If your family struggles with just eating and talking during dinner like mine, try out some of these dinner table games and activities to make having family dinner together feel less impossible!
I’m pretty sure it’s been drilled into all of us how important it can be to sit down and eat dinner as family. It can be a really good time to talk about the day and connect with your family.
It can also at times feel absolutely impossible, and that’s currently where my family is at right now. With sports practices more nights than not, two boys that are over six years apart, and life that just constantly feels hectic, I’ll admit that screens play a part in our dinnertime more often than I’d like.
It’s something I want to work on because I know it would be a good time for us to connect. So I asked my Instagram community to share what they do to make family dinners easier and more enjoyable for everyone, and they showed up with their answers.
While I personally haven’t tried all of these things, I’ve put together a list of dinner table games and activities you can try if your family is like mine and doesn’t even want to just sit and talk about their day.
Also, I’m not going to tell anyone how to run your household, and I’m not going to sit here and pretend like screens are going to disappear from our dinners altogether. I’m a firm believer that whatever works best for your family is what works best, I’m just here to provide resources that I think could make dinner time more fun for everyone!
Side note
Know that if doing family dinner around a table together is not a reality for your family right now or ever, you are not alone, and you are okay. There are SO many other ways you can connect with each other as well, so you do whatever works best for your family. You can also use these ideas as you hike, travel, drive, walk, and just hang out together in other ways!
Games to Play at Dinner
If you want things to do while you’re eating dinner, these games and activities are a great way to mix things up!
Would You Rather Questions
A bunch of people said that they ask bizarre would you rather or this or that questions to start the conversations. I have tons of printable would you rather questions you can use if this is one you think would interest your family!
Use Conversation Cards
Tons of people said that they used conversation cards as conversation starters with their family, especially for kids who don’t love talking about their day. I love these ones because they include questions but also actions like complimenting the person on your left!
Name 5 Game
One of my readers recommended playing a name five game where you come up with a category like green vegetables and then someone has to name five of them. Love that idea and also love that someone already made a game out of it with pre-made categories to make it easier!
Guess in 10 game
Another thing that came up a lot was playing classic guessing games like 20 questions. This guess in 10 animal game is my boys’ favorite variation of that where they don’t have to come up with something, the animal is chosen for them. We use these for travel and lines too!
We’re not Really Strangers
Another conversation starter question game that was recommended a couple of times! I like this one because it’s not just one set of questions, there are two levels of questions that build upon each other. And the questions seem more interesting than some of the others I’ve seen out there.
Talk about highs & Lows
There were so many different variations of this response but the basic idea is that everyone goes around the table and shares specific things each day. Some of my favorite variations were highs/lows, mad/glad/sad, and sweet/sour. I also love the idea of recording some of those things in this journal (maybe weekly) because I’m a huge memory person!
Name 3 Things Game
One of my readers said that they play the name three things game. Basically choose some bizarre or obscure topic like name 3 things you’d never want to eat on ice cream and everyone answers. It sounds a lot like this board game Quick Quick Quick, so you could also totally start with the cards in there if you don’t want to come up with things off the top of your head!
Let the Dice Decide the Topic
My boys love rolling dice and these dive in dice let you roll up to 400 different topics to talk about. Think things like what is your favorite animal, who is the most unusual cartoon character, and so on. It’s a little more engaging than just regular conversation cards with the dice rolling, so I just grabbed these for my own family!
Play Card Games
A lot of people said that they play simple games during dinner. I know we often play card games during dinner since they’re small enough to have on the table and still have space for all the plates and food. These are some of our favorite card games, but you could definitely just choose your favorites too!
Tell jokes or riddles
If your kids like jokes, take turns telling jokes or riddles – either ones you made up or grab a book of jokes that are just for the dinner table! I know my boys love jokes, so we have this book that keeps them laughing for a while!
Break out the blocks
This is actually one of the things that works best for my family. My boys don’t love to just sit and talk or sit and listen, but they are happy to eat if they can do something with their hands. We have an entire shelf system with buckets of things to build and do. I’ll break out one of the block buckets during dinner and we can all build together while we eat. There are so many things you can do this with, but I’ve included a list of our personal favorites!
Play Line and car Games
We have a whole plethora of waiting in line games and roadtrip games that we play regularly. There’s no reason you can’t play those at dinnertime too! Think things like the ABC game, I’m going to a XYZ game, i-spy, and more. Here’s a whole list of fun waiting in line games that would work at the dinner table!
Make up a story
This one’s really fun because with different prompts you could easily do this one every night if you really want to and just let someone else start the story. One person starts, the next person adds to the story, and keep it going until your feel the story is finished. These always end up hilarious, especially when kids are starting them. If you need some story prompts, this book is filled with them!
