Wednesday, July 23, 2008

New idea for getting the low down from your kiddos

The standard question of “How did your day go?” or “What did you do today?” not surprisingly gets little response from kids and spouses alike so why do we keep asking the same old thing? One thing I have realized in my own life is that if I want different results, I need to try a different approach to whatever it is that I am trying to accomplish.

I read a cute article from the “Dream Team Disney” today that gave a fresh twist on how to really spark conversation with your family.

One family faced with the same old answers of “fine” or “nothing” began a game. The game is called What’s Hot and What’s Not. In essence the kids just related to this more on their level and began to take their responses seriously and gave a lot of thought to what they wanted to share about their lives and feelings. They said a couple of things that happened that day that was “hot” or good or cool or whatever and a couple of things that were “not” so hot or fun or cool. Like how one of the boy’s friends got into a fight at school and he felt stuck in the middle of his two friend's fight. Or how the little girl was really nervous to memorize and recite a poem for class…or whatever. Even the parents chip in and share with the kids the good things and bad things that happened in their day…within reason of course!

Instead of mom trying to pull teeth for conversation the family actually had things to talk about and it gave mom a much more rich view of their kids and their experiences. She says they play all of the time: in the car, home from Church, at dinner, on trips.

So, I am going to play too, even if no one else does :-)

What’s Hot? And What’s Not?


Today’s Hots:

I am in a good mood today even though I didn’t get much sleep

I took a walk and enjoyed the sunshine

I am looking forward for a long weekend (because of Pioneer Day here)

Today’s Not’s:

I forgot my lunch and I am starving

I just ate a candy bar for lunch…maybe on a different day that would be a Hot :-)

I have a few errands to run and don’t want to

What is your Hot and Not for the day? Do you think it sounds like something you will try out at home?

5 comments:

Angela S said...

Hot: My mom is here and Tyler used his money he's been saving for two years $9 to pick out a toy at toys r us with. And I walked into there and found an insane deal on dvds so we ended up with 7, three of which are in the gift closest for christmas. I also had pai wei with my mom for her birthday.

Not: I'm sicker than sicker and feel like a pile of el crapo. I'm missing a few things that I should be doing.

We always did happiest and saddest growing up. At prayer time at night we'd all share the happiest and saddest things of our day.

Robert and Heather in Hawaii said...

Hey Amy and Dusty! So the other day Robert said to me, I wish the Rhoads had a blog and I said if they did, it'd probably have pictures of snakes on it so you wouldn't like it much.
And today I realized you have this blog and only one snake picture. (Robert will be happy to hear that!) So that is one of our 'Hots' for the day!
(And as you can tell, some of us are still afraid of snakes... okay... 'all' of us are still afraid!)

Robert and Heather in Hawaii said...

PS
Love the hair!

Melissa said...

I think that is a good idea. My "Hots" for today is that I ate Toaster Strudels for breakfast. I have been eating Fiber One bars for a few weeks now, so it is nice on the weekends to eat something bad. Also, Evan has been such a sweetie today, no fits at all for a couple of days. Another is that Wheatley is starting to feel a little better I think. Another thing that is hot is that I took a 2 1/2 hour nap yesterday, that was GREAT after a week of no sleep.

Not: I have a 2 page Personal Finance Plan to turn in for my Personal Finance Class by Tuesday and I have a 50 question Exam to take by then also. Another Not is that I have not felt all that great this weekend. Another Not is that this is something Nathan will I'm sure make fun of, just because that's the kind of guy he is. :-)

Melissa said...

That is supposed to be a "20" page Personal Finance plan, not 2 pages. Ugh, I wish.