I've written about the importance of free play in children's everyday life. Now I'm going to move on to another important topic: the family dinner.
More and more families find they are rushed from program to meeting etc. and their increasingly busy schedules and longer work hours mean they skip family meals. When this happens, everyone loses out, especially the children.
What is so important about eating together?
One important benefit of stopping to eat a healthy, home-cooked meal together is that it's a good way to help model healthy eating and cooking habits to your children. While that might not be practical every night, making it a priority over processed or restaurant eating will send a clearer message than endless memorizing of serving sizes and food groups.
Besides the meal itself, the family dinner provides a time for family members to come together and discuss their day. It gives family members a chance to come together, reconnect and share their experiences. It allows family members to better understand each other. It gives children a chance to learn and practice important communication skills.
If we leave the important job of learning communication skills to school time, we do our children a disservice. A school classroom typically consists of 25-30 students and one teacher. Occasionally, there is a second adult (resource teacher, etc.) also available. This means that most opportunities for communication, especially oral communication, are severely limited by group size alone. Most talking done in school happens either by teachers to students in a one-way fashion, or between classes with peers. Communication with peers is important. So is the ability to communicate with adults. When children communicate with adults, their language and communication skills are challenged in different ways than they are when communicating with peers. Those who regularly converse with adults tend to have a broader vocabulary and speak with greater clarity than those who do not.
Children who develop confidence in speaking with adults who are willing to listen and converse with them learn to value their own input.
Another benefit to the family dinner conversation is the potential for meaningful discussion. Current events, family events, and day-to-day happenings provide opportunities to discuss various values and viewpoints. This invites family members, especially (but definitely not exclusively) children, to reflect on their own values and beliefs, and exercise critical thinking skills. Parents might encourage their children to think about other viewpoints, or brainstorm possible solutions to problems. Children might introduce issues and concerns to parents. Doing so provides an opportunity to practice communication with adults in a safe way, with adults they can trust to be caring and supportive. Adults can be good listeners, and ask appropriate questions to help the child think of things in more depth, with more breadth (what other factors might be involved) or from different angles.
One thing to remember when discussing tricky or controversial topics, especially ones to which you have your own strong opinions, is to express your opinions as opinions and not facts. It's OK to tell your kids how you feel and why you feel that way, but it is not OK to demand that they adopt your views at face value. If your wish is to help your children grow as thinking individuals, it is important to expose them as objectively as possible to a variety of viewpoints and let them draw their own conclusions. It is equally important to expect their views to change as they learn and grow.
Some kid-friendly recipes can be found here.
No comments:
Post a Comment