If your child is anything like mine, then getting them to tell you about their day is like pulling teeth. One would think with they way Annabelle will talk from the moment she gets up till bed time this wouldn’t be a problem. Not the case. Here was a common exchange:
Me: Hi sweetie! Did you have a good day at school?
Annabelle: Yep, it was good.
Me: What happened?
Annabelle: I forgot.
Thinking back to my years of teaching and my early childhood masters is that kids do better with direct questions. Questions that are too open ended are hard for them to answer, or just too overwhelming. So I came up with this list if 20 questions to ask your child after school.
- Tell me something good that happened.
- What was the worst part of the day? (note: I think it is important to acknowledge that sometimes things my not go well. I would ask this question first, then other questions about the good of the day. That way they can see that while sometimes things may not be great, it’s important not to dwell on it, and to think of the good things).
- What was the best part of the day?
- Tell me about a time you were kind.
- Was someone kind to you today? How did that make you feel?
- Who did you sit with at lunch? What did you talk about?
- Tell me about something you learned today.
- What was the funniest thing that happened?
- Did you have to use your problem solving skills today? Tell me about what happened.
- Did your teacher read a book today? What was your favorite part?<— great question to ask when you are reading a book with your child too. Comprehension is super important when determining reading levels.
- Did you help anyone today? How did that make you feel?
- Did anyone help you today?
- What special (i.e. PE, music, art) did you go today? Did you like what you did there?
- Did you find anything challenging today?
- Who did you play with at recess?
- What did you do at recess?
- Did you get to create anything today?
- Did anything happen that surprised you?
- What are you looking forward to?
- Did anything happen you wish you could change?
So I started asking Annabelle some of these questions, and it’s amazing how much more I learned about her day. On Friday I asked her if anything funny happened and she looked at me with these wide eyes and asked “how did you know something funny happened?! ”
Apparently one of the teachers had their name mispronounced by another teacher all last year. This year that teacher realized they mistake and apologized. Thankfully the one whose name was mispronounced didn’t care and thought it was pretty funny. At least that’s what I think happened… first grade stories can be hard to follow sometimes.
I’m thinking of creating a hashtag and highlight reel on IG to share my girls’ responses and others, so be on the look out for that!
And I want to know, what kind of questions do you ask your children after school?