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.
