Enquiry based listening helps children chat about their school day

Earwig Academic have sussed out how to have that after school conversation with your children. The one where you try to find out what they have done  at school all day, to find out they did ’nuffin’ all day with ‘no one’.

But apparently we are just not asking the right questions. Asking how their day was or what they did apparently causes them to shut down.

But asking more specific questions such as – ‘What did -teacher’s name – say bout your painting?’ helps them relax. This is because they think you care enough to remember the name of their teacher showing your child you are important to them.

Chatting over dinner when not interrupting their TV programme, is also a good time to get children to open up about their day.

Called enquiry based listening, asking how they felt about things that happened in the day and what they are looking forward to tomorrow also helps them to open up.