During lunchtime one day, I was sitting with the children and observed those who were eating all of their lunches and those who were not eating all of theirs. I wondered how to motivate them without pushing them to eat their food, as I believe that hungry children will usually eat what they are given. And if you ask them to eat everything, they often reply that they are full… when, of course, you know they are not. How could I encourage them to eat their meals without laying a guilt trip on them, like I was (being born in Africa), or making them feel forced to eat everything to receive a reward, dessert, which we don’t have in class for them.
And so, 100% was born. I believe that children love concepts that sound adult. They aspire to understanding them and using them in their conversations. So, I said: “If you eat all your food, then you will have eaten 100%.” Every day at lunchtime, after that, the children assessed themselves at mealtimes with, “I had 100% today.” We also have a chart where we record how much each child eats at lunchtime, and they loved seeing ‘100’ alongside their name.
Today, they do this without us saying anything. They even but into our conversations when they hear the teachers saying, “How much did so and so have at lunch time?” and the child will answer, “100%.”
