Family Dinners
Dinner time or meal time can be hectic for any family. Getting kids to eat, getting everyone to sit down together and keeping children from fooling around are all hard tasks for my family. Today I am going to share with you some great tips for keeping mealtime sane and fun.
Make a placemat out of old mats. Cut them to size and cover with clear contact paper. This is great to get kids learning about our country or our world while waiting for dinner.
If your child has a friend over have them play “restaurant” and let them make their own snack. One of them can place their order and the other can “cook”. Little sandwiches or fruit skewers would be great.
Introduce new foods with ones your kids already like and call them “extras”. Make sure they try one new food a week.
At dinner ask everyone for their “news”. Go around and tell your favorite part of the day or if something exciting happened that day. Make sure you listen to your children’s day. Make sure they listen to you also, listening to each other is an important skill to learn.
Be creative. Let your children chose what they want in their burrito, salad or sandwich, even if it does not sound good to you.
Teach manners at the table by using them. Tell them why it is important to say “please” and “thank you”.
What tips or tricks do you have for dinner time with your family?
dinner time, family time, family dinners, families, parenting, parenting children, getting kids to eat
May 9th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
my tip would be to have your child be involved w/ cooking the meal. They are more likely to eat it, when the cook it. Thus far, it works every now and then on my daughter, so I would say its worth the shot.
trisha