2008 News

If you want a kid to eat her vegetables, you'll be more successful if you can make a game of it. Gather 'Round Dinner is a hand-held game that brings sound, lights and fun to the table with a series of mealtime instructions.

Push a button and the device plays music with blinking lights as it spins the game card. One light stops at an instruction such as "Spell your name backwards" or "Name the four oceans of the world." (As of 2,000, there are five oceans with the recognition of the Southern ocean in addition to the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Artic oceans.)

Parents might be happier with the game if they could control stops on instructions such as "Help clear the dinner table" or "Eat some veggies and flex your muscles."

The game's 11 cards offer 132 activities that test knowledge, encourage imagination (Name three super powers you'd like to have; let your family come up with your superhero name), help start conversation (What is one of your favorite memories) or just make everyone laugh (Do the twist for 5 seconds). Careful with this one, though, or there might be more kids laughing than eating at your table.

Later this month, a restaurant friendly edition of the game will be introduced to help divert attention from growling stomachs while waiting for your table. Music for the original game is pretty loud and of the kid-pleasing variety, so let's hope there will be a silencing function on the take-out version.
$24.95 at familydinnergames.com.

-- Kimberly L. Jackson

AblePlay™ toy evaluations are the key to unlocking the magic of play for children with special needs! Choosing toys for children with disabilities can be difficult. There are thousands of choices but finding just the right toy to match the varying abilities of each child with special needs can be a challenge. AblePlay's independent toy reviews and detailed information help you get "beyond the box" to understand each toy's unique features, creative ways each toy can be used with children with special needs and skills that will be enhanced as a result

Gather 'Rounds wheel keeps kids interested in following involved commands like "Make up a story about a fish named Joe..." And Beginner Dinner Games speaks to the 3-to 6-year-old set, with slightly tamer challenges like guessing how many grapes are in a glass or identifying household sounds.

Dinner Games

My family and I have been playing Family Time Fun's Dinner Games during our meals and our children LOVE it! So much so that my son found it necessary to rename them Meal Games so as not to only limit the fun to one meal a day.

There are two sets of the games: Original Dinner Games and Beginner Dinner Games for ages 3-6. We're currently using the beginner set and it's perfect for our children who are 4-1/2 and nearly 2-1/2. Some of their favorite games include naming foods that match specific colors of the rainbow, asking family members questions about themselves, and an odd man out game that is handy for getting your children to drink their milk or finish whatever it is they're not thrilled about on their plate.

If you'd like to see some sample games, follow the link here. Dinner Games are available to purchase at ftfgames.com for $15.95 a set.

Check out these FamilyTimeFun Dinner Games! A selection of great Family games that help you connect with your children as you spend quality time together. Let's face it, in today's fast paced world many families barely have time to sit down and enjoy a meal together. Other things seem to take your time and spending quality, fun time with your family becomes more challenging every day. That's why John, father of two children, created the FamilyTimeFun games.

FamilyTimeFun offers 3 Dinner Game products, each with fun and unique games to play while you eat! These games are quick, easy to play and add lots of fun to family meals. Beginner Dinner Games are for families with kids ages 3-6. Original Dinner Games are for ages 6-12. And the new Gather 'Round Dinner Game with push-button action is for ages 5 and up.

Check out even more reasons to take the time to spend family meal time with your kids:

There are not many things better for a family than to simply have meals together. Families, especially kids, benefit enormously from frequent positive family meals:

• Improves family communication
• Improves nutrition and eating habits
• Improves literacy development among preschoolers
• Develops a protective factor for adolescents against tobacco, alcohol, drugs and low grade point averages

The more meals your family has together, the more you'll enjoy these amazing benefits! And remember, keep the meals positive, lighthearted and fun. More specifically, according to research by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, children and teens who have frequent family meals:

• Are at half the risk for substance abuse compared to teens who dine with their families infrequently
• Are less likely to have friends or classmates who use illicit drugs or abuse prescription drugs
• Have lower levels of tension and stress at home
• Are more likely to say that their parents are proud of them
• Are likelier to say they can confide in their parents
• Are likelier to get better grades in school
• Are more likely to be emotionally content and have positive peer relationships
• Have healthier eating habits
• Are at lower risk for thoughts of suicide
• Are less likely to try marijuana or have friends who use marijuana

I have to admit, I've only played one game from this Beginner Dinner Games box so far. But it was a good one. The instructions were for the player to choose an object - any object - and sing a song about it. Naturally, the song was to be followed by rousing applause from the rest of the family. If it weren't for this game, I wouldn't have gotten to hear my son sing so enthusiastically about the window. And the sun shining in the window. And the birds on the window. You get the idea.

