10 Questions to Ask Your Kids After a Day at Elementary School

Eliza Clark
September 10, 2012

Is anyone else finding this back-to-school season to be a big adjustment? In our family, we certainly are. The organization and scheduling challenges alone are seriously daunting. But perhaps the hardest thing to get used to is being away from the children for most of the day. After lots of family time together over the summer, we’re all suddenly back to doing our own thing: school, jobs, sports, and other activities. We miss those kids of ours! And even though they are not letting on, we suspect they may miss us just a tiny bit as well.

So we’re looking for ways to reconnect at the end of the day. As most of you probably know, asking kids “how was school today?” usually yields a one-word answer: fine, good, or OK. Not terribly informative. Here are some questions that we’ve had more luck with. If you’ve got any good ones, let us know!

1. What was the high point of your day? (Or one of the high points?) The teachers at our school suggested this one, and it works.

2. What was a low point? The natural complement to #1, although some parents prefer not to dwell on the negative.

3. What are you working on in science/art/dance? We try to ask specific questions about different classes on different days.

4. What did you do at recess? It’s a high point of the day and usually memorable for the kids.

5. Who did you sit with at lunch? This is an easy way to get a bit of insight into the social situation.

6. What the most fun learning activity today? With this one, we can gauge which subjects our kids most enjoy.

7. What was the most challenging? It’s also good to be aware of what may be giving our kids’ trouble.

8. Did you read or did you teacher read aloud any good books? We’re always curious about this, and we love talking about books with our kids.

9. Did anything silly or funny happen today? We want to make sure our kids are laughing at school!

10. Would you like to know what I did today? Let’s put ourselves in the hot seat for a change and show that we too enjoy sharing about our day.

And if you have a younger child, here are 10 Questions to Ask Your Child About a Day at Preschool.