“How was your day?” “Fine.” “What did you do today?” “Play at recess.” “Did you learn anything?” “I don’t remember.” — and repeat and repeat forever. These never-ending conversations between parents and their school-age children are exhausting, and not very productive. But if you really want a better insight into your kids’ lives, Jonathan Scott has a tried-and-true way to do that. The Property Brothers co-host shared his after-school hack for getting kids to actually open up, and you’ll want to save this idea in your phone.
Scott, who is stepdad to fiancée Zooey Deschanel’s kids Elsie, 9, and Charlie, 7, who she shares with ex Jacob Pechenik, shared “5 questions to ask your kids after school” on Instagram today. These are instead of “how was your day” which typically only gets you a one-word answer. The questions are:
“What surprised you about today?”
“Did anybody do anything nice for you today/Did you do anything nice for somebody else?”
“Did you raise your hand in school today/were you called on?”
“What was the most boring part of your day today?”
“What did you say that made your friends laugh/What did they say that made you laugh?”
Scott adds, “These questions just create a dialogue. Give it a try; it worked for me.” These questions are genius, and I love how open-ended they are. Asking specific questions about their day may prompt them to remember specific things or want to go into greater detail, and it’s a fun (easy) way to get to know them.
In the comments, people shared their experiences. “Each day I ask my Grandson most of these same questions as well as, ‘Who did you get to help today, or who helped you?’ What was the best part of your day and what was the worst part of your day?’ Because I also know his schedule I ask him specifically about each class. I learned in my years of Teaching that ‘open-ended’ questions keep the conversation going. One word response questions tend to shut the conversation down. Let your children know that you are interested in their lives. ????❤️????” one person wrote.
Someone else shared, “We ask what their highs and lows were for the day. It makes for a good dinner-time conversation.” “That’s exactly how I did it. ???? every single day” another wrote.
The Backed by the Bros star recently shared another insight into life as a bonus dad to Deschanel’s kids. In a blog post called “Drew and Jonathan’s Back-to-School Tips for a Chaos-Free Fall” written by his twin brother and co-host Drew Scott, he shared that he and Deschanel help their kids “go to sleep smarter.”
“Our bedtime habits remain predominantly the same between summer and the school year. The biggest difference is that during the school week, we don’t watch movies or use devices. That’s a weekend activity,” he said. “They both love to listen to the science podcast Wow in the World before bed. The downside to this is that they are now smarter than we are.”
Another great tip! It’s a way for kids to unwind and relax before bed (and encourages them to be quiet!) without the use of screens, and it’s educational to boot. We can’t wait to try these with our kids!
Before you go, check out these celebs who are close with their stepkids.
