I have a friend who's son used to drive her crazy with the standard "How was your day?" question. He'd answer in one syllable words or not at all.(damn nosey parent!) Anyway someone suggested to her that instead of the age old question, she take a different tactic and it worked. I thought this was really creative and intend to try it out this year.

Every day when her son comes home, she asks "Did you ask a good question today? Were you happy with the answer?" She journals his questions everyday, figuring at some point later in life she'll give it to him. If he answers negatively to the second part, they find the answer together. She said it has helped enormously with his frustration towards school.

What a beautiful idea! <3

Love it! I'm adding it to my copy of 10 Questions to Ask Your Child About His Day at School:
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=1396

Tell me about the best part of your day.

What was the hardest thing you had to do today?

Did any of your classmates do anything funny?

Tell me about what you read in class.

Who did you play with today? What did you play?

Do you think math [or any subject] is too easy or too hard?

What's the biggest difference between this year and last year?

What rules are different at school than our rules at home? Do you think they're fair?

Who did you sit with at lunch?

Can you show me something you learned (or did)

Great thread. We have been trying to get DD to open up about her time at school and have had a little bit of success but these questions should definitely help. I can't help but imagine me in the front seat with an index card going down the list until I have them memorized!

We've been asking:

What was the easiest thing to do today?
What was the hardest?
Did you get anything wrong today? (answer) then we follow it by wows, awesomes, and woohoos!

Because we really prize those moments when we get something wrong.

We often talk about What was the best part of your day? at diner. One time my nephew was eating with us and DS asked this question. The nephew gave him a funny look as if he asked a trick question. I was proud of my son for asking this. I thought our routinue helped him with conversation as my son can be shy.

inky - thank you for your post. That gave me a much needed little pat on the back because we do all that.

I've been a little sad the last few days about DS. I wanted to start some of the Nurtured Heart approach and have been having trouble.

I ask my kids about their school special (ex. gym art), which I have posted in the kitchen. This has helped with conversation too.

Here we usually as "What was the best thing that happened today and why?" and "What was the worst thing that happened and why?"

Sometimes the "thing" involved them directly and sometimes it is about another student or teacher or even about more global events.

I like the question approach though...I can imagine some great discussions arising from this one! Thanks for sharing!!