Once those kids get older, it can be hard to engage them in conversation. There’s a lot of “whatever” and “I don’t care” when I try to ask them questions like “what would you like for dinner?” or “what would you like to do tonight?” Now don’t get me wrong – if you happen to stumble onto a subject that they’re passionate about or that they know a lot about, then you might not be able to get them to shut up!
I love it though – I love how smart and compassionate and witty my kids are growing up to be. Yes, they’re growing up a little faster than I would like, but I think they might turn out to be really great people.
Anyway, it’s still a struggle to come up with conversation at the dinner table. There’s only so far that “what did you do today?” will get us. So I came up with these little conversation cards.
At the dinner table, each person gets to take a turn drawing one from the jar. They read the question and then answer it. Then, it either turns out to be a conversation as someone agrees or disagrees, or everyone else gets to take a turn answering the question. They’re all open-ended or “would-you-rather” type questions, so they require a little bit of thought to answer.
Another bonus to these question cards is that they make all of us slow down our eating, so dinner takes longer and we digest better and get more satisfaction from our meals.
Well now you can give this a try too! There are two sheets to the free printable. I printed them out on two different colors of paper and cut out each question. I’m storing our question cards in this adorable little jar. I got this one at the herb store, but this is a really cute storage jar – or how about this one?! You could also store them in a bag or any extra jar or bowl you’ve got at home.
Download the free printable and give this a try. Let me know how it goes! Do they help your kids open up to you? Let me know in the comments.
