grandparents have to set an example. They can't advise children at home to eat right and eat healthy while they themselves snack on potato chips or junk food.” The school philosophy has to extend to home too.

Redwood makes the point that food and exercise play a large role in the early years of every child. “The school is dedicated to encouraging the children towards both so that these become lifelong habits .The curriculum at Redwood provides for both,” Ms Madhura explains.

 The remarkable thing at Redwood is children eat the local cuisine, with fresh organic ingredients and fruit and/or soup is always the snack provided, every day.

Children are exposed to every indigenous vegetable and fruit so that this becomes the choices they make as they are adults. “All our students eat papaya and they like it. This is what we like to inculcate from a very young age so that they learn what is good for them and make 'eat right’a lifelong habit, Ms Madhura says.   

Avoiding processed food is a major mission the school has undertaken and seeing all the health reports from the USA about the link between ultra-processed foods and cancer and cardiac illnesses, it is easy to understand how useful this idea of teaching them young is.

“As the school grew, so too did our drive to promote an awareness of healthy, natural and organic choices at school which could then be carried to home,” Ms Madhura says.

The school is hosting an organic fair on Saturday (February 16) with the aim of spreading the message further. The school's aim in conducting this fair is as supply increases with demand, the showcasing of more vendors would lead to their having direct contact with customers to carry the movement forward. The seventh such fair at the school will take forward the thinking that a healthier lifestyle for our children will always mean as an extension to the entire community.

The fair will be on between 4 pm and 7 pm today at the Redwood Montessori School on Arundale Beach Road, Besant Nagar.

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