6 Ideas For Entertaining Children In Restaurants

Love treating your family to dinners out, but want to make certain the children stay well-behaved throughout the evening? Keeping children entertained doesn’t have to be challenging, as there’s many ways to distract them, whether waiting for a table or the food to arrive.

Review a few options and enjoy peaceful nights out to dinner:

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Coloring Books

Bring good ‘ol coloring books with you to the restaurant, as well as packs of crayons or colored pencils. They provide all the distraction your children need so you don’t have to worry about being asked when the food is coming for the 12th time. Today’s coloring books are cooler than ever, so keep a few in the car and pull them out whenever necessary.

Classic Games

Play classic “waiting” games, such as I-Spy. Have the kids find objects around the restaurant and ask you 20 questions, or vice versa. Another classic game to make the time go faster is the Alphabet Game…simply look around the table as well as the restaurant to find objects that begin with each letter of the alphabet.

Dollar Store Toys

Make up “fun kits” for each of your kids with toys from the local dollar store. There’s plenty of puzzles, small construction toys, and other options perfect for such kits, and because they’re so inexpensive you won’t exactly care if a toy gets left behind. Dollar store toys are easy to replace!

Tegu Blocks

Purchase Tegu Blocks, or small, natural-wood building blocks featuring magnets on their insides. They’re very high-quality and not exactly cheap, however they make great travel/restaurant amusement investments sure to fascinate children for long stretches of time.

Travel-Size Games

Collect travel-size versions of favorite games, such as Tic-Tac-Toe, checkers, and anything else you happen to find, such as travel-size “football” and “bowling.” They’ll keep the kids occupied and allow you and your husband to enjoy some grownup conversation!

Technology

Provide children with a tablet or smartphone before as well as after dinner if you’re still finishing your food. There’s innumerable app games designed to keep children enthralled, and while it’s best to keep technology out of sight during your meal, these devices will absolutely entertain kids whenever distraction is needed.
Know of any other tried-and-true methods of entertaining children while sitting down to a lovely dinner? Have any of the above ideas inspired you to create new distraction methods? Share your thoughts!