Teach your child about time. Though the child does not have to know how to tell time, knowing the differences between morning, afternoon, and night will be important to understanding meal times. Reinforce these lessons with pictures of the times of day, as well as talking about them when they are taking place, to help your child understand these concepts. Otherwise, discussing meal times will not be meaningful.
Talk about the different meals. When your child gets up in the morning, you might ask her what she is about to eat. Reinforcing that it is called breakfast, and that you eat it at, say, 8 a.m., will put both the vocabulary and the schedule in her mind. Doing the same with lunch and dinner will reinforce this concept.
Associate different meals with different foods. Grouping pictures of food, or plastic foods used as children's toys, can help your child understand you eat cereal in the morning, steak for dinner, and a banana at any meal.
Use actual times only as a guideline. For small children who do not yet understand how to tell time, saying you eat breakfast at 8 a.m. is not informative. Rather than defining meal names by time, work the time that you eat into your other conversations about food and meals. This prepares your child to learn to tell time without confusing her at the present.