Sometimes we think that the words like“Fine”or “Good” spoken by our child in response to our question about their day at school are enough. But we realize the cost of that approval at the time when we are given the Grade Sheet of our child.
Asking your child about how school went today is probably the least effective way of finding out what is happening at school and how we can help if there are any problems.
This is not as straight forward as thought by many parents. We have given here some effective approaches to know the school experience of your child.
Greet first, ask later
Kids get defensive when we asked them right after school about school. May be the entire topic makes them feel a little intimidated because failure is more frequent than success in their minds during the school day. So just greet and chat about other things to get them a little more relaxed before you talked about school specifically.Talk about your day first
Share something about your day. Maybe a joke someone told you at lunch or an interesting bit of current event news will stimulate a conversation about something at school.Use books as conversation starters
Choose a book about school and see what conversation unfolds. For a laugh out loud, read What a Day it was at School! by Jack Prelutsky. His collection of poems about school tipping over with a heavy backpack, throwing food in the cafeteria, hopelessly competing with a classmate in gym, or emitting an accidental noise during class is outrageously silly, getting a child laughing and connecting the stories to him school experience.Ask the questions like,
1. Tell me something that made you laugh today.2. Where is the coolest place at the school?
3. If I called your teacher tonight what would she tell me about you?
4. How did you help somebody today?
5. How did somebody help you today?
6. Tell me one thing that you learned today.
7. When were you the happiest today?
8. When were you bored today?
9. Tell me something good that happened today.
10. What word did your teacher say most today?
11. What do you think you should do/learn more of at school?
12. What do you think you should do/learn less of at school?
13. Who in your class do you think you could be nicer to?
14. Where do you play the most at recess?
15. What was your favorite part of lunch?