I love connecting with my family over meals and with summer upon us I wanted to get this activity started.  For us connecting, usually happens at dinner time, so I created this Dinner Discussion Ideas Jar to set out at dinner.  I used it for the first time last night and my kids LOVED it.  They wanted to go through all the cards.  Over here you can find the links to over 100 dinner discussion ideas from Growing Book by Book that you can print out like: what if scenarious, jokes, story prompts, questions, facts…

Don’t worry if you’re jar isn’t all jazzed up, especially if this keeps you from starting this activity.  The goal after all, is to connect with the familia.

I did have some time to make it pretty and it didn’t take long.  I love how this jelly jar turned out, it screams SUMMER fun!  It only took me 3 minutes to make! Seriously, only 3 MINUTES.

You will need:

• Empty jar
• ribbon
• butterfly (it can be one made from paper or the crafts store sell them or a sticker)
• paper
• craft glue or hot glue gun

1. Take your jar and wrap the ribbon around twice or however many times you want.

2. Once you have figured out where you want to position it start gluing.

3. Glue your butterfly and add your label.

That’s it!

I am not sure if you can tell but my little discussion slips of paper were rolled up in the jar. I cut the slips and then I ran them through the edge of the scissors to get them to curl up. Just like you would when you’re trying to get ribbon to curl up.

This is what Jodie from Growing Book by Book shares: Each month there will be a theme to the table topics.  Some are fun.  Some are serious.  All are meant to get your creative juices flowing…  Here is a look at the year.

January-  What if…                                                                 July- What would you do if…

February- All about the USA                                                August- Guess what I am

March- Name as many things as you can that…            September- If you could be…

April- Jokes and Riddles                                                       October- Fun facts about animals

May- Storytelling                                                                    November- Gratitude

June- All about food                                                               December- Memories

Check back at the end of each month to get the next topic.

Just print out each months topic. You can glue them onto some fun paper or just cut them up as is and don’t worry about putting them in a fancy jar, if that means it won’t get done until another month or two.  Enjoy getting to know each other!