Here’s a terrific article on what we know to be true:  Eating meals as a family helps children become better listeners, learners, and communicators.  Researchers have found that children increase their vocabulary and learn the skills of conversation when engaged in family discussions.

One of the things I find children lack is confidence in their communication skills (my own child included).  It takes practice to know how to listen, enter a conversation, and how to comment.  Without these skills, children really suffer.  All the other academics suffer if kids can’t ask questions, speak up for themselves, or express their ideas.

This article also provides some great conversation games to play at the table, including letting kids choose the topic.  Start that “conversation box” today!  Not only will your kids become better conversationalists, they’ll feel more connected to their family, resulting in an even greater sense of confidence!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 9:32 am and is filed under Cooking with kids, Kids and food, Mental health, Reading, Relationships, maturing kids, school. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.