Family Dinner Conversation Ideas and Activities

Taking advantage of regular family dinner time is a great way to enhance the time you spend as a family and a simple way of establishing family rituals. Here are some family dinner conversation ideas and activities to help you get started. Remember, these conversation ideas and activities aren't necessarily only for dinner time. At Families with Purpose, we realize breakfast on Saturday mornings or pizza on Friday nights works best for your family, so don't hesitate to try some of these suggestions at a meal that works for you.

Struggling with getting family dinners on the table? Try using a family meal planner to make things easier.

Funny Hat Night Activity- Have everyone in the family make or dress up existing hats and wear them while you eat. Use the dinner conversation to talk about the reasons for your hat or hat decorating choices. Give an award to the funniest hat.

Take turns picking a topic of discussion such as current events, vacation plans, or school/work/church events. Use the topic choices to encourage family dinner conversation and as a way of getting the kids to develop opinions.

Have an indoor picnic by spreading out a blanket in the middle of the family room floor and packing a picnic lunch.

Family Dinner Games

For older children and parents try this family dinner conversation idea. Go around the table and ask everyone to name one thing or person that either inspired or significantly affected them during the past week. Be sure to ask them for the reasons behind their choice.

Try only eating with spoons

Change seat nights - Have everyone switch to a different seat while they eat.

Dress up night activity - Have everyone dress up for the occasion and pretend it's a real party. Use the dinner conversation to talk about the reasons for your outfit decorations. Give an award to the best outfit.

Start a giving box that will collect spare change for those less fortunate. Have everyone donate some spare change to the box and use the family dinner conversation to discuss how the money should be used.

Rather than a picnic lunch, why not try a picnic breakfast? Avoid the heat of the hot summer days, by heading to the park for breakfast. Keep food simple by bringing things like muffins, fruit, and juice boxes.

Use family dinner conversation to discuss the latest books everyone has been reading

From our Visitors....
Once a month each child gets to plan dinner. This helps with the fussy ones as they get to plan every part from entree to vegetable to dessert!

We have a "Celebration" dinner plate. Whenever someone has a great day or something extra special that happened,
they get to eat off of that plate.

We always do a "Best" and "Worst" at dinner. Everyone shares the best and worst parts of their day. This is where we often hear about things we didn't know happened!

Marlo Moeller lives in Troy, MI with her three daughters and husband, Jim. When not taking care of her family, she is coaches basketball, volunteers at her daughters' school and is a Creative Memories Consultant. You can visit her website at www.creativememories.com/marlomoeller