What did you do at school today?

[mightymoo]

"I didn't do nothing! I stared at the wall"

I suppose I set myself up for this. I don't know where she got "I didn't do nothing" - probably from her father, but the other day when I asked her how school was and she said that I said 'So you stared at the wall all day?' (really as a joke to myself, I didn't expect her to pick up on it!) - now this is her standard response! Oh well, so much for her telling me all the fun things she did! :P

[Melda]

I have a really hard time getting out of my kiddos what they did too. Now that my son is in K i make him tell me what lessons they do and I also ask the directress.

[LeAnnie]

I think that is a tough question to answer (what did you do at school) I always cringe when people ask me what have you been up to, or what did you do on the weekend. It's so open ended that it requires a lot of thinking. I tell my dd 'I love to hear about what you do" and wait for her to talk about something that inspired her. She is a major extrovert and likes to talk about people. So sometimes I am nosy and ask about the other kids (i.e., did zach chase anyone on the playground today) For some reason dd loves to talk about the kids..who cried (the latest topic) who is new, who Zach chases (this has become a joke with us), who she ate lunch with, etc.

[OhTheThinks.....]

So true...........early on you will have to use a more "pointed" question. What did you do in school today is super duper open ended.
Try.......What did you have for snack today, or did you eat snack today?
What is new in the Math area today? I wouldn't necessarily say, "did" you do math today, because your little one may feel they were "suppose" to do it and now did not fulfill a requirement or something.
But it is all good, as long as they are safe and happy and enjoying school, I think you can tell they are having a wonderful experience even if they can't put exact words to it.

[gamom]

I will usually ask "what work did you choose today?" ds always responds to that question.

[fireflies~for~me]

And....I find that if I don't ask, he will tell me what work he did, but if I ask, he says "I don't know"

[Stella_luna]

My DD is the opposite . . . the second she's in the car seat, it's a running commentary. The first thing she tells me is what the snack was , then all the stuff she did. Today, she had banana slices and water for snack; for activities, she crushed and served walnuts, did metal insets, built blocks with a boy, heard a story, read in the book nook, showed her alligator doll for sound of the week "a," broke the sea anemone on the touch table, and heard the teacher tell a child not to bang on the hermit crab's cage (apparently the kid was saying, "Come out, dude!") It makes me tired just to listen to her sometimes .

[CorbinsMama]

If I flet out ask, "What did you do today?" I always get "I forgot." I think he does so much in a day that it's too much to talk about. I have asked other moms at school, and they get the same response (often from their boys while the girls are more chatty).

Instead I have started asking, "What was your favorite thing that you did today?" I'm guaranteed at least one thing then!

[caeden&connersmom]

Its like pulling teeth! Our Kiga teacher sends home a syllabus on Mondays, outlining what they are planning to do each day, that way when we ask how his day was, we can ask specific questions! We have gone from:

Us - "What did you do today at school"

Caeden - "At my granola bar and drank my juice"

Us - "Anything else"

Caeden - "Um, nope, that was it"

To.....

Us - "Today was gym day right, what did you play in gym?"

Caeden - "We played with balls and I kicked one all around, then Christina was the class leader and we didnt have recess today and we painted"

You get the picture

Thank goodness the teacher provides the syllabus! Otherwise we wouldnt have any idea what he was doing!

[Malva]

On her first day of second grade, my dd came home and asked: "So mom, what did you do today at work?".