The games were designed for families with kids ages 3 to 6, but even my soon to be two year old was getting in on the action too. She didn't quite break out into song, but she did tell us the table was brown. And she enjoyed the following applause! The box is now sitting here on the table. I'm anxious to see what it will have us doing tomorrow. Thanks for the gift mom!

(Since we're freshly off a road trip, I'm now thinking this would make a great car game too.)

This summer while the family eats dinner, why not bring a little fun and excitement with a game from FamilyTimeFun Dinner Games. Family meals are something that we love to do as much as we can and we love playing our Gather 'Round dinner game.

FamilyTimeFun offers 3 Dinner Game products, each with fun and unique games to play while you eat! These games are quick, easy to play and add lots of fun to family meals. Beginner Dinner Games are for families with kids ages 3-6. Original Dinner Games are for ages 6-12. And the new Gather 'Round Dinner Game with push-button action is for ages 5 and up.

Gather 'Round Dinner Game by FAMILYTIMEFUN

Add some fun to your family meals with this distinctive game to play while you eat. With just a push of the button, the game lights up and selects one of 132 dinnertime activities. It's quick and easy-to-play. Gather 'Round breaks up dinnertime routine and adds fun to family meals. No game board or game pieces required - just food and family. The game even encourages kids to eat their veggies and finish their milk. Launch date: February 17, 2008.

Family Time Fun's Family Dinner Games were listed as best sellers by Jamie Burdette of LB Toys in Media, Pa., in spring 2008. "It's a good family game, and gets everybody to sit at the dinner table together," he said.

Is the idea of the entire family gathered around the dinner table conversing and sharing their day a thing of the past? I don't mean the act of everyone eating at the same time somewhere. I mean the scene right out of an Andy Hardy movie, where everyone is a little kooky and everyone talks at the same time, where children listen to their elders to find out about the adult world and adults listen to the children to stay involved in their activities. If your family is anything like ours, getting everyone seated at the table at the same time for a meal is rarely anything like it was at the Hardy's. Ball practice, Ballet lessons, someone working late, someone leaving early, there is always a reason for the meal to get rushed or sometimes skipped altogether. Even when we do get together, the focus tends to be on getting the food down quickly so we can get on to the next thing we need to do. The result is that food gets consumed so bodily process can be nourished, but little of the family interaction that we tend to associate with a "family dinner" and the emotional and intellectual nourishment that could also be found.

We have only a couple of rules at our dinner table, no hats, no toys, and talk nice (Cole went through the common stage where he loved to say "poop" often to see how shocked he could make us). We never had to make a "no games" rule, and it is a good thing because the Beginner Dinner and Dinner game sets are a real hoot. Each set has a deck of 51 cards with a game specifically meant to be played at the dinner table. There are silly word games, games meant to get your kid(s) to eat (without them realizing it), counting games, thinking games, and most importantly, games designed to encourage family interaction.

Article continued...

Beginner Dinner Games, and its precursor, Dinner Games, are a cute concept - brief, interactive family activities designed for dinnertime packaged as cards in a recipe-box-style tin. We don't go much for cute for its own sake. We also don't go for gift items that are designed to be snagged while waiting to be checked out at the bookstore, gifted with good intentions, and never used.

