Play, then Eat?

For those of you with school-aged children, I ask - how many times have your kiddies come home from school with many components of their mid-day meal still nestled nicely inside their lunch-boxes?  I know, in my experience, it's often.  Not every day, but often.  When I ask my boys why they didn't eat their lunch, answers range from "I didn't have time" to "I didn't like it" to the most common, "I don't know".

This week, the New York Times published an interesting article on how some schools in the United States are changing their lunch hour format.  Children are playing before they eat, or in other words, enjoying recess before eating lunch, and the results are quite impressive.  In some areas there is less food waste, more consumption of fruits, vegetables and milk and less incidences of headaches and tummy aches.  Interesting.

Your thoughts?

Comments

[robert.scott@bell.blackberry.net]

Totally agree...with active kids, they are more interested in getting out to play at lunch then eat their lunch....too much wasted food that comes home and goes into the green bin. I would love to suggest this idea to our school.

[Barbara]

Sounds like a good idea to me. My kids are grown now, but I remember the lunch boxes that came home nearly full. The "I don't know" answer covers a lot. I always thought it meant "I shared someone else's lunch that was better (read sweeter here) than mine."

[Jan Scott]

Thata what I think I dont know means as well!

[kerry]

YES! I am an elementary school teacher (on leave) and I think that this is a terrific idea! Our kids get so little time to play outside that most of them dump their lunches in favor of getting out to recess faster. There are so many reasons why this makes sense! When we are at home, I almost always send my little guy out to play while I am preparing lunch so that he has an opportunity to get all that energy out and be ready to settle down for a good meal and then nap or quiet time.
At least one of the schools in our district is already doing this and I believe that my school is considering it for next year.

[Dee]

My older son NEVER ate his lunch because he was too busy rushing out the door to play football with his buddies. He frequently came home with migraine headaches because he didn't eat. I would love to see that policy changed!