Do you eat meals with your family — with all mobile devices turned off? I’ll admit that sometimes my husband and I are sometimes guilty of doing this, but we are trying not do this anymore. We’re teaming up with Boston Market for their ‘Log Out Look Up’ campaign.
I love this — it’s Boston Market’s new initiative to remind families to remove barriers that stand between families and spending quality time by logging out of devices and sitting down together for a great meal, filled with authentic conversation.
Boston Market and WNBA Star and mom Lisa Leslie are challenging families to log out and look up from their devices to participate in meaningful conversations with their family. We invite you to join the challenge and conversation on Facebook and Twitter using #LogOutLookUp.
Did you know that recent studies that link regular family meals with the kinds of behaviors parents want for their children – high grade-point averages, resilience and self-esteem. Additionally, family meals are linked to lower rates of substance abuse, teen pregnancy, eating disorders and depression.
If you are looking for some ideas on how to get your family together during dinner time, The Family Dinner Project has some amazing resources. This is a growing movement of food, fun and conversation about things that matter and includes dinner games, conversation starters and even fun ways to get kids involved with food prep.
I have been using their conversation starters with my family. We really needed this — because we used to always ask “What did you do today.” and usually hear, “nothing” from our kids.
Here are some to get you started:
For kids ages 2-7:
For kids 8-13:
You can also make up your own topics. Encourage your children to dream big and to talk about what they could imagine. Our topic yesterday was inventions. My oldest child talked about how he wanted places for airplane to land on top of each building.
We enjoyed seeing where his imagination took him. Our youngest even got in on the fun and told us dinosaurs could fly the planes.
Boston Market Deal:
To help families spend even more time together, Boston Market will offer a special Buy One, Get One Free deal for a limited time only. Guests who make a purchase between Sunday and Friday during the week, will receive a special Saturday receipt coupon for a Buy One Individual Meal and a Drink, Get One Individual Meal FREE*.
How was your day today?
Anything good happen to you today?
Tell me about your day
I normally start with – Did you have a good day at school?
How was school?
We always start with What was the funniest thing about your day and after going around the table the person with the funniest thing asks the next question
what was the high light of your day
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I like talking about school, what they’re learning, what they’ve been doing.
Asking a question about sports is a good conversation starter
We like to start talking about our favorite things that happened today.
My kids love Boston Market
We start with “anything embarrassing happen today?”. It’s not as negative as it sounds – and I’m fully aware this wouldn’t work for everybody. However, for our family it’s a great intro into all kinds of funny stories and we all end up supporting each other. We don’t fear failure or not being “perfect” – when we talk about our flaws or hiccups we minimize their grip on our egos and great discussions are born on how to do better next time or how to change the path to success.
Susan, I think that’s terrific. Smart!
Tell me something that made you laugh today!
I share the highlight and lowlight of my day and then say who’s next?
How was your day did anything fun happen today?
How was everyones day today..
Every night during dinner I ask my oldest how he feels that day, if anything interesting happened, and I also tell him about my day even if it was boring. I also engage with my toddler and ask how he likes his food, tell him a little story about my day, and count things (like peas). Sitting at the table with them is my favorite part of the day.
Our favorite is asking how the day went.
I like to ask, What good things happened to you today?
My favorite conversation starter is “Tell me about the book you’re reading”!
I would usually ask them how was their day.
My Favorite Conversation Starter With My Family Is To Ask The Highlight Of Their Day.
How was your day? is pretty standard.
i ASK MY KIDS WHAT THEY WANT TO DO ON THE WEEKEND
WE LOVE BOSTON MARKET THE VEGGIES ARE FRESH , LOVE THE CORN BREADS, AND THE CHICKEN IS WELL COOKED AND DELICIOUS… I REALLY GET EXCITED WHEN I RECEIVED THE COUPONS. I TAKE ALL MY KIDS GRAND KIDS AND HUBBY WE ALL GO TO EAT OUR FAVORITE PLACE. MY DAUGHTER LOVES THE TURKEY IT IS ALWAYS TENDER. SHE IS HOPING THAT HAM WILL BE ON THE MENU TOO.
Guess what happened today.
Our favorite conversation starter is “Tell me the worst or craziest thing you saw or did today”. Someone at the table always has a story to share.
I always like to ask: where should we vacation together next? This gets the kids very excited and we talk about our past vacations and where we liked. So much fun!
My son really likes to talk about history and world events and my daughter enjoys talking about animals and traveling.
I like to ask “What was the best/worst part of your day?”
During the school year, activities at school and during the summer, camp!
I like to ask my family members to share how was their day
I love to start a conversation with my family by asking each member what they are grateful for or a positive thing that happened to them that day.
I like to ask my kids, “What did you learn today?”
I like to ask my son and daughter what they are excited about for the coming school year and if there was anything that they still wanted to do as a family before summer is over. I will also ask what was their favorite things they did this summer.