Parents say that since family meals was an expectation and an enjoyable time in their home, as their children got older, they found that their kids planned their activities around dinner time. The kids may be heading out with friends for the evening, but they did so after dinner.
Meal time isn't a discipline time. You can teach a lot about good manners by simply modeling them and acknowledging good behavior.
Here are some fun ideas to include in your family meals:
- Encourage your children to come up with the menu. Take them shopping to get the ingredients for the dinner and have them help cook it.
- Everyone brings a new word to the table. You can play Dictionary where 4 meanings for the word are given and everyone has to decide which meaning is correct. Or you can just share the word and the meaning. Then during the next 24 hours everyone should try to use the new words correctly in sentences. The next night before giving other words, everyone tells how they used the word.
- Everyone throws prompts into a bowl such as, "If I could go anywhere in the world, I would go to ...... because......" Take turns pulling prompts out of the bowl to get conversations going.
- After dinner is over, one family member reads a chapter from a book aloud. Other members can listen at the table or may start doing the dishes.
- Occasionally, bring out the good dishes and silver and make the table fancy. Who better to serve with your best dishes than your family? At the very least, have dinner by candle light periodically.
Have fun! Laugh! Enjoy one another.
