Its back to school and a start of a new year. Getting back into routines and establishing new ones can be challenging for parents. The rush of school pick ups and drop offs and homework as well as daily routines takes a toll on everyone. It can be difficult for parents to find time to get homework, chores and errands completed in a day, so here are some suggestions on questions to ask your child in between a busy day. The best times are in the car, during bathing, dressing and meals or even in between your shopping trips to the store. It is important to develop your child’s listening, thinking and language skills as opposed to propping them in front of a flat screen device. Promoting language development should always occur with functional daily activities to promote learning. If your child has difficulty answering these questions and constructing appropriate sentences, then you should speak to a speech-language pathologist for assistance. Asking your child these questions during everyday activities and routines assists you with bonding with your child and developing their social communication skills. Its also a great way to find out about your child’s school day as there may always be a fascinating story or uncovered secret no one else knows! So, the next time you are stuck in traffic on the way home from school pickups, waiting in lines at the store or busy in the kitchen with your child, try asking your child these questions.
Questions for Pre-Schoolers (3-5 years)
- What did you eat for lunch?
- Did you catch anyone doing something funny?
- What games did you play at break time?
- What was the funniest thing that happened today?
- Did anyone do anything super nice for you?
- Did anything happen today that made you sad?
- What did you learn at school?
- Tell me about your friends
- What rules did you follow at school today?
- What was your favourite thing about today?
Questions for Older children (6-10 years)
- What was the nicest thing you did for someone else?
- Which one of your teachers would survive a zombie apocalypse? Why?
- What new fact did you learn today?
- What challenged you today?
- If one of your classmates could be the teacher for the day who would you want it to be? Why?
- What is the most popular thing to do at break time?
- What was your favourite subject to study today? Why?
- What is one thing you did today that was helpful?
- Which playground skill do you plan to master this year?
- Does anyone in your class have a hard time following the rules?
Taken and adapted from: https://www.mother.ly/child/30-questions-to-ask-your-kid-instead-of-how-was-your-day