Josh is on day 2 of 3 of his California bar exam--yeah Josh! He's been there for over a week and still has a few days more (he went a week early to study). While I've been too busy getting the house ready to sell to really dwell on him being gone, I do notice that dinner time is tough time of day.
I have one and two year old. The one year old obviously can't say a whole lot, but she does say some things and signs some things--point is that she likes communicating and needs and wants attention. I have a two year old I can sort of talk with, but she's not much of a talker, so I'm always trying to come up with things to say and ask.
During the day I'm already trying to think of ways to talk with them and interact (do I sound so pathetic that this is something I have to think about???). By dinner time, we're all so tired and hungry, we just want to eat and if you're talking, you're not eating, capiche? But I know they need it and I want to bond with them, yada yada.
BUT. By this point in the day, I've sort of worn out my source of topics to talk about since it's sort of like a monologue. Here's where you come in. Do you have any good ideas for dinner time coversations with kids this young? Or just dinner time ideas to make it fun?
I've come up with: accents (they think my eastern-European is hilarious), feeding them via choo choo trains, airplanes and space ships (any other modes of transportation?), review of the day, favorites, etc.
I have one and two year old. The one year old obviously can't say a whole lot, but she does say some things and signs some things--point is that she likes communicating and needs and wants attention. I have a two year old I can sort of talk with, but she's not much of a talker, so I'm always trying to come up with things to say and ask.
During the day I'm already trying to think of ways to talk with them and interact (do I sound so pathetic that this is something I have to think about???). By dinner time, we're all so tired and hungry, we just want to eat and if you're talking, you're not eating, capiche? But I know they need it and I want to bond with them, yada yada.
BUT. By this point in the day, I've sort of worn out my source of topics to talk about since it's sort of like a monologue. Here's where you come in. Do you have any good ideas for dinner time coversations with kids this young? Or just dinner time ideas to make it fun?
I've come up with: accents (they think my eastern-European is hilarious), feeding them via choo choo trains, airplanes and space ships (any other modes of transportation?), review of the day, favorites, etc.
Q: Back to my previous question: Do you have any good ideas for dinner time coversations with kids this young?
Q: Or just dinner time ideas to make it fun?
6 comments:
Good question! I either like to ask the girls what their favorite thing was that we did that day (and then they usually go on for a long time) or talk about something exciting we're planning on doing in the near future. Or we talk about lessons from church, preschool, etc.
Another thing that we do at lunch is to listen to books on tape or CD. Usually when they're eating lunch, I'm also doing other things in the kitchen--emptying the dishwasher, writing grocery lists, etc.--so I'm not sitting with them the entire time they're eating. So the books on tape keep everyone interested, and then we often end up talking about whatever it is we're listening to. Our favorites are the Book of Mormon stories, two tapes my grandma made (she taped herself reading them stories), and miscellaneous Disney stories. We listen to the same ones over and over and they never seem to get bored--it's nice now because they have the scripture stories almost completely memorized, so it really helps them to be interested during our family scripture study.
Excellent ideas Rachael!!! Are they special scripture story ones for kids? What is it called? I can't believe your kids sit through those, I've got to try it though. We usually have music on and Hazel loves to dance, but the stories would give us something to talk about like mini-book club for toddlers:). I also LOVE that your gma read stories and recorded them! Thanks for the great ideas.
The scripture stories are the tape/CD versions of the standard scripture stories you can buy at the distribution center for kids. Here's a link: http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10151&storeId=10151&productId=40293&langId=-1&cg1=13655&cg2=&cg3=&cg4=&cg5=&sortId=3&sortOr=1&retURLtext=Back%20to%20'Scripture%20Stories'&retURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ldscatalog.com%2Fwebapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2FCategoryDisplay%3FcatalogId%3D10151%26amp%3BstoreId%3D10151%26amp%3BcategoryId%3D13655%26amp%3BlangId%3D-1%26amp%3Bcg1%3D%26amp%3Bcg2%3D%26amp%3Bcg3%3D%26amp%3Bcg4%3D%26amp%3Bcg5%3D%26pageId%3D1%26pageCt%3D15%26sortId%3D3%26sortOr%3D1
Sorry that was huge! They used to have audio tapes/CDs, but I know the last time I tried to order new ones, they'd been discontinued. However, the website has a "download additional media formats" link where I think you can download an MP3, and then you could play that.
I have two tapes--each side is about 30 minutes long, which is the perfect length for lunch--we usually finish the dishes just as the tape ends.
Hey I've been thinking about this because Scott is rarely home for dinner and I frequently have ALL day to just talk with toddlers. We LOVE to sing and dance to They Might Be Giants Here Come the 123's and ABC's. We also talk about our day... what we did, what are we going to do tomorrow. Also, sometimes I use it as a teaching moment about numbers (how many peas are on your plate, how many more bites before you are done), colors (what color is your food, your shirt, etc.), or letters (what letter do you think this word starts with). Sometimes I just leave they strapped in and try and get the kitchen clean.
THanks Rachael for the info, I think that will be a moving present to the kids:). I'm really excited about the books.
Cecily, good ideas, I need to find those songs too--always nice to find good ideas for new songs that are tolerable for adults! I"m getting tired of our very limited CD selection. Good ideas on conversation topics, I do some of those, but not all. I shoudl write this all down for a cheat sheet to have handy during dinner!
Yep Cecily, we're moving! Did you get our newsletter? I sent it to you, but maybe I have an outdated email address for you, we spread the news that way first so I've just sort of commented on it since. We move in APril sometime (well that's the goal). You're not moving here are you???????
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