To assist children with their independence and knowledge growth, adults can ask open-ended questions to encourage children to think, to discover meanings, and to form new interpretations. Young children are very egocentric, seeing the world through their eyes only. Having patience for developmental sequences to unfold is challenging but enlightening. There are many types of families. Single-parent families, dual career families, blended families, and extended families.
Most families usually share some mealtime experience and responsibilities to some degree.
Meal time, shopping time, and food preparation times are excellent times to model appropriate social behaviors, teach food concepts, and cultivate nutritious food habits. Learning through food expriences is an ideal way to prepare children to respect family and individual diversity. The appreciation of differences can and should be integrated into the total array of learning activities for young children. This approach, although better than no attention to diversity, communicates the feeling of differences as opposed to integrating difference wholly into the learning. Return to Table of Contents Play and Food Experiences Play in early childhood is primarily dramatic in nature.