Who’s Home for Dinner? Ideas for parents and teachers.

Do parents struggle with having family meals as often as they would like? And... planning meals everyone will enjoy, keeping the environment pleasant, and sharing the tasks that get a meal on the table? Yes!

For that reason, when we wrote the original manuscript of the short story, Who’s Home for Dinner?, we included the following ideas for parents and teachers. If you haven't read the story yet, or checked out the recipes featured, do it now!

Who’s Home for Dinner? Ideas for Parents:

Does your family look like Ethan’s?

Do you have trouble finding time to sit down together to eat a meal? You’re not alone! Many families would like to have family meals more often. Most families would like meals that are easier to get on the table. Other families struggle with making their meals more enjoyable and relaxed. What are your goals for family meals? Read on. Discover how mealtimes can be a time for sharing good food, laughter, and love.

What is a family meal?

A “family meal” is when the people you live with come together to eat and talk. It can include everyone, or just you and your child. Family meals don’t have to be fancy, and they can be eaten at home or away. A meal around a table in a restaurant can be a family meal, as can carry-out eaten at your kitchen table, or a picnic on your living room floor. All it takes is a family eating together. The benefits of family meals come from the time spent reconnecting with each other. Removing distractions such as the TV and telephone helps family members talk and listen to one another.

What are the benefits of family meals?

Building closer families is the number one reason parents and children value eating meals together. Family meals make children feel like they belong and are loved. They are a great place to share your daily lives and pass down your values and traditions. Children who eat with their families do better in school. They learn how to be polite and get along with others. Talking at meals teaches children new words, how to express ideas, and how to talk with others. Children who eat with their parents are less likely to smoke, drink, take drugs, get into fights, become sexually active, or commit suicide. Children who eat with their families eat better, learn better eating habits, and are less likely to develop eating disorders. Eating family meals can help children reach a healthy weight. At family meals, parents can role model positive behaviors.

How can family meals be happier, healthier, and happen more often!?

• Plan when you can eat together and put the dates on your family calendar. Be realistic; if not dinner, eat breakfast together, or Saturday lunch. Start small.

• Find a location that allows you to have pleasant conversations. Clean off a table if you need to. Invite family members to create fun decorations.

• Think of quick, healthy meals your family likes. Make a shopping list, so everything is on hand. Get everyone involved in cooking and cleaning up.

• Turn off the TV. Put away phones. Plan conversation starters to get your family talking.

• Think about what makes family meals pleasant. Be a role model for how you want your child to behave.

Who’s home for Dinner? Ideas for Teachers:

Ways to integrate this story into the school or homeschooling curriculum:

• Discuss meals that students like to eat with their families and friends.

• Invite them to bring in a recipe for one of their favorite foods.

• Search for children’s cookbooks in the school library. Invite them to look for them in the local library. Where else can they find recipes? Try finding them online. How does their family store special recipes?

• Does their family have a favorite chili recipe? Invite them to find other chili recipes. How many different chili recipes can your class find? What do all these recipes have in common? What makes them different? Do the same for variations on spaghetti.

• Look for active cooking verbs in recipes such as cut, chop, mince, brown, measure, pour, etc. Invite a chef or good cook to demonstrate several of these cooking verbs for the students. Play charades using these cooking verbs after the students have learned what they mean.

• Notice the weights and measures used in recipes.

  • Discover how many ¼ tsp. are in a teaspoon, how many teaspoons in a tablespoon, how many tablespoons in a cup, etc.

  • Learn about ounces and pounds and notice these weights in recipes.

  • Try doubling or halving a recipe. Discuss times when you might want to do each.

• Gather recipes for a class or family cookbook.

• Create meals for each recipe they brought. Draw pictures of those meals or make a collage using food pictures from magazines.

• Ask students what other foods they think William’s family might have eaten with the chili. What might Ethan’s family have eaten with the skillet spaghetti? What might they have eaten with their frozen pizza?

• How did Ethan encourage his family to eat together? Discuss ways they can encourage their families to eat together.

• Show students how to set a table. Provide opportunities for them to practice setting a table. Discuss how setting the table encourages families to eat together.

• Encourage students’ families to plan a meal with William’s chili, Ethan’s skillet spaghetti, or frozen pizza. Ask students to write a story about their family making the meal. Who shopped for the food? Who prepared it? Who served it? Who ate it? Who cleaned up? What did they eat with the chili, spaghetti, or pizza? What did they talk about as they ate? What was their favorite part of the meal?

• Invite families to a class potluck. Invite each family to bring a favorite main dish, side dish, or dessert.

  
  

For more on family meals, check out these resources and posts.

“At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child’s success is the positive involvement of parents.”

~ Jane D. Hull, Governor of Arizona 1997-2003

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