Ready for meaningful mealtime conversation? These dinner conversation starters are what you need! Download and print 65+ engaging topics and questions that are a perfect fit for connection at the dinner table. Set includes blank cards to add your own relevant questions.
Dinnertime is a valuable time of the day to connect as a family. It’s a time to share how your day went, to catch up on news, and to enjoy each other’s company. Dinnertime conversation starters are a great resource to keep the conversation flowing and to prevent awkward silences.
Coming up with topics of conversation can be tough, especially for kids. Often small talk occurs but we don’t get to the root of who our child is. We miss this occasion and before we know it days have turned to years and we are waving good-bye in the review mirror as they drive off to college.
That’s why we’ve compiled a list of family dinner conversation starters that will help get the conversation flowing around the table. Turn regular family dinners into a favorite family activity.
Why are Family Dinner Conversation Starters Important?
Family dinner conversation starters are important because they help families connect with each other. They provide a way to share news, catch up on what’s going on in each other’s lives, and enjoy each other’s company.
In addition, family dinner conversation starters can help prevent awkward silences and to encourage friendly talks about important topics and lighthearted conversations that make a big impact on family bonds.
How to Use Family Dinner Conversation Starters
There are many ways to use family dinner conversation starters. They can be used as icebreakers to get the conversation started, or they can be used to keep the conversation going if it starts to lull. The important thing is to find a way to use them that works for your family.
Some families like to go around the table and have each person share one thing about their day. Others like to pick one conversation starter and discuss it as a family. And still others like to use conversation starters as a way to get to know new family members or friends.
Simply print and cut the cards. Add them to a bowl and use as you’d like for a routine dinnertime. You could also make a conversation starter jar. Fold the cards, insert in the mason jar and keep it lidded on the dinning table.
Alternatively, get creative with how you use these cards. Is it a holiday or special time of year? Incorporate the holiday into how you use the conversations. For example, during Easter put a different conversation card in plastic Easter eggs. Put all the eggs in an Easter basket in the center of the table. During the lent season, a family member can draw and an Easter Egg and you can go over different dinner questions during the spring season.
What are Some Good Family Dinner Conversation Starters?
How many times do you use the question “How was your day today?” in a year? For me, I use it daily and often forget to use my pocket full of reliable conversation starters for kids. While it’s great to know about their day, go deeper than asking such a generic question.
Some good family dinner conversation starters include:
- Did anything interesting happen at school/work?
- What are you looking forward to this weekend?
- What was your favorite part of the day?
- What are you looking forward to tomorrow?
- What was the best thing that happened to you today?
- Tell me about your friends.
- Who do you admire most and why?
- What was the best thing about your day?
- What do you like the most about the person sitting to your left?
- What is the funniest thing that happened to you this year?
- If you could turn someone nice – who would it be?
- How would your pet describe you?
- What is your favorite family tradition and why?
- If you could be invisible for a day, what would you do?
These including funny conversation starters but also deeper conversation starters where you really dig into your child and spouse’s heart. What are are their fears, hopes, desires, dreams?
Dinner Conversation Starters Printable
Erase the awkward silence and create a memory your kids will pass on to their kids. To help get the chatter going, we’ve designed a easy to use printable that you can print out, cut apart, and leave on the table for family dinners.
There are 69 conversation starters and once you use them all, you can go back through the cards- the answers will change over time and depending on who is answering the question. For example, “What was your last thought before going to sleep last night?”
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These helpful cards help your family get deep with these discussion starters that are great for both kids and adults. In this Family Conversation Starter Cards Printable PDF Set, there are 69 convo starters and a blank page of 24 so you can add your own questions. Print the blank page as many times as you’d like to create personalized starters for your family or the time of year.
Make time for people who make time and learn more about friends and family at dinner time! Pull out some of the cards and use when hosting a dinner party, for Thanksgiving dinner or even Christmas dinner party. A good friend and party guests might enjoy reliving their earliest memory, dream job, favorite holiday, biggest regret, most desired superpower or favorite movie. They also make great conversation ice breakers for adults and kids alike. It’s the perfect time to use the blank cards to add topics and questions that are a fit for those individuals you are hosting. It’s sure to bring the laughter.
Download Family Conversation Starter Cards Printable Set
Free Printable
Want a sample? In the Frugal Coupon Living free printable librarys. we have a sample of 21 family conversation starters. If you like them, purchase the remaining conversation starter cards. To get your freebie, subscribe and look for a link and password in your inbox. The password allows you to access and download all of our free printables including the printable conversation cards for family.
There are so many amazing ways to use these useful cards, you’ll be in awe of how much more your kids are willing to open up to you when you use these dinner conversation starters. Start a new dinnertime family tradition with these awesome cards!
More Family Time Ideas
If you are looking for more quality time ideas for families, take a look at our Family Traditions. Don’t worry, it’s not a Hank Williams song. It’s real ideas for quality time for family (or even a spouse!) There are many fun ideas for year-round and ways to encourage, love and support one another. They are excellent for those with a quality time love language.
Take a look at these additional quality time ideas for family…
- Plan a staycation
- Create and try new foods
- Create a family game night and try new games with a list of ideas
- Volunteer at a church or non-profit organization
- Print a bucket list of family bonding ideas
- Have bucket list for all seasons
- Plant a backyard garden
- Go on an outdoor scavenger hunt
You might also enjoy, 20 Loving Words for Kids. Print these words of encouragement to uplift your children other than good job! Pin to Pinterest.
Also see how we turn in one of our favorite “be the good kid” quotes into a canvas and hung it in our child’s room. Easy peasy. Such encouraging words for kids to visually see daily. Pin to Pinterest.
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How to Print at Staples
Don’t have a printer? You can print at your local print shop or your Staples Printing Center. Watch this video for how I print my PDF documents at Staples.
Our Pinterest community and I would love to see how this worked out for you. Share your dinner table conversation starters. Were there any you added? Any you left off. Leave a comment here or on Pinterest so we can all support each other!
WHAT’S TRENDING? Looking for a few engaging activities? Grab Minute to Win it Games – Traditional, Holiday, Group, and more! Use these fun activities in the office, classroom, or at your next birthday party.
Last Updated on May 17, 2022 by Ashley at Frugal Coupon Living