Peter, Pass the Peas, Please: Family Style Dining at its Best

When teachers are actively engaged with children at a table there are so many opportunities to model, to refer children to one another for help, to encourage self-help skills, and to spend time just talking with children.  If you are a teacher in a Michigan Great Start Readiness Program classroom or a Head Start preschool classroom, family style meals are more than just a great idea they are a program requirement. This requirement comes with plenty of guidance from Michigan Department of education as information about what family style meals should look like in a Great Start Readiness Program classroom is available here: Implementation Manual Family Style Meals  

Likewise, the Office of Head Start provides plenty of information about the whys and the hows of family style meals at their Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center website.