20 Must-Ask Questions for Your Kid’s First Day of School
My oldest started kindergarten this week. And since she was already going to preschool every day, I thought kindergarten wouldn’t be a big deal.
At her preschool, the kids are free to play pretty much what they want all day. Every feeling is validated by the teachers. The kids are empowered and encouraged to resolve conflicts on their own. Not a whole lot of structure and arbitrary rules.
But kindergarten?
It’s ALL structure and arbitrary rules.
How else could one adult possibly keep a roomful of 20 five-year-olds from going rogue and kicking off their very own Occupy Monkey Bars movement?
Bonus: As a bonus for joining my weekly newsletter, get this free printable first-day-of-school questionnaire and fill it out with your child to capture a heartwarming snapshot of them as they are right now.
How the First Day Went
When we got home after the first day of kindergarten, my daughter and I settled into the couch next to each other. I looked over at her – my thoughtful, logical, helpful, whipsmart 5-year-old girl. She looked so TIRED.
“C’mere,” I said, and I pulled her onto my lap. I realized I haven’t had that girl on my lap since well before the baby was born, when I had no lap to speak of. My throat felt a little tight.
“Was it hard today?” I asked.
She looked up at me with those big blue eyes. I had a flash of her as a baby, those eyes taking everything in, always.
She nodded.
“A lot to learn?” I asked.
She nodded and sat up straight. “Yeah, like you have to sit down in the swing. You just have to sit down. You can’t even do anything else. Like you can’t swing on your stomach. It doesn’t make sense!”
She couldn’t wrap her head around the idea that a rule like this would exist in the world.
So we talked about how some kids just act wild and the teachers need to make rules to keep the wild in check. And everyone has to follow the same rules.
She got it, I think.
Related: The Best 10-Minute Fix to Spending Quality Time With Kids (Printable)
What I Didn’t Expect
Later that night, while my big kid was in the bath, I sat on the floor with our 3-month-old waiting for her to roll over – her latest new trick.
She wasn’t in the mood. She stared up at me.
Big blue eyes, just like her sister.
I scooped up the baby and ran to the bathtub.
My big kid looked up. “What?”
“I just wanted to see you,” I said. “Make sure you were okay.”
She stared at me for a second then went back to her bathtub toys. From what I gathered, the purple octopus had just invited the orange crab to a princess tea party.
I stood there, holding the baby. Was my oldest really that little once? I mean, I know she was.
But how is it possible that a tiny thing who couldn’t even ROLL OVER went and grew up into a 5-year-old who has her own feelings and thoughts and opinions? Like A LOT of opinions.
How does that happen?
I Bet You’ve Heard This Before
Everyone says “Enjoy it now, they grow up so fast!”
And you just smile and nod and think to yourself “Shut your face.” Because THEY are getting 8 hours of sleep a night, and THEY don’t have to wipe anyone’s butt 10 times a day, and THEY didn’t just reach up to tuck their hair behind their ear and find a gob of dried, crusty mashed sweet potato.
But the contrast of having a newborn at the same time that another child is starting kindergarten finally brought that stupid cliche home for me.
I have this newfound urgency to capture every moment of the girls’ childhood. How the baby sucks her toes, that my oldest grew a full inch this August, how when her baby sister is fussing she sings these made-up songs to calm her down that make absolutely zero sense and they’re totally off-key but 100% beautiful.
So when I saw this cute Q&A for the first day of school, I was sold.
The idea is you interview your kids every year on the first day of school. Then after a few years, you have a collection of these amazing snapshots to look back on.
The only problem? I realized I should be asking different questions.
Not the typical questions like “What’s your favorite subject?” But powerful questions like “When do you feel the most loved?” and “What are you afraid of?” and “What is the meaning of life?”
Related: 100 Non-Boring Questions for Kids to Get Them Talking
The Best First Day of School Questions to Ask Your Child
I made a new first day of school questionnaire – a hodgepodge of the cute Q&A sheets and the juicy questions. (Thanks to Amy at Positively Splendid and Amber at Illustrated With Crappy Pictures for the inspiration.)
To get a free printable of these first day of school questions, scroll to the instructions below the photo. Don’t worry if your kid is in seventh grade and you haven’t done this ever before. It’s never too late to start. (Note: Starting with seventh grade, I changed the colors and formatting to make the sheets look a teensy bit more grown-up compared to the other sheets.)
Here are the questions from the second page:
- What’s one thing you want to do this year?
- What brings you the most happiness?
- What are you afraid of?
- What makes you mad?
- When do you feel the most loved?
- If you had one wish, what would you wish for?
- What is the funniest word?
- What is the hardest thing to do?
- What is the easiest thing to do?
- If you had all the money in the world, what would you do with it?
- What is the meaning of life?
Get Your Free Printable: 20 First Day of School Questions
- Get the first day of school questionnaire. Join my weekly-ish newsletter and as a bonus, you’ll get the printable! Just click here to get it and subscribe.
- Print. Any paper will do the trick, but card stock† would be ideal.
- Interview your child, write down their adorable answers, and you’re DONE.
Related: Last Day of School Interview: 20 Best Questions to Ask Your Kid {Printable}
Back to the Juicy Stuff
Here are my favorite answers from my oldest on the first day of kindergarten.
Even if you don’t fill out the sheets, try asking your kids one or two of the questions and come back to share the best answers!
- My favorite color: Pink and red and rainbow
- My favorite book: Pippi Longstocking
- My favorite thing about myself: My whole body
- When do you feel the most loved? When my family says sweet things about me, like when Mommy says to my little sister, “You have an awesome big sister”
- What are you afraid of? The darkness
- What makes you mad? When someone says I broke something
- If you had one wish, what would you wish for? Being a princess
- What is the meaning of life? To eat. Because you have to eat.
Want More Awesome Questions?
For an everyday peek inside our children’s hearts, we keep our favorite set of family conversation starters in a mason jar on the kitchen counter. That way, it’s ready to go for the times we need an extra dose of connection.
We use these questions every night with our kids, and they’ve been a game-changer, helping us end every day feeling connected, loved, and happy. Click here to get your own set.
Before you go, get my FREE cheat sheet: 75 Positive Phrases Every Child Needs to Hear
Your Turn
Fill out this first day of school questionnaire with your kid, then come share their answers in a comment below!
Love this! Thanks, Kelly! Arden is not a big fan of Kinder. She said that the teachers talk too much and are boring. LOL!
Chris, that’s so funny. Abby got in trouble in the first week because the teacher was going over something Abby already knew, so Abby was bored & fidgeting with her bracelet. Let’s hope the second week goes better for our little ones!
Love the idea of an annual interview!
Thank you, Leanne! :-)
Oh, I love it!
This is definitely going to become part of our back to school tradtions!
I absolutely love this print out. My twins start Kindy on Friday!
Would love to start this tradition! 3rd grader and kindergartener this year! Thanks so much for the post…it really hit home.
I love these printables and use the “first day of” ones every year. However I can’t find the “last day of” ones for different grades. I know it’s here somewhere because I have one for the final day of second grade. Any help to locate the printable would be fantastic. Thanks!
Hi Erica! Here’s the last day of school interview: Last Day of School Interview: 20 Best Questions to Ask Your Kid. Enjoy!
My grandson is going into second grade, wish I had this 5 years ago when he entered tiny tots at age 2 1/2.
Thank you for sharing this article. It is really important to ask how the day went in school because it shows that you are concerned and interested in their activities. It also shows support and once established, this may also be a good year-ender and assessment.
This is great! Thanks ????
Oups … sorry it’s « !!!! » and not « question marks » ?