Do your kids come out of school and develop amnesia about their day? Mine does! You can engage your child and find out a lot more about their day with these 40 fun questions to ask kids about school (that aren’t “how was your day”)!
Over the years I have cajoled, begged and pleaded for information about my daughter’s day, with little more than a grunt or an “I don’t remember” in return. I used to panic that it meant her day had been awful, until I realised this was a common situation. What also became common was a last-ditch effort to delay bedtime with a very chatty “wait til I tell you about my day” that proceeded to detail every minute aspect of the school day…
To save my sanity, I compiled a list of questions to ask kids that are more likely to prompt a response, and actually result in a conversation.
Get the Conversation Started
The key to the questions is to avoid ones that only require a yes/no answer as, most likely, that is all you’ll get.
Instead, leave the question open-ended so that your child will (hopefully) give details and you can spark a conversation. For example, “how was your day” may just result in a noncommittal “fine”, whereas “what was the most interesting part about your day” requires some thought.
For us, using some of these questions has definitely meant we have more after-school chats, and I feel like I have a better insight into my daughter’s day and school life. We managed to get ahead of some classroom drama because it had come up in our chats, and I also felt better prepared going into the parent-teacher meeting.
Questions to Ask Kids About School
The list below is varied, and is certainly not an exhaustive list to bombard your child with from start to finish each and every day. But they are good conversation-starters and having them up your sleeve on those non-responsive days is a great idea.
1. What was your favourite thing you did today?
2. Who did you play with at break time?
3. What games do most kids play at break time?
4. Did you find anything difficult today?
5. What questions did you ask today?
6. Who did you sit next to for lunch?
7. What did your friends have in their lunchbox today? (Great for getting some new lunchbox ideas!)
8. If you could swap lunches with anyone in your class, who would it be?
9. What made you smile today?
10. What made your teacher smile today?
11. What did you learn today that you didn’t know before?
12. What was your least favourite part of the day?
13. What is your teacher’s most important rule?
14. What rule was hard to follow today?
15. What challenged you today?
Don’t Miss…
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16. What made you laugh today?
17. What was the easiest thing you did today?
18. What was the hardest?
19. Did you learn any new songs or read a new story today?
20. Did you help anyone today?
21. Did anyone have any exciting news to share today?
22. What was the most interesting show-and-tell today?
23. Is anyone in the class upsetting you?
24. What do you do if someone is unkind or mean?
25. What do you think you should learn more/less of at school?
26. What did you do in PE today?
27. What was the most interesting thing your teacher said today?
28. Which subject did you enjoy most today?
29. Did anything you learned about today make you want to find out more?
30. What did you do that made you feel proud today?
31. Was it anyone’s birthday in school today?
32. Did you hear any good jokes today?
33. What is the biggest difference between this year and last year at school?
34. Who do you enjoy talking to at school?
35. If you could change anything about school, what would it be?
36. Is there anything worrying you about school?
37. Is there anything you learned today that you aren’t sure about and I can help you with?
38. What homework do you have today?
39. What would you change about your day?
40. What are you looking forward to tomorrow?
About the Author: Emily Manning
