Questions for kids that spark conversation

Are you tired of receiving those infamous one word answers: "yes", "no", or "nothing" when you ask your child about his or her day? To often children do not want to engage in conversation about their school activities. So, as parents we have to find creative ways of learning about their day.

You don't want to ask them 21 questions, but just enough to understand how they are doing both emotionally and academically. Try to avoid closed end questions that have one word answers. The key is to ask questions that will spark their interest to expand on their answer. Or their answer may prompt you to have a follow-up question. Who knows...you may even get more than you ask for once your child sees you are expressing genuine interest in his or her well being.

Alway praise your child and let them know how proud you are of them and that you support them unconditonally. I would even recommend that you share your day with them, so that they understand parents can have good and bad days, too. Here are some suggestions:

1. Tell me about or show me something you learned today? Follow-up: Did you like learning about that?



2. What did you have for lunch? Follow-up: Why did you like or not like it? Who did you eat lunch with today or who did you sit beside during lunch?



3. What was the most fun thing you did today? Follow-up: Why was is so fun?



4. What did you not enjoy doing today? Follow-up: Why did you not enjoy it?



5. What did you do today in Math (or use another subject)?



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



7. What question did you answer today in class? Follow-up: Did you know the answer or did you just take a guess at it?



8. What did you like (or not like) about your bus drive today? Follow-up: If it was something they didn't like. How did you handle that problem?



9. What was the funniest thing that made you laugh today? Follow-up: What did the teacher do?



10. What do you like about being in your current grade compared to your previous grade? Follow-up: What do you think will happen next year?

Please share questions that you ask to initiate conversation. Happy talking!

A deck of math cards

Do you ever remember playing the game "War". It's when players split up a deck of cards and turn over the card on the top of the deck. The person with the highest card value wins the set of cards for each round. I loved that game. This game is fun and also teaches number recognition, counting, and number comparison.

If you are looking for an inexpensive way to have fun with your child while learning math then look no further. A deck of cards is all you need. I'll share some teaching techniques that I use with cards. It's fun, easy and the kids really enjoy it. Also, this website gives additonal games you can play.

Learning Multiplication (Grade 3 - 8) - Remove all the face cards. Use cards 1 - 10 in the same family such as all hearts. Select an eleventh card to be used as your multipier. E.g. if you wanted to learn your five times table, the eleventh card (mulitplier) will be a five. Lay the mulitiplier face up on the table and place one card at a time beside it to multiply. Have the child say the answer. You can repeat cards 1 -10 with the same multiplier as often as necessary.

Place Value (Grade 2 - 5) - Remove all face cards and the ten card. Put the remainder cards in a stack, flip over and place in a row face up. You can simulate place value showing ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, and more. e.g. 3 cards from left to right 5, 3, 2 would show hundreds, tens and ones. Ask the child, 3 is in what place value: answer ten. Or what is the value of 3: answer 30. Or what digit is in the tens place: answer 3.

Addition (K - 5) - Remove all face cards. Flip over two number cards and have the child add them together. You could also add 2-digit numbers by using four cards and placing two cards on top and two cards below.

So, the next time your child says "I'm bored" have them go and grab a deck of cards. Hope you have fun. Tell me how it goes.