During the infant stages of your new blended family activities that focus on getting to know one another are beneficial. Meal time activities initiate discussion and engage family members of all ages. Learning to enjoy the company of your family and making the most of your time together is essential to creating the bonds that are unique to successful families. The term “quality time” has been made quite popular in the past few years. When establishing a new family unit “quality time” must be combined with “quantity of time”. Evenings should be spent together as a family as much as possible, beginning with dinner. Here are some tried and true evening activities your family may enjoy!
1) Mealtime Mix Up:
You are just beginning to get to know food preferences of your family. Make meal time preparation fun by including everyone in the planning. Before making your grocery list sit everyone down with a pencil and 4- 3x5 index cards. Ask each family member to write down their favorite main dish, vegetable, dessert and starch (Mom and Dad included) the older family members will need to help the younger children with this activity. Share the results of the activity. Separate the cards into category piles face-down (all main dish cards together, dessert cards together etc.) Then randomly pick one card from each stack to create a full meal.
Variations: for breakfast planning use 3 cards (main dish, bread, and fruit) and for lunch planning use 3 cards (main dish, fruit or vegetable, snack). Remix cards every week for new combinations. Add to the categories often!
The benefits of this activity are many. You learn food preferences of your newly blended family. The menu planning is done for you. You can laugh and enjoy the wacky outcome of food combinations on your plate. This activity can be done as often as you’d like.
2) Mealtime Conversation Starter
It can be difficult to get children to open up. Using this activity is sure to elicit more than one word responses. Use a conversation starter, rather than asking questions such as “how was your day?” which tend to get brief responses. An example of a conversation starter is:
One good thing, one bad thing almost always gets a response from everyone. Each family member shares a positive and a negative aspect of their day. Don’t let anyone get away with saying “nothing” or “I didn’t have one”. Let them “pass” for one round, sometimes hearing the other family members helps them recall an incident they would like to share. Only one good thing and one bad thing can be shared by each person on a given round. At the end of a round if anyone “passed” they must share something, then if there are any additional good things or bad things that need to be shared go ‘round again!
There are many benefits to mealtime conversations. Parents can keep abreast of anything happening at school. Everyone gets a chance to share their day and you learn more about the personalities in your newly blended family.
Check back soon for more articles on activities for your family to enjoy and join us in the discussion area to swap more ideas today!
