5 Questions To Ask Your Kindergartner About Their Day

I am a first time kindergarten mom. I have no clue what I am doing, and I cried like a baby on my son’s first day of school. We are almost a month into his kindergarten career, and I am still not sure how my tiny 7 pound, 11 ounce baby is now almost 4 feet tall and in school. But we are here, we are doing it, and I will be fine.

On his first day, I attended his school’s Boohoo-Woohoo Breakfast sponsored by the PTA. The PTA moms are pros, and they knew just what to do for us blubbering kindergarten parents. Bless them, as there were coffee and bagels for us to drown our sorrows in. They even had goody bags with tissues, a school magnet, and gold in the form of a blue piece of paper with the title “10 Questions to Ask Your Kindergartner That Will Give You Something Besides The ‘Fine’ and ‘Nothing’ Response.” See, I told you the PTA moms are pros.

I read this piece of paper, and I soaked it all in. I was so excited to pick up my son and test these questions on him. I literally asked him all ten questions expecting to learn all about his day. Well, a few of the questions still elicited the “nothing” response, but a few got me some information I wanted. I have asked these ten questions several times this past month, and these are the five questions that get the most information out of my son:

1. What was the hardest thing you had to do today?
2. Who did you sit with at lunch?
3. Can you show me something you learned (or did) today?
4. Who did you play with today? What did you play?
5. Tell me about the best part of your day.

Now, I’m not guaranteeing that these questions will always get you something besides the “fine” or “nothing” response. But these five questions have continued to be pretty successful for me on the daily.

My son’s teacher uses ClassDojo, which helps me be a fly on the wall for parts of his day. These five questions, though, have given me even more insight and have started good conversations with my son about what he is learning and what he is doing in class.

Bless you, PTA moms and moms that have gone before me. That blue piece of paper and the questions on it were just what this first time kindergarten mom needed.