Mealtime and Healthy Eating Habits

Food plays a significant role in Montessori. Learning about foods (it’s a big part of the language area), growing food in our garden (where possible), and preparing food (cutting a banana, peeling an egg) are all part of the daily toddler mealtime routine to establish healthy eating habits.

During eating times, Toddlers practice important skills:

• Toddlers set the table. They have placemats that indicate where plates, cups, forks, and spoons are to be placed. They carefully handle the breakable dishes, carrying one at a time and setting them down gently on the table.
• Toddlers eat together, all seated around the table. 
• Toddlers clean up. This is often a favorite part! They use “crumbers” to get crumbs off the table, sweep floors with child-size brooms, and use towels to clean the table. Some Toddlers give dishes a first wash (although we, of course, follow up with a sanitizing run in the dishwasher!)

With proper support and guidance, Toddlers are pretty independent in their eating routine.

Tips for Packing Lunches

When packing your Toddler’s lunch, here are a few tips:

• Use easy-to-open containers.
• Serve one main entree and one side. Too much food means hard choices and may lead to your toddler eating less at school.
• Pick at least one item you know they love—or engage them in choosing or making her lunch with you in the morning.
• Pack a well-balanced, nutritious meal. This will help your Toddler to learn what it means to have a healthy diet, which will support their well-being throughout their life.
• Make sure they can independently eat what you pack in their lunch boxes. We want Toddlers to be able to self-feed.

Incorporating these mealtime skills with your toddler at home will help create healthy eating habits.

-Butterfly Teacher