But Beginner Dinner Games, which we've been playing occasionally for the last few months at our house, rises to the challenge of its cute concept. Card after card offers engaging ways to enjoy your three- to six-year-old's company at the dinner table, and the mealtime context is not wasted. An "If I had three wishes" discussion centers around a "magic spoon" used as a wand; "The Royal Crown" invites family members to secretly pull a folded napkin from a person's head and hide it under the table. But they aren't all prop-based. A couple of recent favorites:

Face Off: Someone chooses an emotion or reaction (i.e. 'Ouch, I stepped on a bee'). Have a "Face Off" between two people to see who makes the best facial expression to go along with that emotion or reaction! Vote on the best expression. Whoever wins, they get to "Face Off" against someone else. For example: finding your lost teddy, getting kissed by a puppy, hearing a monster's footsteps, stepping on hot sand at the beach, losing your ice cream money, hearing a funny joke....

Silent Dinner: For about 1 minute, everyone must be completely silent. No talking or making noise, just eat, drink and listen to sounds. After a minute, let the youngest person begin by talking about what he/she heard. Go around the table to find out how many different sounds are heard. (i.e. refrigerator noise, washing machine, birds outside, plane overhead...)

Here's an example card, from the Family Time Fun Dinner Games website:

Z wishes she had "a mountain cupcake," a "cupcake of spoons," and "a kiss from daddy." The third I was able to deliver. The Beginner Dinner Games box has 51 different "games" for families to play, and there are very few with the air of filler; for a full deck of activities, it's an impressive ratio.

The box states these activities are for ages 3-6. One of the benefits of the recipe-box format is it discourages commitment to any single game idea. It is easy to browse and scan and pick out something that looks right for your child. Many of the question-based games were particularly engaging for us because we couldn't imagine what Z would say, or wondered if she was "ready" and would even understand the question. This is a great opportunity to let your kids surprise you with what's going on inside their heads.

Article continued...

View larger image

Eating and playing are allowed at the dinner table with the Gather 'Round Dinner Game by FamilyTimeFun. It comes with push-button action that selects one of 12 activities from more than 130 different dinnertime activities for families with kids ages 5 and up to play while they eat dinner. No game pieces are required! Many of the activities are educational and promote creative thinking, social and communicative skills.

Make every night Family Game Night with Dinner Games. The 51 quick, easy to play games will have your family talking, laughing, learning and spending quality time together. The 5x3 cards are easy to read, spill-proof and come in a compact tin box. Whether you play them at the table, in a restaurant or in the car, Dinner Games are a recipe for family fun!

Watch the Gather 'Round Dinner Game on TDmonthly's Toy TV

Preschool Game Review - Beginner Dinner Games

Conversation during mealtimes is one way to help preschoolers sit still and focus on something other than what they don't want to eat. With Beginner Dinner Games, by Family Time Fun, you'll never run out of topics that appeal to a preschooler's curiosity and silly side. Pick a card and start the family dinner fun!

About Beginner Dinner Games

Beginner Dinner Games is a set of 51 games designed for preschoolers and young children (ages 3-6). Each card has one game idea and most include variations to provide an endless supply of dinner time fun. The cards are the size of index cards and come in a recipe card style tin.

Games are color coded by educational skill and cover social skills, creative and critical thinking, expressive language and listening, memory, the five senses, and just for fun. Some games make use of a story or picture on the card and others, once you've read the card, can be done anywhere.

From the Reviewer

Not only did I find Beginner Dinner Games to be a helpful mealtime activity, I found the 51+ games to be a great resource of unique activities to do anytime with your preschooler. Both my preschooler and first-grader loved the games - it was hard to do just one!

While all the games are quick and easy, you'll find they range from as simple as Best Bed Time Ever where each person at the table shares a favorite thing about bedtime, to My Lucky Penny, a table-top science activity using pennies and ketchup.

If you're in the mood for a thinking game, several cards offer a short story to tell and a list of questions to ask. If you're feeling silly, choose Face Off where everyone competes to make the best facial expression to represent a given situation.

You'll also find several games that involve food. For instance, Guess What's Cooking is a fun little recipe test and Silly Supper offers ways to "change up your dinner routine." Games like The Last Bite and Thumbs Up can even be used to help picky-eating preschoolers try new foods.

And picking a game card can be a game in itself. The set includes one wild card with a special surprise if picked!

by Kati Chevaux