Conversation Tins from Always a Girl's Girl

For a treat we decide to go out as a family for dinner, to a real restaurant. Sitting at the table, dinner ordered and drinks in hand, everything is delightful. Then the kids start to get fidgety and the pokes start and the constant ‘I’m hungry’ or ‘when will our dinner come’. It’s only been five-minutes since we ordered; no wonder families choose drive-through instead of going out.

But this time I had a distraction tool, a With Our Family Conversation Tin from Always A Girl’s Girl.

The tin, about the size of a shoe polish tin, contains 60 circular cards. They’re the same stock as playing cards but they’re unlike any card game you’re family has played with. See the card game is a conversation game; a game to get you talking as a family.

Each person picks a card and asks the question to the family. You could also directly your question to a specific person in the family but we had more fun asking everyone (though sometimes our youngest would just repeat what her older siblings had said, unsure of how to answer a question).

There are 3 types of question cards:

Love It or Loathe It – you are given 3 items and players are asked to say if the ‘love it’ or ‘loath it’. For example: ice cream? broccoli? ABBA? Some answers you know what to expect but sometimes people will surprise you (like finding out my son loves tomatoes).

Our Family Tree – here you pick a person that best suites the answer to the question, like: Who do you think is the shyest in your family? Explain. It was great to hear an explanation versus just a name. It asked questions on bravery and bossiness and many others and give you a chance to talk about what makes each member special and unique.

All in the Family – these are more questions for you, things about your family for you to think about and answer: talk about your favourite family tradition, what have your parents taught you about relationships. Again, these could be asked of the whole family.

Some of the questions weren’t relevant to our younger kids; you can easily pick and choose the questions you want to discuss. My kids loved the Love It or Loathe It questions best as you can imagine; they were quick and easy to answer. Once you’re on a roll asking questions you’ll find you’ll be coming up with your own questions to ask and topics to discuss. Before we knew it dinner was here. The waiting time passed by so quickly and we didn’t have to raise our voices once. And the tin is so easy to toss in my bag for any last minute distraction emergencies: visiting friends, at the cottage, waiting to cross the boarder.

Always a Girl's Girl has a variety of Conversation Tins, including Christmas, cocktails, coffee, teens/tweens and more. So if you’re looking for something to entertain your family at the cottage or the gals when they come over for coffee or cocktails or maybe at a shower party, Conversation Tins and Conversation Confetti from Always a Girl's Girl might be able to offer some great ice-breakers (or emergency distractions).

About the Author Managing Partner and Editor-in-Chief at one of the best social networking and lifestyle sites for moms, EverythingMom.com. Trying to balance life at home with my 3 kids (all under 8), while building my business, working at EverythingMom.com and developing my writing. Oh and throw a load of laundry in and a dinner that isn't burnt. Wasn't working from home suppose to be easier? Posted by Carrie Anne in toy reviews on April 27, 2010 More from this author  |  Author Website Follow Carrie Anne on:  |  |  |