Here in the OC, while fall does not mean fall sweaters, it certainly does mean “Back to School”. Back to heavy-laden schedules and carpools, homework and school lunches, sports and Hebrew school.

Back to the world of “fine” and “good”. Despite enveloping our kids in rich activities and fun, when asked “how was your day?”, universally we hear the seemingly requisite responses of “fine” and “good”.

Amazingly our children can go on about imaginary alien invasions and mermaid tea parties, but when asked about their days, a full sentence is too much to ask.

Below are a few questions encouraging children to share parts of their day.

The trick is to check in about specific parts of the day, classes, topics and friends with open-ended questions.

1. What was fun today?
2. What made you laugh today?
3. What are three things that you did in the classroom?
4. What are two things you did at recess?
5. Tell me one thing you learned today.
6. If I called your teacher tonight what would she tell me about you?
7. Tell me about what you read in class
8. What was the hardest thing you did today?

Don’t forget to share bits about your day. “Siri sent me on a wild goose chase…” “I sat at the computer and wrote an article about…” It is important to share your interests, challenges and joys, so kids see communication modeled for them. There is nothing quite so rewarding as when your teenager says, "How was your day today?"