You've already planned a meal for your family's bodies - now how about one for their minds as well?

In hopes that our family dinner tables will be enhanced by this effort, each week, a new Table Talk will be listed here. Use it to spark conversation at your family table. Use it to get to know one another a little better. Use it to have a laugh together!

I wonder if I will ever...

(table archive)

The Family Table

There are tools we all need know how to use - in order to better understand others, in order to work and play well with others, in order to know how to express ourselves clearly, in order to feel understood by and connected to others, and in order to be a useful citizen of this planet.

The tools are many - discussing, agreeing, sharing, disagreeing, considering, arguing a point, encouraging, debating, relating, empathizing, connecting, predicting, exploring, laughing, wondering, planning, describing.

These tools are learned in many places - playgrounds, homes, schools, places of worship, friendships, etc. But there is one special place which is often overlooked as a training-grounds for learning how to use these important tools - the family table. Describing events from our day, discussing the future, remembering the past, debating opinions - these are powerful ways to develop the tools needed for success in the world.

Table Talk Tips

1. Create some "sharing patterns" for your family to help keep the conversation flowing. Try a "round-about" pattern that goes around the table clockwise, or a "about-around" pattern that goes counter-clockwise! Want to mix things up? Use a "zig-zag" pattern that hops from one side of the table to a diagonal corner! Having spaghetti? Use raw spaghetti and "draw straws" to see who goes first!

2. Doodle Dinner! Use old paper grocery bags as a table cloth, fill a few coffee mugs with crayons, and doodle your dinner. Switch seats at the end of the meal and check out what everyone drew!

3. Meal Manger - Putting kids in charge of the meal might make for an odd meal, but it's a great way to get them engaged in the time spent at the table.

4. Dinner Dilemmas - Want to know how your kids think on the fly? Create a dilemma and ask them how they would handle it! Make it really matter to them by creating a dilemma from an actual situation from their lives, or from your work, or your childhood!

5. The Moody Blues - Kids have definite ways of letting us know when they don't want to talk. Respect their right to not share, but don't let it ruin the meal! Move the conversation around them, but always look for ways to make openings for them to join in!

6. Short and Sweet - Sometimes there's not much to say. And that's OK! Just make sure your questions invite your children to have more than one-word-answers. There's a fine line between questions and inquisitions. :)

More Table Talk Tips coming soon!
Send in your favorites from your family!