Five afternoons a week the conversation goes like this:

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Mummy: Hi sweetie, how was your day at school?

Mstr 7: Good.

Mummy: did anything interesting happen?

Mstr 7: (shrugging) Can’t remember. Can I have a snack?

 

Now I KNOW they learn at school, I know for 6 hours of the day he is at school he does a whole heap of stuff, but trying to get any interesting comments or conversation out of him is almost impossible.

And I know a lot of parents would know exactly what I am talking about, so I’ve done a bit of research and come up with 15 questions that will (hopefully) get more of a response:

1. Who did you play with today?

2. What was the hardest thing you had to do today?

3. What was the best part about your day?

4. Did you read any new books in class today?

5. What was your favourite part of your day?

6. What did your friends do over the weekend/holidays?

7. Do you have any questions that maybe you didn’t get a chance to ask your teacher?

8. What was the funniest thing you heard all day?

9. Tell me one thing new you learnt today (it would be good if you could think of something you can share as well)

10. What did you enjoy most for lunch today?

11. What was your job at school today?

12. Who did you sit next to in class?

13. Did anything silly happen at school today?

14. Can you tell me about the picture your brought home?

15. What are you looking forward to tomorrow?

 

The trick is to ask a question that will generate a conversation. Questions starting with “Did” usually get a yes/no answer but you can ask more questions from there. “What” questions are a great place to start them talking – hopefully it will open your kids up to talk more about their day.

If you have any questions that work for you please leave a comment below, I’d love to hear about them!