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Family Dinner Book Club is one of my favorite projects. Family Dinner Book Club is an awesome way to connect as a family over a great book and a great meal. Every month, we have a new kids' book for you to enjoy as a family. Then Jodie from Growing Book by Book gives you conversation starters and a service project idea while Sarah from Daisy at Home shares a delicious themed menu. Finally, I bring you a fun and easy table craft! This month, we are all reading a classic celebration of childhood and family, Beezus & Ramona by Beverly Cleary.
I'm so excited to share Beezus & Ramona with my twin boys, who are just a little younger now than Ramona is in the book. Though they don't have an older sibling like Ramona, we can still relate to her antics and the silly ways that our family drives us crazy sometimes, and how we always love them in the end.
The idea of family and those silly moments that make up our lives is central to Beezus & Ramona - especially in the closing scenes where Beezus realizes that her mom and aunt are very similar to her and her sister - and that those things that your sibling does to make you so mad can actually end up to be funny family memories that you will cherish in the future. So for our Beezus & Ramona inspired table craft this month, I decided to make a placemat that we can decorate with our own family pictures and future memories. And I made it so that you can do it over and over again!
Here's how to make your own family picture placemats. You'll need:
- Free printable placemat template. Download it here.
- Laminating sheets
- Washable Dry Erase Markers
Start by printing your "My Family" placemat. Then use your laminating sheets to cover each side. Trim the edges as needed to create a washable placemat. Then grab your markers and start drawing!
Each placemat has 4 frames for to create your own family portraits and document your family stories:
Encourage your kids to draw the people in your family or fun memories from your day. You can even tell funny stories over the dinner table and draw what happened on your placemat. You can easily erase and create them again and again!
My boys are pretty young, so they did a lot of doodling and coloring as opposed to drawing. Then we decided to talk about a recent business trip that Daddy took to Paris, and drew a picture of him coming home! We topped it off with a dinner on the cute plates that he brought home for us.
To complete your Family Dinner Book Club, be sure to check out the conversation starters & service project here, and the book themed menu here. And don't forget to share photos of your dinner with us on Facebook!
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