During the 2010 back to school season, MealsMatter.org has been promoting healthy family meals to help children succeed in school and in life. Research shows that dinnertime conversation between adults and children can lead to better vocabulary, higher self-esteem and even a reduced risk of bullying other children.
To help you get conversation started at your dinner table, we compiled advice from the staff at Dairy Council of California, sponsor of MealsMatter.org, other blogs and even the news.
In a recent interview, Michele Obama revealed that at the dinner table, the family plays a game called “roses and thorns,” which means each person reports the good events — the roses — and the bad — the thorns — from their day.
The Bettencourt family of Elk Grove, Calif. would “Shine the Spotlight” on a different family member each day and every member of the family would say something positive about that person.
The blog 24/7 Moms (http://247moms.blogspot.com/ ) offers daily conversation starters and riddles in a feature called Table Talk (http://247moms.blogspot.com/search/label/Table%20Talk) to help families create dinnertime conversation. Some recent Table Talk questions and riddles follow:
- What is your most prized possession?
- What is the best tasting thing you've ever eaten?
- Q: I only have 2 backbones and thousands of ribs. What am I?
- A: A railroad
- Q: What goes up, but never comes down?
- A: Your age.
The Burkman family of San Ramon, Calif. asked their two daughters to share “at least one fun, interesting or good thing that happened to you today.”
The Northrup family of Poway, Calif. started sharing the best and worst part of their days at the dinner table when their oldest child started school. This helped them “gauge whether there were any problems at school.”
Remember that the shared time and positive experiences with your children are important parts of the family meal. Be sure to turn off the TV and radio, put away cell phones and listen to each other. You might learn something!
Here are some addition suggestions- we invite you to leave your own ideas in the comments below!
- Ask children to give examples of how they can make someone they don't know smile the next day, whether it’s someone at the grocery store check-out stand or someone at school they may not know well. Be sure to talk about common-sense safety precautions, as well.
- Ask each child one or two things they did in school, outside of recess.
- Ask children what they did at recess or whether or not their team won during PE.