One of the BEST things that you can do at family meals is to talk about something other than the food. Trust me. This makes for much happier and stress free meals.

For about a year now, we’ve been using “Conversation Starters” to make our breakfast and dinner meals a bit more exciting. This is the original list of 50 that my then 7-year old son helped me come up with. We wrote each question on a slip of paper, folded it up, and put it in a jar. This jar makes regular appearances at our table. When we have a meal as a family we take turns pulling questions out of the jar. Someone reads the question and then we go around the table and give our answers. It can be hilarious, eye-opening, and a way to get to know each other better.

As we continue to observe self-isolation practices, many of my clients are telling me that they need some more tools to help make mealtimes fun – or at least pleasant.

I’ve turned The Original 50 Mealtime Conversation Starters List into a PRINTABLE for you.

GRAB YOUR FREE PRINTABLE HERE

Sure. You can just readout the questions but trust me, you will get way more buy in if you print them off, cut them up, fold them, and toss them into a jar. The kids will be way more into it if they get a chance to draw a question.

(Pro Tip: By calling it The Question Game my kids immediately jumped on board).

Here is our list of 50 Conversation Starters. There are several Harry Potter inspired questions – family favourite, one Paw Patrol question and a few really simple ones that my toddler can also enjoy answering. You can add your own questions and adjust them to embrace your kids’ current obsessions as well. Let me know if you come up with some really creative ones – I’ll be looking to replenish our jar soon!

GRAB YOUR FREE PRINTABLE HERE

50 Family Mealtime Conversation Starters:

1. If you had 3 wishes, what would they be? (other than money or more wishes)
2. What’s your favourite colour? How does that colour make you feel?
3. Would you rather watch a movie at a theatre or at home? Why?
4. What is your favourite thing right now? (can be person, object, activity, etc)
5. What is your all-time favourite book? Why?
6. Where would you like to travel to next?
7. If you could only eat 3 foods for the rest of your life, what would you choose?
8. Do you like the lake or the ocean better? Why?
9. Do you like grapefruit or oranges better?
10. Who is the person that makes you laugh the most?
11. What is your favourite thing about our family?
12. What would your catch phrase be?
13. What is something that you are really good at?
14. If you could meet anyone in the world who would it be?
15. What should we do more of as a family?
16. If you could travel to any other planet, which one would you pick?
17. What do you like better shorts or pants?
18. What do you like best about your sibling(s)?
19. What would you rather be a dinosaur or a dragon? Why?
20. What is your favourite professional sports team?
21. Do you like rain or snow better? Why?
22. What are some thing that you get to do that other people might not be able to or allowed to do?
23. If you won $100 what would you do with it?
24. What are you most grateful fo today?
25. If you could teleport anywhere (real or imaginary) where would you go?
26. What is the grossest thing that has ever happened to you?
27. What does kindness mean to you?
28. Did you have a chance to help anyone today?
29. What is your favourite song to sing?
30. If you could dye your hair any colour, what colour would you pick?
31. What’s your first memory?
32. Tell me about a time that you were scared. What did you do to feel less scared
33. What is something you’ve done that you are really proud of?
34. What is your favourite animal? Why?
35. If you were an animagus, what animal would you transform into?
36. What’s your favourite fruit?
37. Who is your favourite Paw Patrol character and why?
38. If you could have 1 superpower what would it be?
39. If you were a wizard/witch but could only perform 1 spell for the rest of your life, what spell would you pick?
40. What are some things that you don’t need but you are really happy that you have?
41. What can you do to make the world a better place?
42. What is the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do?
43. Do you prefer writing with a pen or pencil? Why?
44. Which school house would the Sorting Hat place you in at Hogwarts?
45. If you could make 3 family rules what would they be?
46. Would you rather have toes for teeth or teeth for toes?
47. What’s the hardest part about going to daycare/school/work?
48. If you were a scientist what would you invent?
49. Who is your best friend and why?
50. What is the one thing that you couldn’t live without?

You can also watch me and my 8 year old son, Gage chatting about how we use the Conversation Starters HERE.

If you know another parent that could use these Mealtime Conversation starters, send them the link to this post.