20 Better Ways to Ask “How was your day?”

Which question do we always ask our children in the evening? Yep, that “How was your day?” to which we always get the same “Good” or “Ok”. Is it too much to ask for a full sentence with a noun and a verb? Pretty please?

Today, School Success would like to suggest 20 questions you can ask your children after school or during dinner that will stimulate discussion and allow you to know more about how your children spend their days.

1. What was the best part of your day at school?
2. What was the worst part of your day?
3. Tell me something strange or funny that you learned today.
4. Pretend to be your teacher and explain something that your learned today.
5. If I called your teacher, what do you think he or she would tell me about you?
6. Tell me about a moment when you felt lost or didn’t understand what was going on.
7. Did you help any of your friends today?
8. If aliens were to abduct one of your classmates, which would you like it to be? Why?
9. Who had the best lunch today? What were they eating?
10. What game did you play during recess?
11. Did you say or do anything you regret?
12. Tell me about something kind you did today?
13. If your class went on a school trip, who would you like to have as bus buddy?
14. Who makes you laugh the most in class? What do they say or do that’s so funny?
15. Tell me three things you did using your pencil or crayons.
16. Which question(s) did you ask your teacher today? Would you have liked to ask anything else? Why didn’t you ask? Did you run out of time? Were you shy?
17. Did you feel sad at any point during the day?
18. Did you experience a moment when you were very proud of yourself?
19. Where do you like to play during recess? Why?
20. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being a perfect day), how would you rate your day?

Useful tips

These tips will help you foster rich and positive exchanges:

• Don’t interrupt. This rule should apply to all conversations, especially if your goal is to get your child talking so you gain information.
• Ask for specifics. Simply asking, “Could you tell me more, I’d like to understand better,” should keep the conversation flowing.
• Ask your children to describe their emotions, how they feel.
• Thank your children for confiding in you and for their honesty. Explain that by sharing their ups and downs, you can help them better.

What about you? Which questions lead to the best conversations with your children?