Table Manner Games for Kids

Kids who know good table manners create a lovely dining experience for everyone. This really encourages the parents to take their family out at a public restaurant. When a child behaves well, it really gives happy feelings to the parents and at the same time it reflects the upbringing g of the child. You can teach your child variety of table manners by discussing proper behavior and then through playing games.

•  Role Playing- You can set a table using real or play food, utensils, dishes, and enjoy some moment by role playing. In this, parents play the role of misbehaved children while the kids must discipline them and correct their bad behavior. Kids play the role of the parents at the home dinner table. In another scenario, pretend you are at a restaurant. The children play the parents and restaurant server. You can also pretend to be at another person's house for dinner in which the kids play the parents and adult hosts.

You are not required to write any script for the role play. Let the dialogue play off what the adults -- acting as children -- do and review what happened afterward

•  Trivia-Try to give chance to all the children and ask each child a trivia question, for instance "What should you do before sitting down to dinner?" (The answer is "Wash your hands.") One point should be given for each correct answer. If an answer is incorrect, ask the same question to the next player until all children have got a chance to reply. Ask different and interesting types of questions to hold the children's interest. For instance, set a formal place setting and ask a player to pick up the dinner fork, salad fork or soup spoon. The child with the highest points wins the game

•  Dinner Detective-Just try to observe keenly the bad table manners during dinner. Whenever a person shows indecent behavior, the first player to point it out and correct the offender receives a point. Offenses might include slouching, making negative comments about the food or talking with your mouth full. The one with the highest points after dinner will get the opportunity to choose the dessert or tomorrow's dinner. In this instance, the person with the most points at the end of dinner must clean up the table or do the dishes. If no one misbehaves during dinner, prize the whole family by taking them out for ice cream or eat at a family restaurant the next day

•  Capturing Bad Manners-Split the children into teams and each team should have an adult helper. The helper should also carry with a digital camera with video recording capability. In the period of 20 to 30 minutes, each team must act out and take photos or record videos of bad table manners as much as possible. Keep the teams in separate rooms with a complete table setting. Adults will be there for photographing or shooting video. Video can capture scenes such as leaving the table without asking to be excused and not saying "Excuse me," after burping. When the time will be over, bring all the teams together to evaluate each photograph and video. The winning team captures the most bad manners
These games will be really helpful for the parents as well as the child because it will give them practical experience.