It is difficult getting any information out of the kids, whether useful or not. The Q & A session usually follows a similar pattern
Interested parent “How was school today?”
No 1 or No 2 “ok”
Exasperated parent “What did you do?”
No 1 or No 2 “Nothing special”
We generally have no idea what they have done during the day except for school lunches. It is really easy to tell what was on the menu. An inspection of the hair will give a full breakdown of the daily dishes.
We have been trying most forms of coercion to get the cutlery used. Nothing seems to succeed. Usually meal time comments are generally based along the lines of:
“why are you holding the fork in one hand but picking your food up with the other”
“Use the napkin not your trousers/shirt/chair/hair/nose to wipe your fingers now they are messy”
“If you cut the food it will fit more easily into your mouth”
“use the knife to cut the food. It usually works better than a spoon.”
“Why have you got a spoon? We are not having soup.”
How could we get the kids to hold their cutlery in their hands and use it to move food from their plate to their mouths?
Obviously the challenge was to keep the cutlery in the hands.
I was quite surprised that there was not more resistance to sticky taping their hands to the cutlery.
it looks a bit wierd, at first, but at least they can’t pick food up with their fingers.
Guests often find it odd that at the dinner table there is a roll of sticky tape next to the salt and pepper.
The down side is that we now don’t know anything that goes on at school.
very thing went quite well for ages. Every week we would change the water, clean the bowl, drop Nemo on the floor. He kept going for over a year. Surprisingly sturdy things.