Family Dinner: 50 Conversation Starters for Young Kids

Dinner time with young children can be anything – but relaxing. Sit down! Eat your food! Stop licking the table! Okay the last one might just be at my house, but you get my point. The concept of family dinner is a good one – but the reality isn’t as pretty.

In a desperate attempt to make my 3, 5, and 11 year old talk to us at dinner – I made a conversation jar and loaded it with questions I found around the web. To my surprise – the kids loved it. I mean loved it.

They argued whose turn it was to pull a question – even though two of the three can’t really read. The amount of time my kids sat at the table moved from single to double digits! What was even more surprising – was that my three year old got in on the conversation. She offered hilarious answers to questions she didn’t fully understand. When she did understand the question – the answers were even better.

I thought – wouldn’t it be great if there was a list of questions that were specifically designed for young kids. I loved the concept, but craved questions that were geared more towards little people.

So a list grew in my head. Eventually the list made it onto my computer and finally into this article. Some questions are very straight forward and some might need a little more explaining for the youngest at your table. Some questions will bring laughter and others might bring insight into those little, mysterious minds.

If you are up to a project – cut these questions out and put them in a jar – otherwise just bookmark the page and come back for new questions each night.

50 Dinner Questions to Get those Little Ones Laughing and Talking:

1. If you could go into any TV show – what show would want to visit?

2. If you could only eat one fruit forever – what fruit would it be?

3. What are three words you would uses to describe yourself?

4. What do you think your are good at?

5. If you had to pick only one – would you want to be a great singer or a great dancer?

6. If you went to another planet – what would you bring with you?

7. If you were a teacher what rules would you make?

8. If you could make your whole house out of food – what food would you use?

9. If you could have one super power what would it be?

10. If you could be an animal what would you be?

11. If you could paint the whole world – what color would you use?

12. Who is the nicest person you know?

13. If you could be anyone when you grew up – who would you want to be?

14. If you could be your favorite cartoon character – who would you be?

15. Which is better – being invisible or being able to fly?

16. What’s one rule you wish your mom and dad didn’t have?

17. If we could only have one holiday – which one would you pick?

18. If you could go anywhere in the world – where would you go?

19. What do you like the most about your sister/brother/mother/father?

20. If your pets could talk – what would they say?

21. If you could only have one wish – what would it be?

22. If you could read someone’s mind – whose mind would you want to read?

23. If you were invisible – where would you want to go?

24. If you could play with only one thing your whole life – what would you pick?

25. If you could only read or listen to one book – what would you pick?

26. If you could have any job in the world – what would it be?

27. If you had to have no arms or no legs – which would you pick?

28. What scares you the most?

29. If you could turn someone nice – who would it be?

30. If you could be great at something – what would you want to be great at?

31. If you could be any age – what age would you want to be?

32. If you could make the laws – what is one law you would definitely create?

33. If you could only be one age for the rest of your life – what age would you want to be?

34. If you could make up any holiday – what would it be called?

35. If you could live anywhere – where would you live?

36. If you could make any animal talk – what would it be?

37. If you had to change places with your mom or dad – who would you pick to be?

38. If you could only have Christmas or your Birthday each year – which one would you pick?

39. What is your most favorite memory so far?

40. How many kids do you think you’ll have when you grow up?

41. Which is better to be – funny or honest?

42. If you could make one improvement to the world – what would it be?

43. If you had to teach someone something –what could you teach?

44. What’s your funniest face?

45. Who can go the whole dinner without blinking?

46. Who is the funniest person at the table?

47. What relative do you love seeing the most?

48. If you could make three family rules – what would they be?

49. If you had to rename yourself –what name would you give yourself?

50. If you had to live with a cartoon character – who would you pick?

I hope you and your kids have fun with these questions!

Hopefully it will be a jump start to some interesting conversations – or at the very least a brief interlude from the moans and groans of why they have to eat your very disgusting dinner. As my husband would say, their first world problems!

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Other family dinner ideas: