Red Ribbon Week 2009

During the week of October 26 – 30, the Tripp School Community will be celebrating Red Ribbon Week! Red Ribbon Week is the oldest and largest drug prevention campaign in the country. Red Ribbon Week serves as a vehicle for communities and individuals to take a stand for the hopes and dreams of our children through a commitment to drug prevention and education and a personal commitment to live drug free lives with the ultimate goal being the creation of drug free America.  For more information, please visit: www.imdrugfree.com.

Talking with your children about drugs and alcohol can be a very difficult and uncomfortable task. Successfully covering these important issues begins with making time to talk to your children on a regular basis. In the life of a busy family, dinnertime is the perfect time to listen to your children, to find out how their day went, and to delve a little deeper into their thoughts, feelings, and imaginations.

It may take more than the same yes or no questions every night, but you can learn more about your family with some conversation starters. At the same time, you’ll be giving your children practice at thinking quickly, forming arguments and expressing their thoughts.

Start with a different family member each night. After your kids get the hang of it, don’t be surprised if they’re volunteering to go first.

Let your children come up with questions of their own. Let them ask each other any questions they want. Conversation starters based on movies or books that your children have just seen or read will strike a chord. Soon your family will be looking forward to dinnertime as the most entertaining part of their day!

Here are some conversation starters to get things going:

• What was the ______________ thing that happened to you today? (e.g. most surprising, most predictably, funniest, etc.)
• What was the nicest thing you did for someone else today? What was the nicest thing that someone else did for you today?
• If you were writing a newspaper article about your day, what would the headline be?
• What are three adjectives that describe your day?
• In 60 seconds, tell us as much as you can about your day.
• Teach us one thing that you learned today that you think we don’t know yet.
• If you were president, name three things that you would change about the country right away.
• If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would buy?
• Describe your perfect day, from the time you wake up until you go to bed.
• If you could invent something that would make life easier, what would it do?
• What movie character would you want to be?
• If you would meet a person from history, who would it be?
• Tell us the last joke that you can remember hearing.
• If you could be an Olympic athlete, what would you be?
• If you could go on vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go?
• If you could make a movie, what would it be about? 
• In the movie about your life, what actor would play you? Your best friend? Your family members?