Yesterday afternoon I was standing in the pick-up line to get my girls from school. I watched as a child ran up to his mom and gave her a big hug.
She said to him, “How was your day?” He replied, “Good.”
And that was the end of their conversation about his day. 🙂
This has so been the extent of my after school conversations with my kids too.
Life moves at a warping speed once school gets out.
There are carpool kids to drop off. We have to get to swim practice, gymnastics and running team. Dinner needs to be made. Homework has to get done. The phone is ringing. The doorbell is ringing.
After-school is crazy. And my mind is running in a thousand different directions. So trying to dig for details from my kids day sometimes just doesn’t seem like a priority.
But lately, I’ve been noticing how important it is for me to take the time to really understand what’s happening with my 3 daughters at school.
I believe there are 2 main reasons why as parents we need to be proactive with understanding what’s happening at our kids school:
1. When we are interested in the details of their days, it reminds them how important they are to us.
2. This is sometimes the only opportunity we have to understand how we can help make their experience at school as best as possible.
For some kids you hardly have to ask a question and they will spill their entire day.
My youngest, Kennedy Grace, is one of these well-communicative children. She tells me every detail of her day, down to the shoes her teacher had on. 🙂
But with my middle daughter, Hope Ann, it can be more challenging to get her to tell me what happened at school. She’s not a big talker so I often get responses like, “Nothing”, “I don’t know” or “I guess” from her.
So sometimes it can be hard to think past the, “How was your day?” question.
But, I want to do better and maybe there are some other parents struggling with this too.
So here’s a list of 15 After School Questions to help open conversations with our kids about their day.
1. What is one thing you learned today?
2. What was the high of your day and the low of your day?
3. Who did you sit with at lunch?
4. What was your favorite part of your lunch?
5. What would you like to have been different about your day?
6. Who did you talk to the most?
7. What was something interesting your teacher said today?
8. Did you have any tests or quizzes? If so, how did you do?
9. What kind of homework do you have?
10. What was something funny that happened today?
11. Is there anything you are excited about?
12. Did you have any jobs as a helper?
13. What challenged you today?
14. Did you have any conflict that was hard to work through?
15. Is there anything you want to talk about with me?
What about you? Do you struggle with communicating well with your child about their day? Can you think of any other questions that would be great to add to this? I’d love for you to leave a comment and share today.
Happy Friday!
4 Comments
xxxdoc.monster tattooed cab driver licks busty babe.
I love these! I too find I get the same responses, and I long to get a glimpse of their thoughts, to inter act in guidance and love. I too have a swimmer, a gymnasts, and a baller (basketball, baseball), and my husband and I run. I get it girl. Thanks so much for sharing your heart, your words, and your beautiful pictures.
Thanks for this. I have one daughter who tells me the details and another who shrugs and says ‘It was ok’. I’m setting off to pick them up in ten minutes and I am armed with a few of your questions for the walk back. Thankyou.
Nicki, I was at a retreat all weekend and when I cam home, after the smoke cleared, I got to have my son (16) set down and tell me about his Friday and weekend. It is a blessing I do not take lightly that he talks to me.
Great points.
Can’t stop smiling at the daughter that tells everything down to teacher’s shoes! Thanks for some great ideas
Comments are closed.