Getting Your Child to Talk About Their Day at School

How to engage your child effectively.

Parents understandably want to know how the school day was for their children as soon as they walk through the front door. But too many questions at once can cause kids to shut down and stay silent. Here’s how you can give them space and still get the scoop. It’s all about effective engagement!

Four Useful Tips to Try:

1. Give your child time to share what happened during the day without any parental prompting. Sit down together for an after-school snack and see what comes up. Your child may need a while to process the day, then they can give you the highlights. Sometimes they just need to decompress before diving in.
2. Be specific. Rather than asking something broad, like, “How was your day?,” you can ask your child what book they read today, what they shared during “circle time,” or if they did any arts and crafts projects. This way, your child will get into detail. Otherwise, they may simply say the day was “fine” without any in-depth descriptions. Then you’ll have to keep asking questions, instead of letting your child lead the conversation.
3. Talk about your child’s classmates. Find out which children your child likes to talk about and why. If they have a new friend, it will be exciting for them to share stories with you. Bring up this friend during your next conversation. You can also talk about kids on the bus or their teacher(s).
4. Share what you did that day with your child. They are sure to find it interesting to hear about all the things you did too. Try to find something somewhat in common, such as what you ate for lunch or what the best part of your day was. It’s also OK to talk about the not-so-good parts of the day. This will give your child the opportunity to open up about what may be bothering them.

How do you spark a discussion with your child when they get home from school? Any tips for other AMC parents and caregivers?

For more information like this, please visit All My Children’s blogs.

By: Melissa A. Kay