Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The Best Book for Dinner Time

I graduated with a degree in psychology almost 12 years ago now, wow that made me feel old, and while I still remember the overall idea of the things I learned many of the little facts are gone.  However, there are a few things I remember.   I remember that Skinner put his kid in a box in the pursuit of pure behavioral science, I remember that Freud seemed pretty obsessed with one *ahem* thing, and the importance of family dinners.

In a meta-analysis study (fancy words for taking lots of studies already done and putting their results together) the ONLY consistent factor in all of the studies that correlated with teens getting better grades,   being less likely to take drugs or alcohol, and generally stay out of trouble is having family dinner.

It obviously isn't just the dinner itself but the fact that the families are spending time together consistently, probably talking, involved in each other's lives-- but dinner it is.

So when Tina Bushman asked if I would be willing to review she and her husband John's new book Table Talk: Hundreds of questions and quotes to start great family discussions on patriotism, values, fun and faith I was more than happy to do so as I remember how important family dinner is.

The book has 200 questions that can be asked at dinner.  It is simple things like: "What is the strangest or most exotic food you have ever eaten?" or "What is your worst experience with a bug"; to much deeper things like "What are the best ways to makes changes in the government and it's leaders"  and "Have you ever stuck up for someone who was being picked on? Why?"

I loved that along with each question there are quotes from famous people in history, sometimes even biblical passages.   There is also a list of the questions by topic in the back- so easy to find a specific one if there is a current problem in your family.

The idea of the book is not to be a lecture time for parents, but a time for the parents to step back and let their kids express what they truly may think or feel and ultimately to get families talking about what really matters.

While some of the questions are a little too deep for my kids current ages, there are tons of questions that are perfect and I am excited to add as part of our family meal time.

You can order your own copy here on Amazon and learn more about the book here.

What do you do to make dinner time special?

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I was not compensated for this review; but did receive a copy of Table Talk to review. 

20 comments:

  1. I love the idea of family dinners and conversation starters. It also sounds like this book will grow with your family and that will be neat.

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  2. John's family always said "the family that eats together does better in school." We always had family dinner growing up. I still remember one time in high school I had cheerleadering practice late and my dad came to the school and asked the coach if I could step out for 10 minutes to eat dinner with him. P.S. Are you submitting this as a book summary on POM? Because I think you should. :)

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  3. Thank you so much for this great review!

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  4. I just ordered it! Thanks for the honest review!

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  5. What a great book and review! We have family dinners, even though Big constantly asks to take his to his room. I love spending time at the table with all the boys, whether it's a meal, drawing or making things (usually a mess!) It is a perfect time for idle chat, learning a lot and togetherness. I love it! xx

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  6. So questions about poop and farting are probably not part of this book?

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  7. Sounds like the questions from the Ungame.

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    1. I love the Ungame! When I was growing up, my family played this on Sundays all the time.

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  8. Sounds like a great book to use for conversations starters no matter what the age! Of course my middle daughter is very prone to fits of laughter so depending on the crazy answers the girls come up with we may never get through dinner because of all the laughter!

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    1. We've had nights of laughing through dinner too! Tonight we did the exotic food question. Careful with that one. I couldn't finish my dinner. :)

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  9. I love chatting with my girlies during dinner. It is so important to be a present parent & one of the very best ways to do that it by getting them to talk!

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  10. I have tried to incorporate conversation during dinner at my house. But it usually ends up being knock knock jokes and eye spy. And "If you have 5 monkeys, and three run away, how many monkeys will you have left?" questions. Yeah, we are breaking the bounds of philosophy with conversation in our household! Maybe when they are older. Sigh. :)
    I do agree about the family dinner, though. I made a rule that electronics are not allowed at the dinner table. There was a lot of groaning, but I stuck to it, and I am very happy with the results!

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  11. I love conversations like that because they can lead to branch-off conversations that nobody saw coming. Plus, they get ya giggling!

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  12. I agree completely about the importance of family dinner. It's something we emphasize in our Wormhole. And the idea of indexing by category is a good one. I've seen books similar to this, but the lack of index makes them less useful.

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  13. That's a brilliant idea, I never would have thought of that? We pretty much ask the standard "How was your day?" every evening and we go around the table and talk about what we've done but I love those ideas!

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  14. Oh I'll have to look for this!! One thing we do is play Dinner Games. You get a version for younger kids and then switch to another version when they get older. It is games and activitie and poems and questions geared for dinner time. Really fun. My son loved it. And I believe in eating dinner together too.

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