The Meaning of Our Meals

The Meaning of Our Meals

A little over a decade ago, I started reading about how awful plastic is for our health so I went through my kitchen and purged almost every last piece of plastic.  Plastic cups, plastic bowls, plastic plates...gone...and glass replaced it all.  This meant no more plastic cups or plates to use for child care meals.  I purchased child size drinking glasses and pitchers from For Small Hands.  I happened to have smallish silverware from an adult set that works well for the children.  We use10 inch Corelle divided plates for lunch and 8 inch Corelle divided plates for breakfast and snacks.  I have also picked up random dishes throughout the years.   

Children typically start sitting at our child size table around their first birthday, sometimes sooner.  They are given a drinking glass and real silverware at that time, just like the bigger kids get.  The expectation is not that they will be able to perfectly use a fork and spoon or drink from a glass without spilling but to give them the opportunity to try.  Of course, there are spills but we just wipe them up and move on with our meal.  

A few years after I switched over to glass dishes, I started putting a table cloth on our table for meals and then we started using cloth napkins.  The table cloth was great, at the time, but has since been traded for table runners as the young toddlers tend to pull it off the table.   

Our table when we used a table cloth. 

We stopped using the table cloth and now use a table runner (which is actually just a cloth napkin) instead.

Cloth napkins I made.  

Click HERE for sewing instructions.  

The children take turns setting our table.  We have a small cabinet that stores all of our dishes and napkins and the children get to choose which dishes and napkins they would like to use.  

This is the cabinet where the children choose which dishes and napkins they would like to use.  

We also started putting a centerpiece on the table for our meals.  We would usually use fresh cut flowers, sometimes from our own garden.  Then we decided to make several centerpieces and the child who sets the table gets to choose which centerpiece they would like to put on the table that day. Here are some examples of the centerpieces that the children made. 

HERE is a video of a child setting the table. 

I believe children should be respected and by allowing them to use real dishes, we are telling them that we trust them and that they are capable and responsible.  I also believe children should be surrounded by beautiful things and they should get to experience how different materials feel (not just plastic) and they should participate in daily activities such as setting the table and serving themselves.  

Simple Machines

Simple machines are everywhere.  We use them everyday, without even thinking about it.  We often take them for granted but they are crucial in simplifying our lives. 

I certainly don't believe that we should be drilling our children on the different simple machines and their functions but I do think they are fun and important to point out, throughout play.  Children use simple machines everyday, just as adults do, so focusing on them occasionally can give them more meaning.   

Today, we played with flour, sifters, egg beaters, and monster trucks.  I was noticing how many simple machines were involved in these items so I thought I would put a blog post together, displaying many of the times we have explored simple machines. 

Egg beaters, sifters, and monster trucks.

Wheels and Axles and Levers

 Moving a teeter totter up the steps takes a lot of effort but pulling it up an inclined plane makes the job much easier.

The children were even able to pull a heavy vehicle up the inclined plane.

The next video, you will have to click here to see the use of levers, screws, and wedges as we break up a dry chunk of clay.  

Another example of a lever and probably an example of risky play, as well.  You can see it here.

The kitchen (pretend or real) is a fabulous place to explore simple machines.  How many simple machines can you spot? 

Two of our favorite art mediums are our large tape dispenser and scissors.  Both are simple machines. 

Tools = Screws, Gears, Levers, Wedges

We do have a pulley on our play structure but I couldn't find any photos.  This is a pulley system that is simply a rope over the branch of a tree.

The examples of simple machines, that children encounter daily, are vast and I am showing just a tiny sample but I think it's interesting to think about just how many items we use each day that represent simple machines.  

Do you have examples you would like to share?  

Play Iceland 2015 ~ Visiting Nurseries Part 2

Play Iceland 2015

Visiting Nurseries Part 2

If you haven't already read my previous blog post about the first nursery I visited in Iceland, you can read it here. 

Our second day of nursery visits took us to Blásalir.  It's difficult to tell in the photo but the yellow door is a child size door, next to the adult size door, for entering the school.  I thought that was fabulous and so fun. 

