How to Get Your Kid Talking about those First Weeks of School
You just sent your kiddo to school for the very first time. Missing them terribly you excitedly wait to hear how their day went. If you ask right away or wait for them to have some rest and a snack before asking, “How was your day? What did you do?”, the answer is “Good. I don’t remember.” What an anti-climatic response for an excited parent! Many, many parents have this same thing happen to them. How can you get them to tell you more about their day!?
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Think back to a time when you started a new experience. Your senses can easily get overloaded and overwhelmed with new sights, sounds, people, places, etc. Kids are no different. They are excited about new friends, learning, fun, games, and more. it’s hard to even absorb things in that first few weeks as they experience school for the first time.
I will create a wonderful list of questions for that inquisitive parent to get more than that “Good. I don’t remember.” answer from their little babies. These questions will start less open-ended than you would imagine and then as they get more comfortable with the school routines you can ask bigger picture questions like the “How was your day?” one.
Many of these questions you may even already know the answer to but if you want them to practice giving you information about the day it’s best to start simple and work your way up!
Who Questions
- Who did you sit next to at lunch?
- Who did you sit with in class?
- Who did you play with on the playground?
- Who read a book to you today?
- Did you meet any new teachers today?
- Did you meet any students from a different class or grade today?
- Did your teacher laugh today? What made her laugh?
What Questions
- What did you eat for lunch? (You may already know if you packed it but still a great question to start with).
- What did you first do when you walked into your classroom?
- What did you do right before you left to come home?
- What did you do after lunch?
- What is something hard/ difficult you tried to do today?
- What is something different about your school from home?
When Questions
- Did you have a rest time?
- How did you feel after you ate lunch?
- How did you feel when it was time to go home?
- When you are walking in your school, how do you feel?
- When you are having rest time how do you feel?
- When you are listening to a story/ book how do you feel?
Where Questions
- What was the bathroom like?
- What was your favorite thing you saw in the classroom?
- Did you go to the playground?
- Did you play in the school Gym today?
- Where did you sit when the teacher read a story?
- Where did you sit to color or write?
- Where did you put your backpack/ lunch box/ coat?
Why Questions
- Did you laugh today? Why? or What made you feel that way?
- … feel sad today? Why?
- … excited today? Why?
- … mad today? Why?
- … happy today? Why?
- … tired today? Why?
- … surprised today? Why?
- … proud today? Why?
How Questions
- Did you use crayons? What did you color with them?
- Did you use a pencil? What did you write with it?
- Can you show me how you walk to lunch/ bathroom/ playground?
- Can you show me what you colored at school today?
- Can you show me how you sit at your desk/ at your table/ on the carpet?
All of these questions will help give you some ideas about how to get them talking. Practice makes perfect and you don’t want to overwhelm yourself by asking every single one. Try a few different kinds each day. You can move on to more academic topic questions as you both learn more about being in school and the expectations of the teachers.
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For more back-to-school and first-time school content check out these posts:
- 7 Things to Help Prepare your Preschooler for a Successful School Year
- Back to School- Interview with a Pre-K Teacher
- Fine Motor Skills for Preschoolers- More than Just Writing
- Preschool Education Based Skills: Ages2-5