Online Learning Tips: The 3 best questions parents or caregivers should ask their child, to learn about their day
How was your day? Fine
Who did you play with? My friends
What did you learn? Nothing
Hands up who has had this conversation with their child before?
Although the intention is there, these questions can be perceived to be quite boring and repetitive (cue eye rolling from your child) and most likely won’t be the catalyst for an interesting conversation. If you really want to engage in a ‘back and forth’ conversation and really understand their day and help them make sense of their experience both good and bad; here are the 3 questions you should be asking:
When were you the happiest today
What was hard for you and what did you do when faced with this challenge?
Tell me something that made you laugh
Research has shown that we can train ourselves to be more positive and resilient by consciously reflecting and thinking about happy situations and memories. When we learn to actively bring these memories into our thoughts and talk about them we are making connections in our brains that help us to actually be happier. Additionally, when we talk about and reflect on difficult situations or problems we are helping our children create a ‘bank’ of things that were hard for them and how they over came them, so when faced with another challenging situation, they can draw on their own learned experiences.
Now parents, you don’t get off so lightly. This is also a great opportunity to open up to your children about some of the difficulties you are facing in your day and how, that even as adults, we face challenges that we need to overcome.
The last point to make is that if you really want to connect with your child, give them your complete attention. Put down the screens, take off the watch and really be engaged in the conversation. These questions are a great start to a family dinner conversation or when it’s time for a kiss and cuddle before bed.
WE’VE GOT THIS