How many of you were up later than normal last night? Like students, we educators frequently experience first day jitters too. However, the parental experience of the first day of a new school year often gets overlooked. Parents are the ones lining the lines of Target, purchasing new outfits for children, buying, yet again, a new pair of shoes since their feet grow fast and furious. Yet, it is so much more than organizing a backpack, triple checking the school start time, and understanding the absence procedures. It's the silent well wishes sent to the universe, begging for a good first day. It's the triple checking of the clock to make sure the alarm wasn't missed. It's the incredibly slow passing of time until school gets out so a phone call can be made to see how it went.
All of this excitement and anticipation sometimes results in one word answers to questions which desire paragraphs of detail. How was your day? Did it go okay? Try to transform these questions into prompts which will require more detail to answer. Tell me about your day. Share the low point and the high point. What experiences are you feeling about tomorrow? How can I help?
If your child struggles to open up, do an activity together so it is easier to open up and eye contact can be avoided. Go for a drive. Take a walk. Eat dinner around the table and share the same information about your day that you are asking about. You might not get all the information, but be persistent, because at the end of the day, we all love talking about ourselves.
