The Rise & Shine Breakfast Team recently gave me an almost impossible task. They delivered a pack of granola to my home, as part of the Rise & Shine Breakfast Campaign, which is a community effort that aims to promote healthy breakfast eating on a daily basis among children aged 4 to 12.

I say it’s impossible because granola is something my kids think hamsters eat.

My kids, Ben, Becks and Nat, eat their breakfast every day. If they are in daycare (which will continue for only two more months), the school serves a variety of breakfast food ranging from oatmeal to egg sandwiches. Baby Nat gets brown rice cereal every day too. On weekends, we look forward to getting our local fare fix. I take them to the wet market and hawker centres and they get their tastebuds localised to the deliciousness in kway chap, wanton mee, fried carrot cake and kaya toast. They meet Milo Dinosaur and Rose Bandung, and on rare occasions, Ronald MacDonald’s. On rainy days, we stay home and I make them pancakes or mushi-pan.

I assure you they still eat healthy – I trim the fats in their kway chap, add water to the bandung and remove the generous slabs of butter in their kaya toast.

But the Rise & Shine Breakfast Team clearly had a MUCH healthier alternative in mind when they sent me a pack of granola.

In the spirit of eating healthier for breakfast, I got the kids to try some granola last Saturday. It was a rainy morning, so we stayed home and had some hot pancakes topped with yogurt ice cream with granola sprinkles.

The kids were very excited to be having ice cream on a cold day and took their first few bites with much enthusiasm.

The verdict? Fatherkao and Ben went yums and loved the crunch of the granola with its rolled oats, dried fruits and nuts. As for Becks, she announced after three mouthfuls, “I don’t like the beans. Gimme the ice cream.” By beans, she meant the rolled oats. I had myself a hearty and healthy breakfast too, cleaning up her “beans” and eating the leftover pancakes!

More information:

• The Rise & Shine Breakfast Campaign is a community effort by a group of final year students from NTU Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information that hopes to raise awareness of healthy breakfast eating among children. Their efforts include ambient installations at libraries, malls and primary schools, storytelling sessions, educational theatre performances and cooking demos. Find out more at breakfast.riseandshine-expo.com. The site also features healthy breakfast recipes you can create for your kids.

• Rise & Shine is a nationwide campaign supported by government agencies and prominent partners aimed at helping parents raise healthier and happier kids.

• The Rise & Shine Carnival is happening on 3rd March 2013 at The Lawn @ Marina Bay. There are grand plans to set the record for the Largest Breakfast Picnic Event in Singapore! Check out carnival.riseandshine-expo.com for more details.