Potlucks on the Porch: Dinner Conversations

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Dinner Conversations

A few months ago, I wrote a post called 5 Questions to ask at Dinner, in an effort to do a little more talking at dinner time and not just shoveling in our food as fast as we could. It has been a lot of fun over the last few months to see that we have been improving and talking more. I love that I don't usually have to bring up questions anymore and that my girls will begin the conversation. So here are some other ideas to spark conversations at the dinner table.

1. Jokes

Kids love telling and hearing jokes and sometimes us adults need to laugh more. Enjoy a dinner with everyone telling their favorite joke or use some of these to get you started.

2. Questions

Here is another great list from Every Day Family

3. Fun Facts

We are kind of nerds at our home and love to share fun facts at the dinner table. Sometimes we asked it as a question so we can all take a guess at the answer and other times we just share the facts.

Fun Food Facts for Kids
Fun Food Facts for Kids
Fun Food Facts for Kids
Fun Food Facts for Kids

4. School Questions

Again because we are kind of nerds at our house, we sometimes ask questions about what the girls are learning in school. For example my daughter had to memorize the Presidents of the United States in order so we would ask who is the 5th President? My other daughter loves math so sometimes we will give her story problems to figure out during dinner. We also like to ask about what the book that they are reading is about? For my daughter who is not in school, we like to ask about colors, numbers, shapes etc?

5. Tell Stories

My girls love to hear stories about when we were little or when they were little. We sometimes will share stories as we eat dinner.

AND THE REALITY!!!

Dinner isn't always a sweet peaceful time at our house where we share stories, ask questions, and lovingly pass the food around while using our manners. Sometimes it is more like this......