what has happened to knowing your kids and letting a conversation happen organically??

Very clever. Thanks for the article.

I like the tip of picking a question at the dinner table ! My kids come home with the 3 of them and bring often 2 or 3 friends home and asking about school when they come home is not the right time, kinda chaotic…

What a great article! My son started Prep this year and we asked him to come home and tell us the name of someone new he met every day for the first few weeks. It was a great way to learn who he was sitting with in the class, the other kids in the class and who he was playing with outside.

I’ll have to try this with my son. He’s in kinder and I usually get ‘I don’t know’ when I ask about his day

The questions get great answers – well worth thinking about questions that can’t be answered with a yes or no.

• • 
  • • mom94125 replied
    • 02 Sep 2016 , 8:48 pm

  ---

  yes opened ended questions is a great way to get them to have a chat

Should try this with my son.. hopefully i’ll get a better answer than ‘i cant remember’ or ‘umm nothing’..

These are great questions, I’ll have to remember them for around the dinner table! 🙂

A friend’s child came home from school upset and in a foul mood one day. She tried various open ended questions with the idea she would find out what the issue was and got nowhere. In the end she asked what happened at school today?” to which her son replied “nothing”. The Mum said “really”. Her son then very quietly told her. He had got into trouble for not listening in class, running on some stairs – there is a sign there saying not to run on them.

Indeed. We should make open questions, not questions where they can just answer “yes” or “no”. I always listening to what happened at school! 🙂

I really like these suggestions I am definitely going to copy them down to keep and start putting them into practice.