If you're looking to spend quality time with your children, having dinner together regularly is a great place to start, but you don't have to stop there!  Consider extending family dinner time together by following up with a board or other game. 

Family game nights are a great way to engage your kids, and generate conversation and laughs! 

For more Family Day
(or any day) family activity ideas, visit: www.casafamilyday.org.

Did you know that eating dinner with regularly with your children reduces their risk of substance abuse?  Family dinners are about more than just sharing a meal.  Research by the National Center on Addiction and Substance abuse (CASA) at Columbia University consistently finds that the more often children eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs.

Family Day is a national effort to promote family dinners as an effective means to reduce substance abuse and other risky behaviors among children and teens. In today's busy world, scheduling a regular family dinner is a great opportunity to ensure quality time with your children and talk to them about what's going on in their world! 

More family dinner "food for thought"... Regardless of a teen's gender, family structure, or family socio-economic status, research finds that teens who eat dinner with their families often also are more likely to...

• Do well in school

• Be emotionally content

• Have positive peer relationships

• Have healthier eating habits

• Have lower levels of stress and be bored less often

• Be at lower risk for thoughts of suicide

Stay connected to your children by sharing dinner with them on Family Day and making family dinners a regular part of your daily routine! 

VSAAC is partnering with McDonalds restaurants on Route 34 in Derby,  Pershing Drive in Ansonia and Campell Avenue in West Haven to help fight substance abuse in the Valley Community and promote family togetherness. 

Bring your family in for a great meal at any of these McDonald's locations on Family Day, September 22, 2008, between the hours of 5pm and 8pm, and receive 2 Fish Filet's for $3.33 and/or a free ice cream cone with purchase of a Happy Meal.  Plus, McDonald's will donate a portion of the proceeds from that night's sales to the Valley Substance Abuse Action Council!

McDonald's is a great  treat for a Family Day Dinner or any meal time!