Questions For Kids to Start The Conversation About Their Day At School
Unlock insightful questions to kickstart meaningful conversations with your kids about their school day in our upcoming blog post.
Have you ever picked up your child from school, asked about their day and got a “good.” as a response? Welcome to parenthood.
It can be a challenge to get a straight answer out of a child after school. When you find just the right combination of words, you can get your kids, and teenagers to open up and share the details of their day with you.
I wish this wasn’t the case. I wish that all kids just jumped into the car or ran into the house at full speed, just waiting to tell you about their day.
*Que memories of Kindergarten*
I truly believe the challenge kids face when answering a large question such as “How was your day at school?” is that the topic is too broad.
Often times, when I ask my spouse how his day was at work, he will also respond with “Good” because it’s easy and requires no thought.
So how do we get our kids to open up to us about their school day and let us know about bullies, insecurities and victories?
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Questions To Ask Your Kids To Open Up About School
1. Do you ever see kids being mean to each other?
2. What do most of the kids play during recess?
3. How do you feel your day went on a scale of 1 to 10? Why?
4. If anyone in the world could be your teacher for a day who would it be?
5. What is your favourite class?
6. What is your least favourite class?
7. What subject is the easiest for you?
8. If you could stop doing anything in your school day, what would it be?
9. If you could add anything to your school day, what would it be?10. Do you ever feel left out at school?
11. Would you do anything differently in your classes if you were the teacher?
12. Does everyone follow the rules in your class?
13. Who do you want to make friends with that you haven’t already?
14. did you feel scared or alone during your day?
15. Did you help anyone out today?
16. What did you learn today in ____ class?
17. Tell me something that makes you feel smart.
18. What was the most challenging thing you worked on today?
19. Did you start any new projects today?
20. How did _____ (project, presentation, event) go today?
21. Did you have fun today? What was the best part?
22. Did anything happen today that made you feel brave?
23. Did you enjoy your lunch? Is there anything different you would like for your lunch kit?
24. Who did you hang out with at lunch?
25. Did you make any new friends?
26. Did anything make you laugh today?
27. What was the most boring thing?
These are some pretty great conversation starters for kids that can get them talking and talking, hopefully. Not every day will be an epic talk fest after school. After all, school is exhausting, just like a work day can be, sometimes they need a little quiet before they are ready to talk.
Let Me Know If There Are Other Questions That You Ask Your Child To Help Them Open Up To You About Their Life At School.
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References
- Parents’ general questions about school often lead to specific and detailed responses from children, including academic tasks, nonacademic events, and affective statements. This suggests that even broad questions can elicit informative responses (Patrick et al., 2011).
- The nature of questions posed by parents can influence children’s memory and recall of school events. Open-ended questions and descriptive language used by parents can enhance children’s retention and recall of academic information (Leichtman et al., 2017).
- Engaging in conversations about school at home, even when parents are not fully aware of the school events, can positively affect children’s long-term memory reports, highlighting the importance of regular parent-child discussions about school (Leichtman et al., 2000).
- Parents often use pedagogical questions in day-to-day conversations with their children, which are questions for which they already know the answer but are intended to help the child learn. This indicates that parents naturally engage in educational dialogue with their children (Yu et al., 2019).
- The transition from day-care to school involves significant changes in parent-teacher communication and parent involvement, suggesting that as children grow, the nature of conversations about school also evolves (Thorsen et al., 2006).
- Effective parent-school communication is crucial for children’s success, especially for children with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD). This highlights the importance of open and effective communication between parents and schools for the overall well-being of children (Buchanan & Clark, 2017).