Are you looking for enjoyable, meaningful ways to connect with your children and family…in a manner that will impact them positively? I know that family life can get so busy with life, school, activities, and chores that chances to connect on a deeper, personal level can sweep by. FlyBy/Propeller Promotions and the Family Honor Plate company were kind enough to send us the Family Honor Plate and Table Thyme Discussion Cards to review. We’ve had a wonderful experience using these…and they truly have provided some neat new ways for our family to connect with each other!
The Family Honor Plate…
was created by Michelle Weber. As a mom herself, she realized that she wanted to focus on blessing her family and modeling a positive attitude and spirit with her children. She developed the Family Honor Plate and the Table Thyme Discussion Cards to provide opportunities and jumping-off points for moms and dads to use with their children…to recognize them, encourage them, and talk about topics and ideas that might not come up in normal conversation but are keys to understanding our kids and how they think and feel. First, the plate is a cool craft that parents and kids can create and design together. Then, both the plate and discussion cards (more on those in a bit!) can be used at meals in ways that will bless the whole family.
Weber’s thought process on developing this neat family activity is threefold:
- That Mom and Dad are the examples their children follow and we’re to be their role models
- We can notice when your kids and spouse do amazing things, and link them back to great character traits
- Third, that we can celebrate them by serving a meal on the Family Honor Plate. And we don’t just stop there, we can use the moments to talk about why their behavior was amazing and how it made others feel.
What we received…
was everything we needed to decorate and make our own Family Honor Plate. The kit includes:
- A white Family Honor Plate, which has the fruit of the Spirit qualities printed around the inside rim (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control)
- A paint palette to mix colors on
- A plate stand for displaying the plate in a special place in the home
- 3 paintbrushes (and they’re wonderful, high-quality ones)
- A paint set of 8 colors to decorate and personalize the plate
- Simple instructions to follow
- We also received the Table Thyme Discussion Cards, which are set up like a perpetual calendar and provide an interesting conversation starter on each page
Creating our own family plate
Jackson and I love doing art together. Yet as he has gotten older–in high school–it seems like we have more to do in homeschool and less time for art in a day’s work! So we both really valued and appreciated the opportunity to a) paint together and b) create such a wonderful tool that we can use as a family in our home. We selected a design (you could paint ANYthing, really, but we chose one that was pictured in the company photos) and began to paint.
The paint colors are rich and the plate itself is a great canvas for them. The paintbrushes are soft and apply color beautifully. They were so fun to paint with! And when we were finished painting, we followed the instructions to bake the plate in a conventional oven to set the paint. It worked perfectly. I’m hand-washing the plate just to keep the paint on and the plate in stellar condition, but the paint seems perfectly applied and set.
Table Thyme Discussion Cards
I’m sure we’ve all read the statistics on how good it is for families to eat dinner (and/or other meals) together on a regular basis. Here are some of the reasons that underline how important meals together can be. Children and teens who eat together with their parents are more likely to:
- Eat more healthily overall
- Be less likely to skip school (yes, there really is a meals together/truancy connection!)
- Have higher GPAs
- Have better vocabularies (really!)
- Helps kids (both younger and older) feel closer to their family
- and more!
Both the Family Honor Plate and the Table Thyme Discussion Cards can provide more ways for parents and kids to connect with each other at mealtimes. Using the plate to recognize and honor different family members is one way. But what if you’re looking for some interesting conversation starters? Table Thyme to the rescue!
This perpetual calendar-ish set of cards (meaning that you can flip the cards over one at a time and get tons of ideas for questions to ask your kids…then flip the whole set over and start again) has questions that are fun, meaningful, and guaranteed to generate interesting conversations. Here are just a few of the 170+ questions or directions you’ll find there:
- Look at someone at the table and say something nice about them.
- Describe a time when you were scared.
- What is something that made you laugh recently? Why?
- If you could create your dream pet, what would it be like?
Tons of great–and sometimes deep–conversation starters!
Using the plate and the cards at mealtimes
We had an opportunity right away to use our plate to bless and encourage a member of our family. Our son, Jackson, just had his wisdom teeth out so as you can imagine, his mouth is on the sore and swollen side just a couple of days after surgery. So here is a shot of his breakfast this morning on the Family Honor Plate; poached eggs (nice and soft!). He isn’t feeling great overall but loved having his breakfast on this special plate.
But, you don’t have to wait to use the plate for someone who’s ill or just had surgery! Pull the plate out when someone has done something amazing that you want to recognize. Or has exemplified some excellent character qualities or done something kind, or is living out the fruit of the Spirit that is written on the center of the Family Honor Plate.
Using the discussion cards are interesting, fun, and just plain wonderful. Imagine the creativity that could be initiated from these—or learning cool stuff about your kiddos that they didn’t know! We’re big storytellers in our house, meaning that we love to share details about favorite experiences. Honestly, though, there were so many questions in Table Thyme that I’d never even thought of asking my child. And I was captivated to discover his (and my husband’s) answers!
Some of the interesting questions we discussed recently were, 1) Which of your friends are you the most grateful for? and 2) Which Halloween costume that you’ve worn over the years was your favorite? I loved hearing Jackson’s answers and thoughts on that. (I can only remember a couple of my own childhood costumes!)
So who would enjoy the Family Honor Plate?
And the Table Thyme Discussion Cards? People who’d like to…
- bless their kids
- hear more about their thoughts and ideas
- create fun mealtimes
- model great character qualities
- help their families get even closer
If any of these sounds amazing to you, visit Family Honor Plate and learn more!
Enjoy! –Wren
Social Corner for Family Honor Plate
Family Honor Plate website
More about Michelle, owner of the Family Honor Plate
Buy the Family Honor Plate kit here
“Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this product. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.