After our oldest son, Hayden, comes home from school, I ask him how his day was.
Most days, the response is a perfunctory, “Good.”
If pressed for more information, he will often respond, that he can’t remember anything.
It’s very frustrating for Karen and I as we have a genuine interest in our kids’ lives and want to be involved in their world.
I’ve laughed about this with other parents (especially of boys), who relay their similar experiences, so you can imagine my delight when our school newsletter came through with 10 great questions that are designed to start slightly more interesting conversations with our children. These questions originally come from the excellent and helpful site, blogs.kidspot.com.au/villagevoices and you can be sure that I’ll be trying them out over the next few weeks:
- What was the funniest thing you heard all day?
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What was your favourite thing to happen today?
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Did your teacher laugh today? What happened?
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What lesson was most interesting?
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Was anyone away today? Did that make the day different?
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What was something new you learnt today?
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What happened today that you wish didn’t happen?
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What did you enjoy most for lunch today?
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Did anyone do something nice for you today?
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Did you do something nice back? What are you looking forward to tomorrow?
I’m sure that we’ll still get the occasional shrug of the shoulders, but hopefully, we can get more out of him in the coming weeks.
Do you have a great question that you ask your kids after their day at school?
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12 comments
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February 25, 2013 at 6:48 pm
Linda J
hahaha, I do that too Darren!
I ask, what was the best thing and the funniest thing. You’ve given some great questions 🙂
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February 25, 2013 at 7:20 pm
Darren Poke
Thanks Linda
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February 25, 2013 at 7:46 pm
keladelaide
My son is only 5 so we normally use a conversation starter like ‘who did you play with at recess/lunch today and what did you do together? This is of particular enjoyment and interest to him as it is probably the highlight of his day. Asking this one first normallu ensures that he’s ready to chat and to answer more questions.
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February 25, 2013 at 8:42 pm
Darren Poke
That’s a great question. Thanks for sharing.
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February 25, 2013 at 8:33 pm
Lavanya
The only question my 3.5 yr old toddler boy likes to answer is on the girl he likes in the class :). He only responds to the questions about her. We also always get shrugs as you get 🙂
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February 25, 2013 at 8:43 pm
Darren Poke
That’s funny, thanks for sharing.
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February 26, 2013 at 12:48 am
Barbara
Thanks for sharing.
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March 3, 2013 at 7:57 pm
Darren Poke
Thanks Barbara
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February 26, 2013 at 8:04 am
Science of the Soul
Great questions! I’ll be stowing them away for when my little one begins talking and interacting on the playground 🙂
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March 3, 2013 at 7:57 pm
Darren Poke
Awesome, thanks SS
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February 26, 2013 at 10:25 am
Jill
As a teacher they are a good reminder of what the kids in our class might say… i am sure there are some days that I dont smile much… Thanks on many levels.. Lots of pressure on us these days..
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March 3, 2013 at 7:57 pm
Darren Poke
Thanks Jill
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