My two teenage sons are growing up to be wonderful men, but our dinner conversations have degraded over the last several years.Take a small amount of teenage angst mixed with schoolyard humor, testosterone and a couple of irreverent senses of humor and you can paint the picture of what the conversations were like.Half the time they had me laughing so much I couldn't eat, and the rest of the time I was holding my head in my hands in frustration.I didn't want to be overbearing, and I do enjoy their senses of humor, but it was getting where we never had a decent conversation and I was desperate to find something to change the situation.I bought this product as an experiment and was amazed at the results.Even the most reluctant of the two teenagers came around and was engaged in the conversation.We talked about things that would never have come up in our normal conversations and I learned some things about my kids I never knew.
I bought this after a friend of mine showed them to me, but I was taken aback by the price at first.It's just a pile of cards printed with conversation-starting questions.But, I have to say, the fact that they are preprinted and stacked in a clear cube really works.We keep them at the dinner table, and if conversation lags (or gets too heated) we grab a card and get opinions from everyone.Our kids are 4 and 8 right now, and they're excited when their time comes to give an opinion.When we have guests over, they'll almost always pick up the box and start reading cards, so it works in that context, too.
Now that we have one set, I'd appreciate if we could buy just the cards and re-use the acrylic cube rather than paying for it each time, but as it is, this is great fun and thought-provoking.
We received this for Christmas last year and it has been a fantastic tool for getting to know our kids better.Our kids (10, 8, & 4) ask to play it at each dinner time and it has helped our entire family learn more about each other; has given our kids a self-esteem boost to have their ideas and opinions listened to; and it's been lots of fun.It's perfect for our age of kids--even the four year old answers the questions.A great gift! (I would give it 5 stars for educational...it wouldn't let me edit this portion when I saw my error).
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My wife and I have used this with our boys, ages 9 and 5, at the dinner table.The questions are great and I've really learned some things about my boys that I didn't know.The oldest one is really enthusiastic about it and begs for us to play.Want TableTopics Family Discount?
My family is one one a dying breed that eats dinner at the table together every night.Throughout the years, I've used various conversation-starting techniques ("How was your day starting with the letter M?" or "How was your day ending with '... and then I had a delicious dinner!'?)When I came across this cube of cards on Amazon, it seemed like it was made for my family.The price was a little steep, but I decided to give it to myself as a Christmas gift.The cards arrived in good condition; my plastic cube was in perfect shape, not damaged at all as some other reviewers have experienced.Each card has one question printed on it.The questions aren't anything groundbreaking or earth shattering you could have probably thought of all of them yourself, if you had the time and inclination. The cards include questions such as:what's your favorite dessert
who is one of your heroes and why do they inspire you
would you keep a secret if you knew someone would get hurt if you did
if you were showing a foreigner around your town where would you take them
what's your favorite family tradition
what do you say when someone gives you a gift you already have
if you could speak another language which would you choose
how does a person become courageous
what would you like to change about your school
Overall Impressions
Pros:
My kids (ages 12 and 9) LOVE these cards.They really look forward to answering the questions every day.
The plastic cube is thick and sturdy. The overall design is very attractive.
The cards are thick cardstock and seem durable enough.
These are a fun and simple way to get people talking and thinking at the table
Cons:
You may have noticed that the questions listed above have no capitalization and almost no punctuation.I typed them out just as they are written on the cards.Really.This drives me absolutely crazy.I get that it's probably supposed to be "stylistic," and I'm as big a fan of ee cummings as the next gal, but my 9 year old really struggles with writing skills. I would have liked it better if these cards provided more of a model of good mechanics.Would it have killed the people at Tabletopics to at LEAST throw in a comma here and there??(I won't even bring up the fact that the plurality of the noun and pronoun in the foreigner question doesn't match.Argh!)
The cards are supposed to be used at the table, and ours are.Unfortunately, kids, spaghetti, and white-edged cards do not really mix.After 2 months, our cards look pretty grubby.You could either look at the visible grunge as a design flaw (darker colored cards wouldn't show as much dirt), or you could view it as a testament to how much and often we really do use the cards.:-)
The price was pretty steep (especially considering all the ink they must be saving by skipping the punctuation!)I don't regret the purchase, but if these had been $12 instead of $25, I would really love them!
All in all, I like these cards, but I have to remove stars for the atrocious grammar and punctuation.