Blásalir's focus:  The Primary focus of our preschool is learning by doing, outdoor learning, and environment.  Our work priorities are good communication and respect for all living.

Upon arrival, we toured part of the nursery school.  I will post the indoor photos at the end.  First, I would love to show you what we saw on our morning walk.  By American standards, it was a very long walk for young children but I really wish that wasn't our standard.  It was somewhat chilly (40 degrees F is my guess) and a bit rainy but no one seemed to mind.  We walked past horses, waterfalls, and outdoor swimming pools and walked through mud puddles.  We had a destination but the walk, itself, was a lovely adventure.

Our destination was a public gymnasium.  I have to admit, I was a little surprised, at first.  This wasn't quite what I had expected to experience during my trip to Iceland.  Some preschools in the area were given grant money to allow their children to experience this gym experience, for a limited time, because it is not something that all of the children would be able to afford.  The idea is to promote a healthy lifestyle.  The children played hard.  They played their little hearts out.  Some of the activities were adult directed and there was also time for free play with several different types of equipment.

As with most of my Iceland experience, I was most impressed with the adult and child interactions. I was moved by the way the teacher spoke to the children before we entered the building.  Unfortunately, I couldn't understand her Icelandic words but I could get a basic understanding of what she was talking to the children about.  I pictured something similar happening in the United States and I imagined a teacher standing before a group of children instructing them on what was expected of them, how to behave and how not to behave.  Rather, this teacher conversed WITH the children in a playful manner about what would be expected and what they would expect from themselves.  It was not unlike much of the communication I witnessed in Iceland, between adults and children.

After we watched the children play in the gym, it was time for us to return to the nursery.  We took a bus back rather than walking.  The walk was wonderful but it was interesting to ride the bus with the children as well.  It was raining a bit more by this time and when we arrived back to the school, the teacher asked the children who would like to eat lunch inside and who would like to eat lunch outside.  The children separated into two groups, according to their location of choice.  My Play Iceland group went with the outdoor group.  I remembering thinking, it was raining too hard for lunch outside, but it was one of my favorite experiences of my entire trip.  We eat meals outside fairly often but this was different.  If you follow my Facebook group, Today's Play, you are familiar with our lunches.  Real plates, glasses, and silverware, cloth napkins, fresh flowers, and decent food presentation are very important to me.  I believe that as adults we enjoy being surrounded by beautiful things and I think it's important for us emotionally.  I believe children deserve the same.  This lunch made me think twice about my beliefs.  We sat on wooden benches with no tables and ate without plates and drank water from reused 2 liter bottles.  And let me assure you, the food was amazing.  I'm going to try to come up with some easy lunches for us to eat outside that will have all of the required food components because this really was a great experiences.  I don't have photographs but while we were waiting for someone to bring us our lunch, the children were playing on large boulders, not too far from where we were sitting but far enough that would make some adults uncomfortable.  They had freedom to explore and their teacher trusted them.  They had a system, when the teacher made a howling sound, that was their cue to come back to the gathering place.

Our lunch.  Pitas filled with ground beef, vegetables, and mayo.

A tour of the nursery's outdoor space.  If you read my first nursery blog, you saw the black lava sand. Here it is again, in the first picture.  I believe the second picture might be soil.  Unfortunately, I can't really remember.  Either way.  I love these giant natural places to dig and play.  

This nursery also had equipment, similar to what we would see in the United States.

They also had large open spaces to run and roll down hills and play chase and make believe.

I think the love of tire swings must be universal.

 Climbing.  Perhaps higher than some would allow in the United States.

I love this line of trees.  Such a great place to hide and imagine.

Look!!  Actual tree climbing.  Notice how close to the fence this child is climbing in this tree.  Something tells me this wouldn't be allowed everywhere in the United States.

Just a bucket of mud.

I'll close with some photographs of the indoor environment.

Remember the indoor water area from my previous blog?
Here it is again, at this nursery.

 

Mirror on the floor.

Dream kitchen.

Mirror on the ceiling.

Drying closet for wet outdoor gear.

Snack

Thanks again for following along.  I will be posting one more blog about the changes we have made since my trip to Iceland.