Me:How was your day today?  Child: Fine. Me: Learn anything new?  Child: Nope.     Me: Do anything exciting  on your break? Child: No.

And there goes my attempt to find out how my kids day went. I used to give up. Then I tried a different tactic. When we sat down for dinner I introduced a new “game”: Highs and Lows. Everyone participated. I started with myself. Each person shared their high and low for the day.

At first my son didn’t want to participate. Instead of getting upset (I was disappointed, but kept it to myself. I didn’t want to give attention to the behaviour that frustrated me). I went on to my husband and so on. After everyone was done sharing, my son remained silent. A few minutes later he said “I want to share my highs and lows now”. 

This has turned into an everyday ritual at the dinner table, and it’s usually initiated by the kids. It may not take off so quickly at your house, but don’t give up. Always give them the option to participate, but if they don’t want to answer don’t make it a big deal. Eventually they’ll want to join in.

If the dinner table isn’t an ideal time for you, it can be done in the car on the way to practise or on the walk home from school.  This is a nice way to find out about your child’s day. To get them to open up, show them you care and that you’re interested in what happens in their lives. This will work for all ages, even your teens. 

This is a nice way to open up communication in your home. It’s a fun way to get to get to know more about your child and teen. It’s also a good way to show how even when things don’t go well in your day, you can find one good thing that did go well.