The Kitchen Table - The Family Center

As the center point to family living, your kitchen table is one of the most important pieces of furniture in your home. It's the place where many of your family's most important activities are enjoyed.

Family Meals

Family meals shared at the kitchen table lend to a more relaxed and laid-back mealtime. A more casual environment for family meals, your kitchen table is a great place for your family to reconnect over a shared meal.

Consider starting a family tradition of sharing your Thanksgiving or Christmas meals at your kitchen table. So often on these festive occasions just one or two people are stuck in the kitchen cooking until the meals are ready; encouraging the family to share the meals in the kitchen will also encourage them to help out in the kitchen and keep those doing the cooking company!

Family Discussions

As the heart of your home, the kitchen is where your family will most often gravitate to. This makes the family kitchen table the perfect spot to have family discussions. From lighthearted discussions about mom's cooking last night, to more serious discussions of family rules; your kitchen table is a fantastic place to host your family conversations.

Family Game Night

One of the latest trends in family-togetherness time is to host a family game night; your kitchen table makes an excellent spot at which to play these games. Close to the fridge and pantry for snack breaks, it also provides a great casual environment in which to play monopoly, scrabble, or any game your family finds joy in playing!

Homework

Getting kids to do their homework is never an easy task; left to their own devices many kids would much rather watch TV, play on their computer, or play outside with friends. Consider making the kitchen table the homework spot. The kitchen table not only gives them space to spread out their homework, but allows them to be close to their parents while dinner is being prepared. It is a lot easier to get kids to focus on their homework when they can continue without the interruption of needing to find a parent for help.

Crafts & Projects

With its large surface space, the kitchen table is an ideal spot for the family to take part in crafts and other projects. Simply layer the table with newspaper or construction paper and have fun creating your crafts and projects. Cleanup is then as easy as bundling the newspaper/construction paper off of the kitchen table and into the trash bin.

Cooking Together

In many families, one person becomes the primary chef for the family, consider sitting your kids down at the kitchen table with you while you cook or bake and teach them how to cook. From rolling out cookie dough, to chopping vegetables for a veggie soup, the kitchen table can be a great spot to teach your kids the basics of cooking. Teaching your kids how to cook will not only give them the ability to cook for themselves later in life, but will provide an excellent opportunity for you to spend more time with them.