The 'work' of eating

Today I had an interesting conversation with one of the Children's House students. We were eating in the classroom since it was raining outside. The children where clustered around a few of our larger tables put together so we could enjoy a family style lunch. They all seemed really happy with the arrangement. chatting with one another and actually staying in their seats. It's much more comfortable and easier to stay in your chair when your feet can actually touch the ground. Our outdoor picnic tables are definitely not child sized and I think that's contributed to a lot of the problems at lunch. So even though eating in the classroom itself should have been an exciting new novelty, they took to it quickly.

Anyways the children were asking if we were going to play outside for recess and I said no, we were going to have indoor play today. One of them asked "Where?" and before I could answer another student spoke up "In the classroom!" They all giggled at that and I laughed with them, then said we were going to play in the day care room because the classroom wasn't for playing; it was for working. "And for lunch!" one of the kids interjected excitedly. "Well yes," I answerd. "But eating lunch is a type of work."

And it's true.

At our school we don't view lunch as something that just needs to happen every day. Instead it's another work for the child to accomplish. They need to remember all the steps such as: washing hands, getting their lunch box, setting out their napkin and eating their protein first. They're expected to manage their food and containers themselves. Whenever a child can't open something themselves we always have them ask another friend for help before coming to a teacher. They're also spending time practicing mastering silverware. I think yogurt seems to be one of the hardest things to learn how to eat! It's tricky, one minute it's solid on your spoon, then it drips off like a liquid!

We teachers also try to model good table manners. Staying seated properly at the table, not speaking with your mouth full (a really hard one when you're trying to manage the whole group and eat your lunch at the same time!). We encourage the children in conversation, their usual favorite topic is who has the same food as who. It's pretty entertaining how excited they get when they have carrots and someone else does too; like they never imagined anyone else could have had that 'rare' food!

Really noticeable today too was the after lunch clean up. Each child was not only responsible for packing up their lunch containers, but also sweeping up all the crumbs under their chair. We also provide a bucket of soapy water in case anyone has an especially messy time eating.

So, all in all eating a meal really is 'work' for the child. Real, purposeful work that is applicable in their lives and is helping them grow up to be competent adults.