As, a parent I find myself asking the same questions of my children over and over again. I have one chatty child and another that is not talker. In general I feel as if I know my children well. We talk, we laugh, and share things with each other. Sometimes I have questions or thoughts when my children aren’t around and then later I forget about asking them. I’m sure they think the same way or they might find something not important enough to mention. We try to meet somewhere in the middle. Now on a different note I also have two very different learners in my house. I have an 8 year old that’s very bright, but still has issues expressing his thoughts in complete sentences. He also struggles with out of the box thinking. My little guy is 6, an above average reader whose writing hasn’t quite caught up with the rest of him. His work is sloppy because he’s in a hurry and can’t be bothered. He has brilliant ideas that I wish he was better at expressing. So, here comes the notebook!
I had two notebooks put aside and pulled them out with excitement. I had an idea for a new experiment. I know I read about this some time ago in a magazine, but I can’t honestly recall all the facts. Here is what I’ve been doing with my boys. I gave them each a notebook and put their names on it in big black marker. I explained to each of them that everyday I would be asking them a question in their notebook. Their job was to answer my question in a complete sentence using proper punctuation. They also could ask me a question if they wish, but that was no required. The surprise: They LOVED it. We have been doing this everyday and even some weekends. They come home from school and check their mailboxes in the kitchen for their new question. Sometimes I get questions back and sometimes I don’t. I do however get to know different things about my boys, plus they are practicing their writing without even knowing it. I hope that when they get older we can still do this with each other. I also hope that they can look back at their books and recall memories of that time of their lives. I’ve learned so much about them. Places they want to travel, foods they would like to make, who they like to play with and even things that they don’t like.
They both have gotten better at capitalizing and punctuating their sentences. My fear is that they start asking me tough questions, but that hasn’t happened yet!
Michelle Christiansen says
that’s a really great idea!!! I wish my kids were at that level now! I recently found out that that the older grades in the elementary school have a notebook & do a similar project for school-they ask their parents a question, then write down their response.