Dinner Table Conversation Starters
Start Family Discussions Your Kids Won’t Want to Stop Talking About
Jun 14, 2007
How was your day?
Fine.
What happened at school today?
Nothing.
Sound like your kids at the dinner table? We finally get our families gathered together at the end of the day and our kids just don’t seem to want to contribute to a meaningful conversation. Getting kids to talk at dinner may be the biggest challenge of your day.
In the life of a busy family, dinnertime is the perfect time to listen to your children, to find out how their day went, and to delve a little deeper into their thoughts, feelings and imaginations.
It may take more than the same yes or no questions every night, but you can learn more about your family with some conversation starters. At the same time, you’ll be giving your children practice at thinking quickly, forming arguments and expressing their thoughts.
Start with a different family member each night. After your kids get the hang of it, don’t be surprised if they’re volunteering to go first.
Let your children come up with questions of their own. Let them ask each other any question they want. Conversation starters based on movies or books that your children have just seen or read will strike a chord. Soon your family will be looking forward to dinnertime as the most entertaining part of their day.
Here are some conversation starters to get things started:
- What was the __________ (choose one: funniest . . . most surprising . . . most predictable . . . dullest) thing that happened to you today?
- What was the nicest thing you did for someone else today? What was the nicest thing that someone else did for you today?
- If you were writing a newspaper article about your day, what would the headline be?
- Tell us three adjectives that describe your day today.
- In 60 seconds, tell us as much about your day as you can.
- Teach us one thing that you learned today that you think we don’t yet know.
- If you were president, name three things that you would change about the country right away.
- If you won the lottery (or won $100) what is the first thing you would buy?
- If you could ask God one question, what would it be?
- You are going to be alone on a deserted island for a year and you get to take one book/DVD/CD. What would you take?
- Describe your perfect day, from the time you wake up until you go to bed.
- If you could invent something that would make life easier, what would it do?
- If you were running for mayor, what would be your campaign platform?
- What movie character would you want to be?
- If you could meet a person from history, who would it be?
- Tell us the last joke that you can remember hearing.
- If you could be an Olympic athlete, what would you be?
- If you could go on a vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go?
- If you could make a movie, what would it be about?
- In the movie about your life, what actor would play you? Your best friend? Your family members?
