Family Day emphasizes involvement, communication

Make plans for Dinner on Family Day, Monday, September 25, and start a great habit for healthy families and schools. Getting back into a school year schedule can be challenging for families. Between homework, soccer practice, dance class, piano lessons and other school events, there is hardly time to sit down for a family dinner. However, family meals are important to school performance. Research by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University consistently finds that the more often children eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to engage in risky behaviors, such as smoking, drinking, using illegal drugs or violence. Frequent family dinners also have been correlated with good academic performance and healthy eating behaviors.

Family meals are more than just sharing a casserole. They are a time to talk. Dinner time conversations help parents learn more about their children's lives, and better understand the challenges they face. To highlight the critical role that family involvement can have in a young person’s life, the Department of Public Instruction promotes the Family Day initiative, a national event. The kick-off event is Wisconsin Family Day – A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children, scheduled for Monday, September 25. The Wisconsin Family Day initiative is meant to encourage parents to take an active role in their children’s lives through eating dinner together regularly. Wisconsin Family Day is a great opportunity for schools to honor parents and increase parental participation in the education of their children.

Schools can promote and celebrate Family Day in many ways, and through out the year. Information can be shared with teachers, parents and the community on the importance of eating meals together. Students can write essays addressing the importance of parents or help plan and prepare a memorable family meal at home or as a school-wide event. School districts can host such as forums on parenting, communication with teens, substance abuse prevention and cooking classes for children. Other ideas include encouraging the PTA or other parent-teacher organizations in your school to adopt and publicize events that engage parents and provide a Family Day meal for the school community.

For more information and a parent brochure on family involvement and easy dinner ideas, see the DPI Bright Beginnings/Family-Community-School Partnership Team Nutrition website, www.dpi.wi.gov/ne/tn.html. For more information about school support for this initiative, go to www.casacolumbia.org.

For questions about the Family Day initiative, nutrition resource or other resources related to parental involvement and positive youth development strategies, contact Pam Kanikula, ATODA Program Consultant, at 608/266-7051 or pamela.kanikula@dpi.state.wi.us or Jill Camber Davidson, DPI Nutrition Education Consultant at 608-267-9120 or jill.camberdavidson@dpi.state.wi.us.

Last updated on 9/25/2006