Great Conversations with Children - Family Time Tips & Ideas

One of the most important things we can do with our children is connect over a family meal. Studies show that “Family meals are a natural training ground for learning social skills, manners, and how to have pleasant conversations. It’s at the family table that we learn to talk, learn to behave, to take turns, be polite, not to interrupt, how to share, and when we have guests, how to entertain—good lessons for success in life.” — “Family Meals spell S-U-C-C-E-S-S”, Purdue University

We have a number of conversation starter sets that make it easy to engage younger kids and older kids in conversations at the dinner table, bedtime, family game night, in the car, you name it. Children love these questions and grown-ups love them too. You’ll be amazed at the thoughtful answers children come up with to our funny conversation starters and how using this unique family game can bring the whole family closer. Plus, our award-winning conversation starter question sets for kids and families have received extraordinary reviews.

Try sets like Family (great for elementary school-age kids or older kids) and Kids (a perfect game for conversations with younger kids 3+). Our Family Conversation Pack and Kids Conversation Pack are terrific family game night ideas because they contain some of the same conversation topics that we wrote for our partnership with Chick-fil-A, which has gotten rave reviews. Can You Imagine and What Do You Think are fantastic for tapping into your child’s boundless imagination and hearing their big ideas. The open-ended questions in all of these sets will help you add delightful conversations for the whole family to your mealtime (or anytime) menu.

Here are a few more ideas for using our great conversation starter questions with your family members.

Idea #1 – Put one question card in your child’s lunchbox each day and encourage them to share the conversation starter question with their friends at lunchtime. They can use it as an icebreaker to help them make new friends or to start great conversations with their good friends and keep the conversation going. It’s lots of fun for back-to-school time or any time. It is also a way for younger kids to practice reading.

Idea #2 – A grandmother wrote to tell us that she keeps our Kids set handy, right by the phone for her weekly calls with her grandchildren. She’s thrilled with how much the children enjoy answering the conversation starter questions and how it’s helped her get to know each of her grandchildren better. She says that they laugh together and talk about so many different things. She feels that they are as close as if they lived next door. The Kids set is the perfect game to give as a gift to the grandparents in your children’s life. It’s a fun family game that they’ll love and your children will too whether it is on the phone, on screen, or in person!

Idea #3 – A simple way to keep the conversation topics positive and inclusive at a young girls’ sleepover is to provide the girls with a party game that gives them enjoyable things to talk about. You can steer the conversation without even being present by sending the Slumber Party set along with your daughter to the sleepover. It’s the perfect game to pair with charades or Pictionary. Or, you can give our educational Inspiring Women for Girls set as a “thank you” gift to the parents hosting the party. They’ll be sure to thank YOU for it.

TableTopics is not your typical card game, it’s more of a cooperative game because there are no rules. It’s a simple game to start conversations at family gatherings and can be used as a family tradition at Christmas or other holidays. Conversation starters are especially good for introverts to have their chance to talk and get practice having interesting conversations. TableTopics has a dedicated following because it’s a classic game that is lots of fun for the whole family. The conversation topics are endless and the result is meaningful conversations, which is so much better than small talk. Try it out—it may be your kids’ new favorite thing!