Challenge your kids to use their ears to hear someone’s story. Have them call up a grandparent or another relative and ask about their life. During the call, have your kids practice their listening skills by asking questions and REALLY listening to the answers.

Dinner Table Discussion – What did you learn during your conversation that was interesting? Why is listening so important? How can listening to others help you understand them and why is that important? How does good listening make others feel? How did it make you feel?

Challenge of the Day – Kindness

Challenge your kids to spend the day watching for people being kind. Have them write down any kind acts they see and bring them to the dinner table to discuss.

Dinner Table Discussion – What did you see today? Were you surprised by who you saw being kind? Did it change your opinion of anyone? How did watching for acts of kindness change your mood for the day?

Challenge of the Day – Feeling

Explain what a random act of kindness is and the impact it can have on others. Then challenge your kids to perform a random act of kindness.

Dinner Table Discussion – Ask your kids to describe their random act of kindness. Talk about how they feel inside when they do something good as opposed to how they feel when they do something bad. Get them to associate pleasure with doing something good and the pain of guilt with doing something bad.

Challenge of the Day – Honesty

The challenge of the day for your kids is to “fess up.” Have them write down a confession about something they have done that other family members don’t know about. It does not have to be a negative thing; it could be a worry they have or a time when they did something nice for someone but didn’t tell anyone. The idea is to get them to open up and be honest about something they’ve been hesitant to share.

Dinner Table Discussion – Share why it’s important to be honest and discuss the harm of lying.

Challenge of the Day – Assertiveness

Challenge your kids to stand up to an injustice or speak up for themselves. This is particularly important if they have witnessed or experienced any bullying at school. Encourage quick, firm responses like:

• "Cut it out."
• "That was not funny."
• "Knock it off."
• "Friends don't do that to friends."

If they don’t encounter bullying, discuss what assertiveness is and different ways they can stand up for themselves.

Dinner Table Discussion – Role‑play situations where assertiveness can produce a positive outcome. For example, pretend a child asks your son or daughter to steal candy. A firm “No, I don’t want to steal” is clearer than “I can’t, I have to go home.” Ask about any opportunities they had to stand up for an injustice and discuss the outcomes.

Challenge of the Day – Goodness

Challenge your kids to spend the whole day treating others the way they want to be treated. Have them keep in mind how they want to be treated and use that as a guide for how they treat others.

Dinner Table Discussion – How can you use what you did today going forward? Why is respect important? Are there things you would change in current relationships or how you treat certain people (siblings included)?

Challenge of the Day – Self-Control

Lay out six pieces of candy and tell them they can have two per day over the next three days. Then see if they can stick to the rule—without reminders. Let them challenge themselves and use their own self‑control.

Dinner Table Discussion – Were you able to meet the challenge today? Why or why not? What situations might require self‑control in the next few years? Why is controlling impulses—even simple ones like eating too much ice cream—a good idea? If you couldn’t stick to the challenge today, will you try again tomorrow?

Challenge of the Day – Optimism

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Have your kids taste a slice of lemon to experience its sourness. Then make real lemonade together so they can experience how something unpleasant can become wonderful—and how fun it can be to change it.

Breakfast Table Discussion – Discuss the value of optimism and come up with other examples of how something negative can become positive. Talk about finding the good in a bad situation and remaining optimistic.

Challenge of the Day – Fairness

Place each family member’s dessert on a high shelf and say, “If you can reach your dessert, you can have it.” Let adults or older kids reach theirs unaided, and provide a chair or step stool so smaller children can reach theirs with a little effort. Explain that while both situations weren’t equal, they were fair.

Dessert Table Discussion – Discuss how fairness doesn’t mean everyone gets the same thing; it means everyone gets what they need to be successful.

Challenge of the Day – Conservation

Have your children come up with five things they do during a typical day that they could do differently to promote conservation—like shorter showers or drawing on the back of old paper. Challenge them to find five ways to be a conservationist by making simple adjustments.

Dinner Table Discussion – Was it easy or hard to find five things? How can you use these ideas going forward? How can the whole family follow the same practice?

Challenge of the Day – Perseverance

Have your kids pick something that seems impossible—like riding their bikes a mile—then do it together to show that the “impossible” can be possible with perseverance. Other options: staying silent for an hour or saying the alphabet backwards.

Dinner Table Discussion – When have you practiced perseverance in the past? Why is it important? How can you use perseverance in other areas like school?

Challenge of the Day – Empathy

Challenge your kids to identify something they own that they can part with and help them find someone in need to give it to—donate to a charity or wrap it up for someone at school who would enjoy it.

Dinner Table Discussion – How did it feel to give something to someone less fortunate? What would it be like to be on the other side of that? What would your life be like if your family could not afford holiday presents?