How are you doing with family time at dinner time?
We’ve been working on it after I sent a message to PreschoolMama. Her suggestions we regularly do. Dinnertime is the first time we get together as a whole family so we all have something to say. Now our littlest guy has joined us. It can easily get disjointed with one of us constantly getting up and doing things for one of the children.
I eat with the kids no matter what as it gives us a time I wouldn’t miss in the world to talk and share. Lately work has squeezed my husbands time with us so either dinner is late and we’re altogether or if the kids are hungry we dine without him.
We’ve never been an eat in silence family- one boy always thinks it’s appropriate to sing…..we have no idea why. Another always assumes the role of butting in or knocker over of something. Ripe opportunity to teach manners. We’re going for the touch the arm if you want to interject or say something. Respecting others stories- ok some stories aren’t funny or interesting but we can still say something nice and not go ” yeah- I knew that” or immediately discount his story by launching into your own story. How to use a knife and fork ( We’re English. It’s what we do).
Whilst good ideas like teachable moments come up and the TV is off- meal times still seem a little chaotic. Whoever set the table forgot a glass or someone’s cutlery, where’s the booster seat,the serving spoon is missing (feared slipped inside the food because someone chose the wrong sized spoon) baby waited too long and now needs milk, we didn’t want this plate but this other one etc I could go on. But this is my problem.
The dining experience is a lot of fun really once we get going. Some things we’re trying
I’m trying not to serve everyone but let them serve themselves.
We sit in new seats everyday chosen by whoever puts out the mats.
Whoever is loudest wins! trying to change this and ask the middle one ( isn’t it always the middle one) questions
We really like this game 51 dinner games to play while you eat. Guess what’s in the oven mit that gets passed around is a good one. As is what animal would you be if… questions. It’s really interesting what comes out of their mouths…….
Why talk about dinner play activities?
Talking at dinner time is so very important. I read kayleym blog She wrote about William Doherty’s lecture on “Parenting Wisely in a Too-Much-of-Everything World”. The lecture sounded like a good one.
one-half of American families have the TV on during dinnertime, and that children in families that eat meals together three times a week or less are two-and-a-half times more likely to be over-weight or obese in childhood. Another fact I found interesting was that family mealtime influences academic achievement more than school, studying, sports, church, or art activities
This entry was posted on Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 8:42 am and is filed under play activities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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We have the tv on during meals. It’s the only thing that keeps Alex occupied enough to eat hismeal. However, I’ve been working on not doing that during other meals (I guess I should specify that he gets movies with dinner). I would love to play games with the family instead. This seems like such a good idea! Thanks for posting.
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February 23rd, 2009 at 11:05 pm
We have the tv on during meals. It’s the only thing that keeps Alex occupied enough to eat hismeal. However, I’ve been working on not doing that during other meals (I guess I should specify that he gets movies with dinner). I would love to play games with the family instead. This seems like such a good idea! Thanks for posting.
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