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When was the last time the entire family sat down together at the dinner table? And not just on Sundays. Years ago, it was unheard of for a family to not have dinner together.

Families understood dinner time was more than just a time to eat, but it was a time encourage, influence and simply enjoy the family. Parents realized family time around the dinner table eating delicious home-cooked meals had a profound impact on their family.

Studies have shown the positive force eating as a family can have on a child. According to the experts, there’s a whole list of positive things that can happen when a family carves out time to eat dinner as a family.

Chatting with Arizona Farm Bureau’s farm and ranch families, I’ve gathered the following tips on what makes meal time around the dinner table as a family special.

TIPS to Table Top Talks

1. Allow each member of the family to discuss any problems and/or achievements they may have encountered during the day or week.
2. Consider selecting a weekly topic to discuss giving each child a chance to moderate the topic on a given day. Pick challenging, historical, social and even current events topics.
3. Use dinnertime to plan family trips, church activities and upcoming events.
4. Engage the children in conversations that lead them to discuss school work, sports and other things that get them to open up and share the details of their life.
5. The most important thing is to keep an open line of communication for each member to share ideas, stories, and more.
6. Sitting down for a family meal can provide real quality family time and be just plain fun! Pull up the chairs, serve the food and have a laugh with everyone. Make dinner time fun and everyone will be looking forward to eating with the family.
7. Mix it up, have a picnic in the family room on the floor. When the weather is nice outside, have a family dinner on the patio. Neither you nor your family will regret the memories or the positive impact your family will enjoy around your dinner table…wherever it may be. Bon appetite!

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