inserting a blank line in first row of table that appears alone on a page

If I create a single table on a page (nothing else is on the page except this table) and want to insert a blank line in Row 1 and then type text below that blank line, when I click inside Row 1 and press ENTER, the blank line appears above the table instead of inside Row 1. I have taken the steps below as a workaround. I know about paragraph spacing before and pressing Shift + Enter, but don't want to use those approaches. I need to use the Enter key to create the first blank line because I'm working with a scoring issue in an existing keyboarding program in which students are learning to type a table with a blank line in Row 1. Next publication, I'll be taking a different approach, but for now, I need to have the final table have a hard return above the first line of typed text in Row 1. Is there a simpler way to do that than what I have suggested below? All help greatly appreciated.