40 questions that will make your child want to tell you about their day

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Inside: Check out this list of 40 meaningful questions to ask kids about their day to encourage them to open up to you and talk about their day at school.

When I wrote about the 5 easy and effective tips that parents can use to get kids to talk about their day at school, I mentioned that one important thing is asking the right questions.

But the truth is that kids don’t want to be questioned about the same things every single day. And they won’t open up to their parents if they feel that they are being “evaluated” through the questions.

To make the kids want to talk about their day, the questions need to focus on the things that are important to them.

Because finding out about my son’s day at school is something that matters a lot to me, I gathered a list of questions that I use as inspiration anytime I want to start a conversation.

If you need some inspiration as well, here are 40 questions to ask kids about their day. They will offer you the chance to really get to their heart and get meaningful answers that will get you closer.

You can find a printable list of questions at the end of the article in case you want to have these ideas at hand every day.

Questions to ask kids about their day: 13 questions about their feelings

What made you smile today?

What was the most difficult thing you did today?

How would you rate your day on a scale of 1 to 10? What would have made your day better?

Did anything made you sad / angry today?

What made you feel

Has anyone been unkind to you today? How did you react?

Did anyone do something that made you laugh?

What was the best thing that happened to you today?

Did you ever feel unsafe? Why?

If you could change one thing about your day, what would it be?

Questions to ask kids about their day: 11 questions about colleagues and teachers

Did anyone do something funny today?

Did anyone do something nice for you?

What was the nicest / kindest thing you did for someone else?

What made your teacher happy today?

Was there something that made your teacher sad / angry today?

What rules do you think are the hardest to follow at school?

Does everyone have a friend at recess?

If you could switch seats with anyone in the class, who would you trade with? Why?

Questions to ask kids about their day: 7 questions about their friends

What was the best thing that you did with your friends today?

Who did you play with the most today?

What did your friends eat for lunch?

Did you help anyone today? How?

Did anyone help you today? How?

Who did you sit with at lunch? What did you talk about?

Questions to ask kids about their day: 9 questions about their interests

What games did you play outside / at recess?

What new thing did you learn today?

What is the most surprising thing that you learned today?

What was your favorite activity / subject today? Why?

Did you learn something today you didn’t understand?

What questions did you ask at school today?

What are you looking forward to tomorrow at school?

What do you think you should do more of at school?

What do you think you should do less of at school?

How to use this list of questions

I use to ask one question from each category at the start of the conversation. Then I let my child lead the conversation and ask questions depending on what he most wants to talk about.

If I see that he is concerned about something I spend more time trying to find out what it is. If I notice that he is upset and he doesn’t want to talk about what happened I don’t insist.

I just spend some quality time with him, connecting and having fun, because I know that this makes it easier for him to open up to me. Then, when I feel that he is ready to talk, I restart the conversation and I try to help him solve whatever problem he has.