Recently I was blessed to get to talk to her on the phone. It was such fun to hear her children playing in the background and to chat about our blogs and families.
Quirky Momma’s take on the phrase Pause Life for a Moment is share with us a fun learning activity to do at the table with your children. She kept the ideas for this activity in a jar by the table.
As a mom of four kiddos, three of which are preschoolers, meal times at our house are chaotic, at best. While talking to the kids doesn’t make the rush to spoon-feed a hungry baby while filing kiddos cups any easier, it does engage my preschoolers so they aren’t fighting over who got which plate or who is kicking who under the table and it lets me intentionally use the time we are together as a family to learn more about my kids, their day, their likes and dislikes. Maybe these dinner time conversation starters will help give you enough time to have Daddy chat with the kiddos. Thanks to my facebook fans,I was able to come up with 99 different conversation starters including:
How many animal noises can you make?
Who can count the highest?
How many hugs do you need each day?
Along with many more questions to help you as a parent intentionally get-to-know your kids and help your kids not remember the pre-dinner time as chaos but instead treasure the joy of talking to you, their parents.
Do you have any tips or ideas of ways to engage your kids and limit the chaos in your lives? Leave a comment with your tip!
Hi Quirky 🙂 The twins still take an afternoon nap, so often while they nap I’ll prep dinner (chop veggies or assemble casseroles – whatever I can do ahead of time). That way when they’re awake and grumpy and need lots of attention, I’m not so worried about it being time to start dinner. Generally, whatever is left to do is not time consuming and I can focus my attention on the kids.
The 99 conversation starters are awesome! I think that dinner time conversation is so important (even more so when they get older). we always share our favorite part of the day and sometimes a part that we didn’t like.
It always helps me to get the kids involved with setting the table or mixing ingredients.
I need the whole list of 99 🙂 hehe – What a great idea to get to know the kids. Dinnertime is often a battle of the foods here (not a food fight, just getting Henry to eat) that I often forget about general table talk.
We’re in the midst of sort of potty training – so usually while I prepare the end of dinner, Henry sits on the potty for 5 minutes to hopefully negate the problem of having/trying to stop pooping while eating which leads him to not eating anything.
Hmmm… it’s been a long time since I’ve had preschoolers, but I do help teach the 3 year old class at church. And I have never seen an activity that enthralls as much and as long as Playdoh! I never used it with my kids because of the mess and cleanup. But if I’d known it would occupy them happily for hours, I’d have bought it by the cartfull! 😉
I think reading time is a great way to engage children!
We love lingering around the table and try to be very intentional in our conversation. The children share what they read in their Bible reading from that morning, current events, jokes, etc. I keep a book basket next to the table that the little ones like to peruse once we’ve been sitting for a while.
I love this idea! Thanks!
I had a jar of activities for the summer and every day the kids would pull one of them out for that day’s fun. I guess it’s a bit of a twist on the conversation jar.
I love this kind of stuff! How cute, how many hugs do you need a day? Awww!
is this where i comment? oh well, here goes. that sounds like a worth while challenge. and I’ll be your not alone. it s amazing how mcuh can accumulate.. good luck . my challenge? getting my sister to admit she’s a boarder line hoarder.. lol..
keri
okay now where to i submit? grrr.
Even as my kids got older, we used those conversation starter books during dinner. They loved them and we learned so much about each other.
love this..
heading over to check her blog out.
thanks