Restaurant Games to Play

Sitting still at restaurants can be a challenge for young and rambunctious children. The longer the wait before and after their meal, the more fidgety some kids can become. The best way to handle the situation is to nip the problem in the bud. When you sit down in a restaurant with your children, entertain them with a few games to make the wait easier.

Menu Seek-a-Word

Bring some pencils and a small pad of paper with you to restaurants. Pass out a sheet of paper and pencil to each child.

Have them write the name of the menu item they order at the top of the paper.

Instruct the children to find as many words as they can made from the letters in the food that they ordered. For example, if they ordered chicken nuggets, they might find chick, gun, get, stun and neck.

See who can find the most words before the food arrives at the table.

Straw Worms

Ask the waiter or waitress for an empty plate and a few straws when you sit down.

Upwrap your straws by pushing the paper down, starting at one end, so it comes off the other end as a tightly crinkled tube.

Lay the straw paper on the empty plate.

Put your straw into a water glass and cover the top end with your finger. Pull the straw out of the water, keeping the top end covered, so that the straw is full of water.

Hold the straw over the piece of straw paper. Lift your finger to release the water onto the paper. The crinkled paper will begin to expand and writhe, like a worm coming to life and growing before their eyes.

The Colors of Food

Start the game by selecting a color to start with, such as red.

Have the person next to you come up with a food that is red, such as strawberries. The next person names another red food, such as tomatoes.

Continue around the table, naming red foods. Each person has five seconds to name a food. Once a food is named, it cannot be used again. Keep going until you run out of guesses.

Start with another color and go around again.

What's Missing

Occupy children after the meal as you wait for dessert or your check. Have the children close their eyes.

Remove something from the table, such as your napkin, a salt shaker or fork.

Have the children open their eyes and try to guess what is missing from the table. Whoever guesses correctly gets to hide the next object.