Need some inspiration for ways to amuse your toddler at the dinner table? After all, when toddlers are busy and engaged at the dinner table things always run much more smoothly. I love eating as a family, but keeping them all at the table and with a sunny disposition isn’t as easy as I’d dreamed it would be. Try out some of these 50 wonderful ideas to help keep the fun flowing at the dinner table.

A happy toddler eating dinner at the table

Fun Conversations to Amuse Your Toddler at the Table

  1. Tell jokes, for instance, “What’s pink and fluffy …….. pink fluff!”
  2. Discuss what your favourite thing you did today was.
  3. Ask your child, “What did your toys get up to whilst we were out today?”
  4. Print a word mat, for example, these from Twinkl, and talk about the pictures
  5. Bring a favourite storybook and talk about the pictures
  6. Make up a story as a family -say a few words each.
  7. Sing their favourite song. Next, use it as a starting point for a discussion topic
  8. Create a question jar. Take turns pulling out a question to answer or discuss – there’s a great set over at Anxious Toddlers.
  9. Read nonsense poems.
  10. Flick through a children’s dictionary to choose a word for the day, discuss what it means and try to use it in as many sentences as possible during dinner.

Toys at the Dinner Table

  1. Bring a toy car or truck to the table and encourage them to spin the wheels.
  2. Find a globe or map to put on the table. Ask them where they would like to go and tell them a few things about where they have chosen. This is a great one to involve older children too.
  3. Grab a favourite storybook and ask them to “read” it to you when they get bored of eating.
  4. Pretend to be the voice of a toy narrating what the toddler is doing. Each family member could bring a different toy to voice.
  5. Stack a few bricks. I usually limit them to 3 or 4.
  6. Read a “find it book” – think Where’s Wally, or these “What can you Spot” books.
  7. Provide safe kitchen utensils for your toddler to explore.
  8. Invite dolly to the table to join dinner. Include him or her like another child.
  9. Thread beads or dried pasta onto a shoelace
  10. Play with finger puppets. In our house, they love pretending to eat the little one’s dinner.
  11. Find some different rocks or crystals to the table to look at, talk about and stack.
  12. Bring a puzzle for your toddler to do at the dinner table.

Amusing Your Toddler using their Meal

  1. Give them a straw to use in their cup (if they are small a cloth underneath the cup works well to catch spills).
  2. Cut or make their food into shapes – ask them which shapes they can find.
  3. Give them children’s chopsticks. These are great; they improve fine motor skills and engage the little ones.
  4. Ask them about their food. For example: “What is the best thing on your plate?”
  5. Serve their dinner in small portions; Tiny toddler “courses” of dinner like at a fine dining restaurant.
  6. Let them do some food art; can they make what’s on their plate into a cat shape (any favourite object will do!)
  7. Ask them what colour the different foods on their plate are.
  8. Serve dinner for the family in big dishes and let them dish up their own. Using the tongs is always a big hit in our house.
  9. Serve their dinner on a normal plate and get them to sort it onto a segmented plate. They could sort by colour, or size or whatever their imagination leads them to.

Dinner Table Games to Amuse Your Toddler

  1. Play Simon Says – if you’ve never played Simon Says, it’s super simple. You can find the instructions here. It works really well as a way to amuse your toddler at the dinner table, as well as an “anytime you need to wait for something” game.
  2. Find a small object (even a bit of fluff or a pea off of your plate will do). Ask your toddler “which hand” it is hiding in. This game can also be played with two (or more) upside-down cups. As they get older you can move them around and see who can keep track of the object.
  3. Peekaboo; it’s a classic!
  4. Sick some coloured tape to your table before dinner. Let your little one have fun peeling the tape off of the table.
  5. Take it in turns to pull silly faces. See if you can not laugh whilst the rest of the family pull faces.
  6. Guess that emotion! Pull a face and the child (or anyone else at the table) has to guess how you feel. You can make this game last longer by then naming an emotion for someone else at the dinner table to pull the face.
  7. Ask them to count things – “how many peas do you have?”, ”How many lights are in this room?”
  8. Where’s your nose, elbow, belly button etc…
  9. All talk like a pirate throughout dinner (or any other fun character).
  10. Make condensation on the outside of their water glass by adding ice to their drink.
  11. Sprinkle salt onto one ice cube and none on another ice cube. Put them on a small towel and watch to see which will melt faster.
  12. Grab a bottle of water and a small sachet of sauce. Show them how to squeeze the bottle to move the source packet up and down inside the bottle (you need to tighten the lid really well for this one!)
  13. With a few sturdy glasses and a small spoon, put different amounts of water in each glass. Let your toddler explore the different sounds.
  14. Teach your toddler to play with the spoons
  15. Try to teach them to whistle
  16. Tap out a rhythm on the table and have them tap it back, or make up a tune, taking it in turns to tap.
  17. Draw out your family tree. If you have time, print little photos of each person for them to put in the right place (with help). Talk about each person and what makes them special. Don’t forget to emphasise what makes your little ones special too!
  18. Get a tin of beans (or any other tin can) and some elastic bands. Get your little one to stretch the elastic bands and put them onto the tin. If this is a little too tricky, you can put the elastic bands on and they can twang them.
  19. All pretend to be robots throughout dinner. Move like a robot, talk like a robot, eat like a robot!

Go and have fun at the dinner table!

I know that these ways to amuse your toddler at the dinner table will bring some smiles and laughter to your evenings. Enjoy making everyday memories with your kids. It’s easy to get caught up in the million things that need doing and not encourage these joyful moments. Saviour these precious little moments, before we know it they’ll be off having dinner with their friends, and our dinner tables will be quiet and orderly again. For more amazing ways to curate a dinner time that’s happy and fun check out my article about Keeping Toddlers At The Table.

Do you have any other great dinner table games? What’s the favourite in your house. Let me know in the comments below.

Scroll to Top