Skip to main content

Preschooler's Snack Breaks: More Than Just Munching Moments

I can vividly recall the first time I left my three-year-old alone in his preschool. It felt like my heart sank inside me. A thousand questions raced through my mind: What if he needs something? Who will feed him? What if another child hurts him? Today, he's a 17-year-old young man who tells me, "Take a break, you need rest. I'll take care of things." It's amazing how parents grow alongside their children.

When our children start going to preschool alone, they're confronted with new people, environments, and routines. For parents, it's one of the most anxiety-inducing experiences. Having been in the preschool environment for almost two decades now, I've seen that children take a day or two to realize they're safe and can have fun in this new environment. However, it takes much longer for us as adults to trust and have faith in the caregivers. Every moment in these environments teaches children something or lays the foundation for their future life. They're busy in this learning process, while we as adults constantly look for reasons to worry and add the energy of fear to this beautiful process.

Recently, while discussing snack breaks for children during school hours with another parent, I realized how much more a mere snack break offers to a child. When I was looking for a preschool for my son, I visited a facility during snack break time. I saw a group of children aged 2 to 3 sitting at a table with their lunch boxes in front of them, feeding themselves. As a mother, I felt proud seeing how much my son was capable of doing, as he was the same age but I had always fed him at home. When children eat together, they learn sharing, respecting, cleaning, independence, and so much more. While one child learns not to take food from others without asking, another learns to share with friends. These moments of eating together turn into cherished memories. They might not finish their whole lunchbox, but slowly they start enjoying these moments, and snack breaks become much more than just a break for food.

Today, when I try to recall such moments from my son's early years, I struggle to remember. I wish that instead of always worrying about things, I had cherished those moments of joy, happiness, and wonder he was experiencing then. If you're a young parent, I encourage you not to miss out on these magical moments of your child's first step towards independence.

Exploring more, Manika 🌟

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Early Childhood Education Can’t Be Treated Like School Years

As I am putting together my years of research in early education into structured format on The7cs and I am revisiting my notes. One question dawned upon me. Approaching early years with an experiential learning has to be the only way then why most of us are ok with traditional way? As I started thinking more it dawned upon me that educators who curated book and desk model of education did not realize that early years of child's development are not same as later years. There is so  much more that needs to done for optimal brain development and we cannot achieve that with book and desk model. Here are few thoughts of mine on this subject.  When we think of education, we often imagine books, desks, and structured lessons. But apply that image to a toddler—and it quickly falls apart. The early years of a child’s life are fundamentally different from the school years. During this time, the brain is developing at an extraordinary pace. Often called the “sponge years,” ages 0 to 6 a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is our Parenting and Education ready for the Quantum World?

  I was listening to a fascinating video about Microsoft's breakthrough in quantum computing when it hit me—our world is shifting faster than we realize. We’re standing on the edge of something big—the shift from the world of matter to the world of energy. It’s happening, and it’s happening fast. Quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and emerging tech are rewriting the rules, and we need to ask ourselves: Are we getting our kids ready for this future? At the core of the quantum revolution is the idea of integration—success in this new era isn’t about mastering just one thing, but about understanding how the quantum and physical worlds work together. Just like creativity and problem-solving go hand in hand. The big breakthroughs will come from those who can connect the dots and see the bigger picture. What is the Quantum World? The quantum world isn’t just a strange realm where particles behave unpredictably—it’s the foundation of everything we see in our physical world....
1 comment
Read more

AI and Children—Is There Something in Common?

  AI and Children—Is There Something in Common? One of the most fundamental questions of our time is:  As AI becomes more intelligent, what will happen to humanity?  Will it surpass us? Will it take over jobs meant for our children. These questions can stir anxiety, but understanding a deeper connection between AI and human development—especially in children—might offer clarity and even comfort. Data: The Common Thread When a child is born, the first six years of life are almost entirely devoted to data collection . Yes— DATA is the key word here. This data includes both cognitive and emotional inputs. It forms the blueprint for how a child will think, feel, behave, and interact with the world.  For example, if a child sees violence being justified in movies or experiences aggression at home due to parental stress, those become data points in their brain. The child learns: "This is how the world works." Similarly, AI systems are shaped by the data they are...
Post a Comment
Read more