When you see your child after a day at school, it’s natural to want to know about their day. We spend 6 or more hours away from them, and we want the details. Often our enthusiastic question, “How was school?” is met with a one-word answer (fine!) that ends the school conversation before it starts.
Asking about your child’s day is a meaningful way to gain an understanding of their feelings towards school, academically and socially. As children move into the higher grades, you’ll get less communication from the teachers, so engaging in conversation about school is particularly important.
Our team of tutors shared questions that kids will actually answer about their day, so you can get the information you want without asking over and over again. The trick is to keep the questions open-ended enough to allow for more than a one-word response.
We recommend choosing 1-2 questions a day and working your way through the list.
1. What book did you read at school today?
2. What did you enjoy at lunch time?
3. What was the most exciting part of your day?
4. What was the most challenging part of your day?
5. Tell me about what you did at recess/lunch/gym/library today.
6. When did you do something kind for someone else today?
7. When did someone do something kind for you today?
8. Is there anything you’d like to talk about?
9 How are your preparing for your ______?
10. Are you having a hard time following any of the expectations in class? Is anyone in your class?
11. What do you think your teacher does after school?
12. What are you enjoying the most about recess?
13. Who is annoying you the most at school? What have you done to try to make it better?
14. What would you like to accomplish this year?
15. Tell me about a moment you were proud of yourself.
16. What do you think grade______is like?
17. Who do you wish you could have a playdate with every day?
18. Is there anything I can do to help you with ______ (math/friend/lunch/science etc.)?
19. Tell me what would make a perfect day at school for you.
20. Did anything funny happen today? I could use a laugh.
Do you have any more questions to add to the list?
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