Playing Family Dinner Games Can be Fun & Interactive
See Below: TIPS, IDEAS & SUGGESTIONS FOR FAMILY DINNER GAMES
This post is about 5+ Creative Ideas for Family Dinner Games & Fun Activities to Keep Your Family Engaged at Meal Time!
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Creating Family Dinner Games
Integrating family dinner games at your dinner table may not be something you ever thought of before.
However, if you’re a mom like me, with 5 grown kids out of the house, now raising two grandchildren, you may need to think outside of the box at meal times.
Establishing Routines
For us, games were always a fun activity for the family. But as the children got older, they didn’t want to spend time playing board games with the family.
So, I felt sad when my kids began to outgrow family game night. But, knowing they still enjoyed playing games with us, I decided to restructure our family game night and include them during mealtime. Now we have family dinner games!
After our five children finished college and moved on their own, my husband and I were empty nesters. But that time was very brief.
Soon after we became empty nesters, one of our daughters was going through drug addiction and a mental health crisis.
Due to her situation, I took legal custody of our two grandchildren. Once they moved into our home, there were lots of adjustments and changes.
My husband and I quickly realized that our grandkids were not used to a dinner-time routine. In their home, they did not have a structured dinner regimen.
But we felt it was important to have a daily dinnertime routine and eat dinner together as a family. We always ate dinner together with our children, so we continued the routine with our grandchildren.
Strange to say, but this was kinda difficult for our grandkids to get used to sitting together for meals, but they began to enjoy it. And, it became our daily routine.
Although at times it doesn’t feel like they are interacting, they are listening and absorbing the conversations discussed at the dinner table.
For more information, see The Joys and Exhaustions of Parenting Grandchildren.
Ideas for Family Dinner Games: How We “Play”
My goal in starting our family dinner games was to try to connect and interact
with our grandkids and each other during mealtime. I knew it was impossible to
actually play a full game while we ate, so I only used parts of a game.
For example, I took questions or cards from several board games and my husband and I would take turns asking my grandkids questions.
Since there is a four-year gap in age between my two grandkids, taking turns was very important!
For example, if we were playing Scattergories, or travel Scattergories, someone would assign a letter. Then I would read the list out loud and everyone would shout out answers. We didn’t write anything down or keep score.
For games like Taboo and Trivial Pursuit, we would read random questions and the kids would take turns answering.
For games like Outburst or Outburst Jr., we’d name a title or a category that included 10 different responses, so anyone could shout out an answer.
All of these games can be found at Amazon or at Walmart:
The family dinner games were really something the kids started to look forward to every night. They even started to request specific games or determine certain rules about a particular game. (Side note: we were VERY flexible with the rules of the game!)
Being Creative!
As the kids got older, I adjusted the family dinner games a bit to
incorporate more educational factors.
Noticing how much information was being overlooked or lost in school, I felt
our family dinner games could help build their knowledge on various subjects from
math to geography.
I purchased a large world map and put it in a poster frame and kept it near
our dining table. Throughout our meal, I asked various geographical questions. Such
as names of countries, bodies of water, states, capitals, etc.
Honestly, maps have endless information we can all learn. Thus, searching
the map for multiple locations became one of our main family dinner games.
Our grandkids and their friends became focused on knowing and learning about
states, capitals, continents, and so much more. I was pleasantly surprised by how
interested everyone became in map searching.
Of course, my husband and I, as well as our grown children, would learn about
geographic locations along with our grandkids.
Truly, perusing different types of maps and map searching has been a win-win
informational lesson of knowledge for all of us! You gotta give it a try!
Learning to Enjoy Dinner Together!
Sitting together at dinner was a new routine and a new skill for our grandkids. In order to make the gathering more relaxing and fun, I decided to bring a “game” element to the table. I know what you’re thinking! “Why or how can you play a game while you’re eating?”
However, interacting with the family dinner games allowed my grandson and my granddaughter an opportunity to engage with each other on their own terms, in a fun, carefree way.
Since my husband and I asked the questions, we were sure to ask the questions fairly for their age while still challenging them. It was competitive, informative, and fun!
The funny thing is that our family dinner games became exciting and popular with friends and family. So, if friends or family were over for dinner, we included them in whatever game we were playing that night.
My granddaughter’s friends loved eating over at our house so they could play a random, creative, self-invented game!
At times our grown children would stop over during dinner time and join in the games. Our family dinner games truly did and do include several of our family members on any given night!
As my grandchildren get older, they sometimes roll their eyes when they see a box of cards or a game on the table when they sit down to dinner. But they seldom complain once we start playing a game.
Being a mom and a MomMom of a large family, I have learned to treasure the time we spend around the dinner table with our loved ones.
Whether you are sitting together for a meal, chatting, or enjoying family dinner games, there is deep meaning and value in every second you share together.
Family Routines
Establishing family routines, such as meal times together and family dinner games, are very important for interacting and connecting with everyone in your family unit.
Practicing family routines is a great opportunity to understand each family member’s role and expectations in the home.
For us, it’s important for our grandkids to know that everyone in the family has responsibilities they need to follow.
Seeing and knowing that gives them a clear sense of feeling like a true member of the family.
This Post is About 5+ Creative Ideas for Family Dinner Games for Kids and all Family Members.
TIPS, IDEAS & SUGGESTIONS FOR FAMILY DINNER GAMES
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- Find questions from a board game that can be answered easily and have an adult ask questions to the kids at the dinner table. Kids and adults can all be included in the game.
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- Create math questions and/or equations to be answered easily without needing to be calculated. For example, times tables, and addition or subtraction problems 1 through 12 should be easily answered without computation.
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- Display a map (a world map is especially interesting, but any map will do) for everyone to view. Ask various questions. Bodies of water. How many continents are there? Name them. Point to (something specific on the map) These questions can go on and on since the world map is massive with information!!
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- Map Follow-up! You can also ask your child to locate a particular city, country, state, etc., and then research a fact about that. How large is a certain body of water? What is the capital of a state? Who is the president of a specific foreign country? The questions are endless and the wisdom gained is memorable.
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- Ask about your family tree. Does your grandchild (or children) know who their mothers, mother is? OR fathers’ father? How about grandparents and great-grandparents? Aunts, uncles, cousins? It is important kids understand their connection with the other members of the family. Showing and explaining details and descriptions will help them gain a better understanding of family history and their family tree.
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- Allow your grandchild or child to make up their own game. Their creativity and ingenuity may surprise you!
