Great Family Discussion Activity

Last year my daughter was starting kindergarten and my son was going to first grade and I was concerned that socially they would not know what to do in various situations. I had a thought (rare occurrence!) to type up some questions like. . .

What can I do to help my teacher?

Will other kids be nice to me?

What do I do if I have to go potty?

Will my mom and dad come and get me after school every day?

When I am done with my work what do I do?

A few weeks before school started, I put them in a pretty silver heart shaped jewelry box and put them on the dinner table. I told them that I had a secret and every night at the dinner table they would get to draw out a secret and we could discuss them. I thought this might work for a couple of reasons 1) they love secrets and 2) dad and I pretended that we knew the answers to the questions, but really we let them come up with the answers. We would say things like, "if I have to go potty I hop up and down and scream I am about to pee in my pants!" They would say, "No!! You have to raise your hand and let the teacher know that you needed to use the restroom."

My kids loved the "Secrets game." I ran out of questions and did not think much more about it until my kids kept saying at dinner, "When are we going to have some more secrets?" This year I typed up some different questions since I am homeschooling my son and my daughter goes to a little private school. I made home and school secrets where I asked them safety issues as well as things like,

What do I do if I do not feel like doing my school work? a. do it anyway!:)

Well, ya'll get the point. If you want me to email you the Microsoft Word questions I made up I would love to do that, just leave me a comment. My hubby took my camera this morning or I would post a pic of my box with the questions in it. This really works for our family! For more great ideas like this one, join Shannon and the gang at Works for Me Wednesday!