The Secret to Engaging Your Kids After Their Day
At Camp Kupugani, our Midwest summer camp, we offer two-week sessions (your child can attend more than one). We are located a stone’s throw away (whatever that means) from Chicago, IL and Madison, WI. Everyone that has spent any time around children appreciates that it is not always easy to find out how their day went. A recent article from The Art of Manliness can help parents or youth professionals get to the bottom of that age-old question– How was your day? Read below for some quick pointers and read the rest of the article here.
- A Few Ground Rules…
- Don’t barrage them with questions right away.
- Did you like this when you were a kid?
- Allow them to unwind a bit.
- Keep it open-ended.
- Non-open ended questions tend to shut down the conversation.
- Use words like “what,” “how,” and “why”.
- Don’t ask for a blow-by-blow account of their day.
- Your child’s day may be boring in her/his mind.
- Focus on anomalies within your child’s day.
- Try again later if they’re not engaging.
- Don’t force questions at this time.
- Don’t give up right away either.
- Don’t barrage them with questions right away.
- Better questions to ask…
- What was the funniest thing that happened today?
- This will help them look at the day positively.
- Who doesn’t remember the joke they were told or heard earlier?
- Was anyone kind to you today? How were you kind to others?
- This helps to build empathy within your child.
- Gratitude journals can add to this.
- What’s something new that you learned or did today?
- It will help you to learn your child’s interest(s).
- It will help to involve you in their day when they’re not with you.
- Were you brave today? How?
- It shows you care about their well-being.
- Your children will see the good they can do by standing up for themselves or others.
- What was the funniest thing that happened today?
Source Article: https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/24-better-questions-to-ask-kids-about-how-their-day-went/