Share Life Stories
Instead of just talking about what’s going on right now, ask questions that help get to really know each other. I love this set of questions because they are more about getting to know each other’s life stories with questions like where did my name come from, what’s your favorite family tradition, and what’s the best family vacation we’ve ever been on. It pulls in stories and memories more than just what’s happening today and who doesn’t love connecting over previous past experiences!
How to make dinner not so boring
If you’re looking for ways to change things up without necessarily adding a game or other element, these are some things people recommended to keep dinner interesting and more exciting.
Have a fancy dinner
Once a month make a big deal out of dinner! User nicer dishes, add table settings, and just make it a big deal. The food doesn’t have to be fancy but making it a bigger deal makes it a lot of fun. If you’re worried about kids breaking dishes, you could use fancy fake china like these!
make it a picnic
Sit on the table and eat on a blanket while you watch a movie as a family. Make this a rare occurrence or maybe something like once a month or once a week so that they know screens are a privilege and still a fun activity you’re doing together, not separately. Use a special waterproof (and spill proof) blanket you can wash after you eat!
Have a family discussion
I had a number of people say that they either read a scripture together or something like these manners for kids and have a family discussion about it during dinner. Not sure my family would personally sit and do that every night, but I think it could be a great idea for a Sunday dinner as you’re talking about the week. We have the manners for teens, and it’s actually great!
Listen to the Toniebox
This one came up a lot too! I know people swear by their Toniebox – it’s basically an audio player that when you add a character it tells stories, plays music, and does other screen-free education. Fun to do all as a family, especially as you collect different characters and their corresponding activities! Another people mentioned a lot was the Yoto screen-free audio player, but I think the Tonie is more popular these days!
Eat Outside
Change up where you eat. A couple of people said that they regularly eat outside when the weather cooperates because it feels different than just eating in the dining room. I think my boys might just get distracted and not eat, but it sounds like this could be an option for some families! We actually have these plates that are perfect for outdoor eating just for this purpose!
Get everyone involved
Start connecting before everyone is sitting down at the dinner table. Give people assignments to help make dinner, set the table, and so on so that everyone knows that dinner is a family affair. You can rotate jobs or just assign everyone one job based on their age so the youngest might be putting out silverware while the oldest is helping cook. Just another way to connect that isn’t sitting and eating at the table. This is my favorite dinner that kids can help with!
Do taste tests
Add some sort of fun family taste testing to dinner. Instead of just offering ketchup as a dip, offer ketchup, BBQ sauce, hot sauce, and ranch dressing then let people try out which one they think they tastes best with the dinner. Or offer up a couple of types of noodles instead of just one and turn it into a family activity to try and rank each other together! You could even have a set of these dry erase boards just for taste test nights!
Listen to a podcast
While this one may not be the best for connecting as a family during dinner, it sure can be a great way to connect together after you listen to the podcast. Listen to a short family-friendly one and then discuss the podcast together after. There are tons of kid-friendly podcasts out there but if you need some ideas, this is a great list!
Add Curses
Okay I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t love the board game Curses but as a dinner table activity, I love the idea. Instead of just having a normal dinner, have everyone choose a curse that they have to keep up throughout dinner instead. You could either use the ones from the curses game or just come up with a list that you alternate through. Then dinner gets more exciting as you laugh about people doing ridiculous things during the conversation!
Listen to an Audiobook
Similar to the podcast, this can either be a great option or one that means everyone just zones out and ignores each other during dinner. So my recommend would be to listen to one chapter of an audiobook a night and then discuss together. Even better if the book is something that everyone is really excited about like when I read Harry Potter with my oldest. Here’s a great list of kid-friendly audiobooks adults will also enjoy!
Someone else recommending reading a chapter out of a family chapter book, and I like that idea too as long as it’s after mom gets to finish eating!
Put the Kitchen to Bed
A number of people said that while their actual dinners are short, they continue the connection by having the family help clean up and put the kitchen “to bed.” Sometimes the movement can be just what people need to open up and feel less awkward than talking around the table. Plus, it never hurts to get the entire family involved in the clean up process! You could rotate responsibilities – loading the dishwasher, clearing the table, wiping down the table, putting away any leftovers, and so on. I love these all-purpose wipes for cleaning the table because they’re non-toxic and safe for little hands!
My personal tip!
For me, I know my kids get bored doing the same thing over and over again. I would love to say that they’ll get used to just sitting and talking every night or even just having conversation cards to go through. But I know my kids, and it’s just not happening.
So my personal plan is to take a bunch of these resources and switch it up throughout the week. Sometimes we’ll do question cards, sometimes we’ll play a game, sometimes we’ll do something totally different for dinner. The idea is to make dinner something fun and enjoyable without a ton of extra work!
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