Food play doesn't need to be a Pinterest-worthy sensory bin to be worth doing. On a weeknight, five minutes of playful, no-pressure contact with a food is still doing real work, it's just smaller and quicker than a weekend activity.
- Food faces: arrange whatever's already on the cutting board (cucumber eyes, capsicum smile, cherry tomato nose) into a face on their plate before serving. Ninety seconds, zero extra ingredients.
- The taste-test challenge: cut a very small piece of one new or "still learning" food and ask them to rate it out of 5, like a food critic. No pressure to finish it, no pressure to like it, just a rating. Keep a running list on the fridge if they enjoy it.
- Sorting while you cook: hand over a colander of mixed vegetables (or a bowl of pasta shapes) and ask them to sort by colour, size, or shape while dinner finishes cooking. It's contact with the food with zero expectation to eat it.
- Dip duty: let them stir together a simple dip (yoghurt and a pinch of herbs, or hummus and a squeeze of lemon) while you plate up everything else. Kids are far more likely to try something they had a hand in making.
- Name that smell: with eyes closed, let them smell two or three ingredients from dinner and guess what they are before it's served. Playful, quick, and it builds familiarity before the food even hits the plate.
Dietitian note: the goal of all five of these is exposure, not consumption. If a child sorts, smells, or rates a food but doesn't eat it, that's still a successful round of food play. Eating tends to follow familiarity, not the other way around.
For a ready-made version of the taste-test idea, our Eat, Talk, Explore game cards come with built-in prompts so you don't have to think them up yourself.