What are some family bonding activities? We love to find easy ways to connect that don’t take much work. Our weekly cookie after school tradition is my favorite thing!
You don’t need big expensive activities or tons of time. You just need a consistent opportunity to connect in a way that fits your family. In this post I’ll share more about our cookie & milk chat time tradition!
Building strong and loving connections at home is one of the best ways to support your kids.
The world is filled with noise, but you can make your home a safe place where kids can shine and be themselves! Each Friday we’ve started a tradition where we celebrate the end of the week with a simple cookie chat time.
It’s as simple as it sounds.
We eat cookies and chat.
There’s a lot of milk dipping too.
Cookie chats last from 5 minutes to 30 minutes.
We have some simple conversation starters that kids can use to get the chat going. Things like, “What was something easy for you this week?” “What’s something fun/funny your teacher did?” “Who is a friend you like right now?”
Kids can toot their own horns, they can encourage each other, and they can offer advice. Holding space each week for connection gives us a regular safe place where deeper conversations can also happen when they need to.
Family traditions help create positive experiences and memories as families connect together. They also help kids feel like they belong. The best traditions are easy to repeat because they don’t require too much work.
Cookies & milk are the perfect combo for an easy tradition that’s simple to set up. They’ve been a family hit for decades.
Build strong connections through simple traditions.
How does this cookie after school tradition work?
- Pick an afternoon (or anytime) that works for you to start your tradition.
Don’t get too hung up on finding the perfect time because things always come up. Just start. With young kids there is never a good time to start something new… so just jump in and tweak how it looks as you go!
2. Decide on a simple set up and select the cookies you want to include!
Most weeks my kindergartener and I make homemade chocolate chip cookies, but sometimes we vary it up and try a new recipe. If the week is crazy and we don’t have time to bake, we buy the cookies. No stress.
The cookies are not the point of this tradition. The connection time is.
3. Pick some conversation starters to help you foster lots of chatting as you get started.
You can brainstorm questions with your kids or you can just write a bunch down on strips of paper. Younger kids can ask an adult to read for them or you can draw pictures on the conversation strips to help.
4. Get started!
We do our cookie chat time immediately after school each Friday. It’s a great way to celebrate the end of the week and kick off the weekend on a positive note.
What’s a fun conversation starter?
Here are 15 of the conversation starters we came up with. We add more to our list every few weeks.
Here are a few more ways to build family connections from Lemon Lime Adventures.
