Works For Me Wednesday ~ August 29

Kids are funny creatures at the dinner table. They're either shovelling in the food like a Survivor contestant after winning a food reward, dropping scraps on the floor for the dog (...oh wait - we don't have a dog) or surreptitiously trying to poke a pea up their nose just to see what it feels like.

Or is that just my family? Ahem.

In our house, we do something we ingeniously entitled The Good and Bad Game. Going around the table, we each talk about at least one good thing and one bad thing that has happened to us that day. At this stage in the game (our kids are almost-9, 7 and 5 ½), the tidbits that come forth are hardly earth-shattering ("Sarah went ahead of me on the playground today! It's not fair!") but we figure it serves as a starting point for deeper conversation ("Well, going down the slide fourteen times in a row probably wasn't that fair to Sarah either, sweetie.") And we're hoping as the kids get older, and their lives get more complicated than slides and jungle gyms, that they'll be far more likely to open up with their problems. Plus, its lovely to hear about their 'good' things. We've talked about getting special praise from a teacher, helping a friend at lunchtime, special responsibilities, lost teeth and fun schoolwork. Of course, we talk about these things at other times too, but The Good and Bad Game is a hightlight of the evening meal for all of us :)

As usual, drop in at Rocks in my Dryer for more WFMW participants :)

Cheers,
Lizzie