Every day after school, we have a “daily debrief” session. It can happen in the car or at the dinner table. But it always happens before bedtime. It helps the kids release their day, and it helps us connect with them after a long day.
A little background first as to how we got to the questions we ask now. During kinder, we would ask Lil’ Miss how her day was. She had the same response, “I don’t know, I don’t remember”. Took us a year to realize that that was too open ended. So then during 1st, we asked her to tell us 1 thing about her day. And that worked ok. So this year, we changed it again.
1. What made you sad/upset today?
2. What is something you learned/are learning?
3. What made you happy today?
4. What good turn did you do today?
The reasoning behind these questions: we have been working on helping Mr. Man learn emotions. These questions also help us get his POV as to what is going well and not so well at school for him. The 2nd question…we have had some great conversations about bees and ants and now pennies. This question leads to all sorts of tangents. And really helps them become an active participant in their day so they can report back to us.
Which brings us to #4. This question is brand new this week. Part of the BPSA scouting program, is to be helpful, to help others at all times. This question is not so that we can “keep score”. But it is merely to get them in the habit of recognizing their surroundings and finding ways to help others/planet earth.
With all the hurt going on in this world, it is my mission to make sure our kids are being the best they can now, so that it becomes second nature when they get older when we release them into “the wild”. And I am so glad that we have positioned them and surrounded them with people and groups that also have that same mission, specifically through TKD and scouting.
These kids may have their moments. And the struggle is real. But they are amazing.
