On Thanksgiving Day Rachel reminded me of the New Food chart. We don’t do it daily anymore. Ethan is willing to try new things and rate them without formally keeping track.

Rachel told me she read about the almost exact same idea in the Wall Street Journal lately (making me feel like a very clever mom . But then I realized… what a perfect tool to use for Thanksgiving meal!

We only do Thanksgiving menu items once or twice a year. The kids do not see stuffing, cranberry relish, sweet potatoes or even gravy very often. This was sure to be another formal family meal full of complaints from the children that there is “nothing to eat.”

So I made a chart! One for Jared and one for Ethan listing every single food starting with the Butternut Squash Soup and ending with Whipped Cream. Of those 2 you can guess which got the lowest score, and which got a 10 on both charts.

They were so busy tasting and ranking, they forgot to complain! And they filled their tummies.

Charts rule!