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Every meal time is an opportunity to practice the many important grace and courtesies that will help your child be able to better participate in family meals and social meals out in public. There are several basic practices that we support to make our meal times pleasant and graceful:
- The table is always set for every meal with place mats, napkins, dishes, glasses, utensils and usually a lovely floral or seasonal arrangement. In the toddler house each child sets their own spot at the table (taking items from individual prepared baskets). In the primary house each child sets their own spot for snacks and their is usually a team of children in charge of setting all the tables for lunch time. Some great places to find child sized cutlery, glasses and dishes are Ikea, Kobos, Kitchen Kaboodle, Montessori Services http://www.montessoriservices.com and Micheal Olaf, http://www.michaelolaf.net/
- A blessing is said once everyone is ready to eat. We rotate between two different blessings: The Earth is Good to Me (sung to the tune of Johny Apple Seed) and This Pretty Planet
- Food is always eaten sitting down at a table (and sometimes in the grass if we are having a picnic). If a child is interested in getting up and leaving the table we invite them to either sit back down and finish their meal or clear their spot if they are finished eating. We respect that each child knows how much food is enough for their body. Eating is an activity that should be giving the same time, attention and respect as any other activity in the classroom.
- Once a child is finished eating they participate in cleaning up their spot. Obviously a new or very young child may only be able to clean up part of their setting (perhaps a napkin or a dish) but as children grow and become more settled in their environment they participate in cleaning up more and more of their space.
We had a great turn out at our last parent night on the topic of meal times and nutrition. Using a PowerPoint presentation Cree, Meg and Hilary discussed how we present meal times and food preparation activities at CMS. We also presented some ideas and information from Ellyn Satter regarding "divisions of responsibility in feeding". To find out more about Ellyn Satter please check out her website, www.EllySatter.com.
During our parent night many of our families discussed the desire to create a "database" of lunch time idea. We are all busy working families and we can sometimes get stuck in a "food rut" so its nice to share ideas and shake up the lunch box routine from time to time. I think it's also important to remember that many children enjoy the same food every day and are not bothered by a "routine" lunch...as long as the major food groups are being represented and consumed at most meals don't worry that you need to be creating a new lunch box masterpiece each day!
Several of the parents suggested a couple of flicker pages that give good ideas for lunches and focus on the "laptop lunch box" bento designed lunches.
Please have look at these websites and feel free to use this blog as a sounding board to share lunch time ideas...Bon Appetite!
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